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Best UK Varminting Calibre?


Elliott

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22.250 for me,purely because i was recommended one, 50gr Vmax been lucky not had a Runner yet although it will happen if you shoot enough its bound to, i have however had a runner with my .243

it's interesting when you hear people saying .204 because you don't lose the sight picture, i have never experienced this with my 22.250 but it might be because the Rifle is heavy with a Varmint barrel and GRS laminate Stock. 

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i ran 2 x 20 tacs for years just sold one and the new owner is over the moon he was a 22-250 man but now converted, less noise and recoil, anyway i have kept one and use it with the drone and the 6 mmbr has just been done by neil and fitted with a new scope ready for use,

 

i miss the daytime 20 tac but i’ll live with the br out to silly ranges and i am more than happy with my 20 tac, all thanks to neil mc who built my first and third ones and the br,

 

bob.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not waded into this yet, just got in from foxing and mulling it over my horlicks. Personality I love my Swift, just nailed another one by a pen at a good 200m using 52gn Berger varmints and it always makes me smile when it rips their insides out the other side. I have the thermal on that and carry a 6.5x47 for use with the lamp shooting 95gn Vmax, which are just as hard hitting, beauty being I can switch to the 123’s when in the park. 

I had a 204, It was a 20” barrel sako and never felt there was enough velocity to buck the wind. Tried getting it rebarreled to a proper length (26”) but failed so sold it. With the 20 cal using 39gn I did have quite a few that ran. 

Loved my .243 especially with 87-105 gn, nothing gets up but needed a slightly bigger bore I felt for punching through red heads. 

Next on the list to try is a middlestead, the ‘best’ caliber personally tho is the one that spreads their guts the furthest;)

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  • 3 weeks later...

22-250, 243 and other hot cartridges are great for vermin in that they are flat shooting but if you have lots of vermin to get through those cartridges are not suitable choices. They’ll be in for re-barreling too often. Unless you have no financial constraints and a spare rifle to switch to whilst it’s being re-barrelled this could be an issue. 

My .223 accounted for triple figure vermin and a bit of plinking over a 2 year period and it was one of 3 rifles so it’s a personal choice as to what’s most suitable. 

Comsider the quantity of shooting you will be doing and then; cost of reloads, barrel life, time away with a rifle builder for re-barrelling and frequency before making your choice. 

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I tend to go light rather than heavy for foxes, although not really for barrel life. 

I’ve two 243’s and a 222, and for reasons of noise and weight I always take the 222 at night when foxing.    I’m often shooting around sheep and cattle, and try not to disturb them. The 222 is significantly quieter. I shoot at night, off quad sticks, walking round the farm with a thermal and a small Bluetooth  anker speaker to play calls via my phone (thanks to this site for the call). 

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Your std slow-twist .223 isn't that flash in wind, in fact the 53 V-Maxs in mine have exactly twice the wind drift as my 6x47L, and that's about the most slippery lower-weight projectile you can shoot through a slow-twist barrel.

Just for giggles, I took my old VS Rem .223 out to the club on Saturday as it was only 300yds. While not strong, the wind was from three o'clock switching quite rapidly. You can see it holding good waterline (1/3 MOA) but I got caught on shot number 9 

pRsREl.jpg

The next shoot, I changed tactic and waited for the dominant condition to come back. I was shooting fast off a bipod so the waterline isn't as tight as the more deliberate shots in the first shoot. Shame about the last loose shot- would have been a 60 otherwise..

s9cqfC.jpg

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

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