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Practically Shooting

.220 Russian


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I like to play with somewhat obscure cartridges and have been thinking for quite sometime about using a .220 Russian as a varmint round (mostly prairie dogs). Although I realize there are other .224 caliber rounds that are much more common (and I own most of them) I like to play with less than mainstream rounds.

The only problem that I see is lack of availability of reloading tools--specifically dies. I use Hornady (love the carbide button) and Redding bushing dies (with nitride bushings) for all of my other rounds. RCBS makes a set for .220 Russian and I could get the Hornady .224 carbide button conversion kit, but I have never been a huge fan of RCBS dies.

With all of that said, what are your thoughts about the viability of the .220 Russian as a varmint round?

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I don't remember seeing much writing on the .220 Russian. Maybe a Gun Digest article when it was first seen (which would have little to no tech info because it was a big secret then). I would think Precision Shooting would have done an article or two over the years. I don't remember seeing one, but I have an awful lot of gaps in my PS issues. If you can find a master index of PS articles, that's where I'd look first.

Other than the obvious that you mentioned, I don't see anything wrong with it. I don't remember the ballistic figures being all that impressive for its case size (no better than the smaller 5.45x39 as I recall), but that could be because it was loaded for a specific purpose and not to its full potential.

I think Lapua made brass at one time, and I'm sure RCBS has it on their special order die list.

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What do you see that is close to it? I think the BR cases are larger than this one and the PPCs are blown out .220 Russian cases. The 5.45x39 is a twin or it partially based on it, but no brass cases. What else is out there in .224 that does not require a bunch of fireforming?

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Dont get me wrong, I don't see anything wrong with doing it.

What do I see that is close to it, you ask?

I suppose that depends on how close is close, but do you mean ballistically or physical dimensions?

Ballistically, the only .220 Russian data I can find quickly is for a pretty light bullet, so I don't know what it tells us. I saw an unsourced claim of 3450 fps with a 45 grain, but the 1999 free VihtaVuori data handout has a single load: 20.5 of N120 with a 43 Sako FMJ for 3640 fps.

The .223 might do that, and the .222 Mag probably would. The big .22s like .22-250, .220 Swift, etc would.

If you want shorter/fatter than those, the .22 PPC should be right around there, and the .22 BR should do that or slightly faster. With Rem dropping 7BR brass, I don't know if there is anything to form .22BR from easily. The .223 WSSM should beat it's velocity if that's wanted.

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I use Lapua 6MM BR brass, but I did not realize that Remington was going to stop making 7MM BR stuff. They keep flip-flopping; they stopped 22BR and started 6MM BR and 7MM BR, then dropped the 6MM BR. I hate to see the 7MM BR stuff go; perhaps I should grab some, but the Lapua is far and away higher quality stuff over the Remington.

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Remington's decisions like this change weekly and last about as long. I don't know if we can base anything on what they do.

I imagine some is from current ammo and component shortages, which I can understand (Why tie up production to make .340 Weatherby or .25 Remington brass when people are falling all over each other to get .223?) but some of the back and forth by any number of these companies is hard to explain. My local gun shop got some components in last week, and none were high demand items. Things like Hornady single shot pistol bullets and Hornet bullets. I'm sure they have buyers and will sell sometime, but I can think of several things that would have sold faster. Apparently that's what the factory put out though.

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