Happy-Happy-Happy!!

[airedale]

After many years of scouring gun shows, every local and not local sporting goods store and the internet I have to give a big thanks to both Midway and Nosler, Nosler came through with a run of "super super scarce"  222 Remington mag brass and Midway stocked it and had inventory for sale. I have been looking for this brass for YEARS!! 

One of my favorite rifles a Ruger Number 1 has been laid up forever because all I have is brass-ammo I loaded forty something years ago and some of the brass has been used multiple times so I have been conserving the 100 rounds or so I have left fearing I would never see it produced again. My only option up to this time to make cases from the 204 Ruger which is the 222 mag necked down something I really did not want to do.

Now I have to get a new scope as I scrounged the 8X Leupold off the Number one and mounted on a Ruger 77/22 mag varmint and stuck a Simmons Atec I had laying around on the number 1. The Simmons is a decent scope but it is really too big for this rifle, I like those compact Burris Timberlines and I think that is what I may go with.

[ny hunter]

Beautiful rifle....

[dbHunterNY]

that's awesome.

[grampy]

That is a beautiful rifle!  Glad you finally got some brass to keep her active!  I assume you already have the dies to reload the new brass. Were the dies hard to find for that caliber? 

Have fun making up a bunch of that 222 ammo!

[airedale]

24 minutes ago, grampy said:

Were the dies hard to find for that caliber? 

Grampy I bought that gun in the late 60s at that time the 222 mag was fairly popular especially with the bench rest crown as it is an inherently accurate cartridge. It never really caught on with the varmint hunters because it is virtually the same ballistically as the 223 and that shell ended up becoming hugely popular because of it's use by the military.  Still brass and dies were fairly easy to come by back then. I learned a valuable lesson and that was to shy away from many of the less popular cartridges, even though they may be a great performer if they do not sell they will fade away you can run into problems finding ammo or components. back when it first came out some years ago I came within a whisker of buying the new Winchester 22 short mag which will out perform the 220 swift. I am glad i passed on that one because it never sold and it is now in the same boat as the 222 mag.

Al

Edited April 10, 2018 by airedale

[Pygmy]

Nothing I like better than a happy ending....<<SNIFF>>...  ( A tear trickles down Pygmy's ruddy little face)....

[Pygmy]

1 hour ago, airedale said:

Grampy I bought that gun in the late 60s at that time the 222 mag was fairly popular especially with the bench rest crown as it is an inherently accurate cartridge. It never really caught on with the varmint hunters because it is virtually the same ballistically as the 223 and that shell ended up becoming hugely popular because of it's use by the military.  Still brass and dies were fairly easy to come by back then. I learned a valuable lesson and that was to shy away from many of the less popular cartridges, even though they may be a great performer if they do not sell they will fade away you can run into problems finding ammo or components. back when it first came out some years ago I came within a whisker of buying the new Winchester 22 short mag which will out perform the 220 swift. I am glad i passed on that one because it never sold and it is now in the same boat as the 222 mag.

Al

I can remember when the main factory loaded 22. centerfires were  the .22 Hornet, the .222 rem, the .222 Rem mag and the .220 Swift....

The 22-250 was still a wildcat and the .218 Bee and  the.219 Zipper were  relatively obscure...

 

[Larry]

Hey have you guys tried necking up 204 ruger brass to 222mag. the 204 ruger is based on the 222mag necked down to 20cal (5mm) it shouldn’t be that hard necking it back up. You may need a tapper expander run the 204 brass though a full length sizing die and fire form it and you should be done.

[Pygmy]

9 hours ago, Larry said:

Hey have you guys tried necking up 204 ruger brass to 222mag. the 204 ruger is based on the 222mag necked down to 20cal (5mm) it shouldn’t be that hard necking it back up. You may need a tapper expander run the 204 brass though a full length sizing die and fire form it and you should be done.

The OP  stated at the beginning that he would prefer not to monkey with reforming cases.

Good input, however..It's always a viable alternative should properly head stamped case be unavailable..

[airedale]

On 4/12/2018 at 12:02 AM, Larry said:

have you guys tried necking up 204 ruger brass to 222mag. the 204 ruger is based on the 222mag necked down to 20cal

I was prepared for a worse case scenario just in case I never could find any 222 mag brass, I purchased the neck expander some time ago, I just did not want to do it unless absolutely necessary. I do not like have cases that are mislabeled unless absolutely no other choice was to be had.

=======================================================================

After keeping an eye out on ebay I scored on a new open box Burris Timberline 4.5X14 Compact saving about 75.00 along with several inches and ounces from the Simmons 6.5X20. Makes the old Number 1 lighter and gives a better balanced look I think. Can't wait to shoot it, just wanting some nicer weather so I can enjoy myself.

Al

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by airedale