22 vs 6 vs 25

[Wyo_hntr]

For the described use, 22 creed.


( but .223 would work too)

 

[Article 4]

They will all work. I have a 6GT and a 6 Creed with 24 and 22 inch bbls. For this applications I would go with the 6 CM. Tons of OTC ammo, tons of hand load options, tons of available components, almost every single gun maker makes one and tons of terminal performance for hunting.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

223 is awesome for kids. And adults.

 

[Marbles]

For practice, something that burns up barrels is a bad choice. Within 1500 rounds a new 223 Tikka will be cheaper from the rifle perspective alone and ignoring the cost of feeding it.

$769 for a Tikka 223. https://www.eurooptic.com/JRTXE312-Tikka-Tikka-T3x-Lite-223-Rem-SYN-224--barrel-MPN-JR.aspx

Cheaper prefit barrel will run you $400, usually without threads or fluting (lets assume you have all the tools already, or want them anyway, so they should not be included in the price). If lucky (from my rough understanding), you will get 1500 rounds, if loading light and not shooting long strings. So, second barrel with put you behind just getting a new rifle.

Then their is the training side, volume of practice is valuable. Just me shooting, I've put about 2000 rounds through my 223 since mid January this year. If every other cost was the same, that would be another $200 in powder alone. Beyond that, I'm not having to baby the barrel and let it cool, which with how I'm shooting due to limited time at the range I would likely be on my 3rd 22 creed barrel.

The 223 is not cool, but every time I start crunching numbers because I want to justify something different, I come up with the same answer.

The 223 tikka is the answer. Even suppressed the 22CM has more pop than you expect, and it doesn’t take all that many rounds for the cost difference to have paid for the 223.

I can see that. There is a noticeable recoil difference between 25.5 gr of N150 stuffed under a 77 TMK and 22 gr of N135 dropped under a 75 gr BTHP in my 223.

Edit: I'm no longer using the 25.5 gr of N150, got a few rounds with blown primers recently and just not worth it for an extra 80 fps compared to 24.5 gr.