.218 Bee

[Steve Ruchala]

Any one shooting this little .22?  I have been toying with the idea of another barrel for the contender and this round seem interesting.

[gewehrfreund]

This is one of my favorite cartridges. I too have toyed with the idea of a contender carbine barrel in 218 Bee, but the 32-20 won out. My Ruger #1S in 218 Bee has to be one of my favorite guns at the moment. I also have a Win. 65 in the Bee that I don't have much time or interest in shooting, but it's still a neat little anomaly.
P.S. TC made 10" octagon barrels in 218 Bee years ago, so if that's what you're looking for, go to the gun shows or contact Ed Kirkpatrick at Ed's Contenders

[AlteJaeger]

GWF: Hope you are happy with the 32-20. As I recall TC made their
barels in 308 dia rather than 312. Least you have a few more options when it comes to reloading.

[gewehrfreund]

FFP,
I am happy with the 32-20 (30-20) carbine barrel. I just wish I had more time to shoot/play with it. I had a 10" Contender barrel, which is why I went with it in the carbine over the 218 bee.
Since it is a .308 bore, I have tried everything up to 150 roundnoses in it, but so far the thing that has shot the best (with limited testing unfortunately) has been the Magtech 71 gr .311 jacketed HP. This thing just cracks when loaded with Lil Gun, 4227, etc. and is surprisingly accurate. Too bad I can't locate any more of these bullets since Midway had them a few years ago.

[Lawful Larry]

I was looking over some old posts and found this one.  I shoot the .218 Bee in a Taurus Raging Bee.  It has a 10" barrel and uses the Raging Bull frame, which I think was a little overkill.  

I have reloaded a few rounds for it so far and got good results.  Using IMR 4198 powder and both the 55 & 45 gr Sierra Spitzer bullets gotten good accuracy and good velocities.  I have had better results with the 55 gr. bullet.  That must be because of the twist rate.  I have tried to find out what it is to no avail.  Seems that the Taurus site has no data on this gun.  Will not even recognize the serial number when I tried to type it in at one screen on the site.?!?

Here is baby:



She looks real menacingly.   :biggun:
 
I must admit there is vertually no recoil.   :wink:

[Reed1911]

The 71g .311 bullets are still available, MW stock numbers 593878 (100); 734696 (500); 385273 (1000); 697831 (5000)

[Nixter]

Lawful Larry, I found the twist rate of your Raging Bee.

It is 1:9 1/2.

I found it by going to www.taurususa.com  Hitting products tab, selecting gun finder and selecting 218 Bee as a caliber to search for.

Hope this info is helpful.


Nixter

[Lawful Larry]

Lawful Larry, I found the twist rate of your Raging Bee.

It is 1:9 1/2.

I found it by going to www.taurususa.com  Hitting products tab, selecting gun finder and selecting 218 Bee as a caliber to search for.

Hope this info is helpful.


Nixter

Thanks.  I tried to do the same a while back and it would not recognize the Raging Bee.  This helps a bunch.

Good shootin'