.225 Winchester

[LabRat2k3]

Has anyone chambered their rifle in .225 Winchester? I was looking through some of my load manuals and it looks like a very good round. Plus it is a rimmed cartridge which seems to work better in single shots right? Could it be done on a .223 barrel? I know the extractor would have to be modified, but I'm not sure what else would have to be done and how hard it would be to do. I'm no gunsmith, but I know several of you guys are. I'm not planning on doing it anytime soon, or maybe ever depending on what you guys tell me, just an idea I had rolling around in my little brain.

[quickdtoo]

There are several members here that have 225 Wins, PHATINJUN and LONGTOM to name a couple.  Hornets and 223 Rems make good donors.

Tim

[dovehunter]

I too would like to have a .225 Handi since I have a set of RCBS dies, a shell holder, and a lot of new or once-fired cases.  What would be involved?  Other than reaming out the chamber, wouldn't a new or extractor modification be necessary?  For my part, I would have to have a qualified gunsmith do the work.  Wouldn't it be a rather costly undertaking?

 

[LONGTOM]

I have had 2 barrels in this caliber.
One I still have done on an old 22 jet barrel and the other done on a 223 I bought here from ONE HOLE 4570 and latter sold here to BCall.
The old jet barrel does pretty good with factory Win ammo.
55gr sp shoots around 1" at 100.
The 223 barrel I sold was doing around 1" to 1.5" at 100.
Tried to work with it some and got a couple of loads that got down to 3/4" but decided the 22" barrel wasn't doing it any good velocity wise.
Most manuals will tote the 4064 powder as the one of choice.
We never had any luck with it.
BLC 2 works pretty good.
Don't recall which powder gave us the 3/4" load.

I also have a Win model 670 (cheap version of the model 70), a Bullberry custom 26" TC barrel that will put 5 inside a quarter with factory and a full custom Rem model 30S Express with a 28" Pacnore barrel that will put 5 in a dime.
Just didn't need another 225 since I already had the old jet re-chamber.
The 225 is a fine cartridge that can do anything the 22-250 can and out do the 223 most anytime
Ad in the advantage of the rim and it is a natural for the Handi rifle.
The only draw back is there is only 1 factory load, Win 55gr sp.
Get all the brass you can find cause word is Win is going to drop it along with many other fine old rounds from their lineup.
One of which is my favorite, the 307.

I say go for it if you want something just a little different than the 223 or the 250.
You won't be disappointed.



LONGTOM

[quickdtoo]

I too would like to have a .225 Handi since I have a set of RCBS dies, a shell holder, and a lot of new or once-fired cases.  What would be involved?  Other than reaming out the chamber, wouldn't a new or extractor modification be necessary?  For my part, I would have to have a qualified gunsmith do the work.  Wouldn't it be a rather costly undertaking?

 

Rechambers cost about $50-$100 depending on the smith and the ejector/extractor work required, in this case a 30-06 family ejector or extractor would work as a drop in or the 223 or Hornet ejec/extr could be modified.

Tim

[PHATINJUN]

Mine cost me around $75 to have done and that included the reamer rental . I did the 223 extractor work my self. My problem was the 1-9twist I had to use to heavy of a bullet to get it to 4000fps which is what I wanted to do with it I sold it to another member here .But that was before the long Varmint Grenades came out and it might be doable now with those long light bullets. But for now I am going to stick to the 22-250 although I do have an extra fluted 223 that is calling to be a 220Swift. Kurt

[LabRat2k3]

Ok now this idea isn't just gently rolling around in my head but loudly rattling around. I do have a couple of extractor questions though. I am a complete noob and have one Handi with only one barrel, so I have to ask, are all the extractors the same width so you can just swap in whichever one you need? More specifically will the 30-06 extractor swap into a 223 barrel with no mods? Where do you get the new extractor, does H&R sell them or Numrich's, Brownells, etc, or do you have to "find" one? I think this will be my first big project once i get all the info, and parts together. 

[quickdtoo]

H&R sells extractors and hopefully still has ejectors,  Brownell's sells ejectors when they have them in stock. Pre '99 barrels take a different ejector, the post it fatter, a '99 or later ejector should work in the older barrels, but not the other way around. There are pics and lots of info on ejectors and extractors in the FAQs.

Tim