Varmint Fall 2023

As a child, a common question asked among friend circles was, “If you could have one superpower what would it be?” Who would have thought that after a few years, there would be superpowers that technology has turned into a reality. One such superpower is the ability to see in total darkness, something that was wished for as a child. Sadly, night vision technology in the early twenty-first century was beyond what Santa could afford for a young, growing boy. ...Read More >

The 22-250 Remington should need no introductions. It has long proven to be one of our favorite varmint cartridges, offering reliable accuracy and flat-shooting. It is rivaled in performance, if only slightly, by the 220 Swift in readily-available factory cartridges. Like many conventional cartridges, the 22-250 Remington started life as an early wildcat that was created by necking down the 250-3000 Savage that was launched in 1913, and changing the shoulder angle to 28 degrees. Various versions of the cartridge floated around for some 30 years before it was adopted as a factory round by Remington in 1967, chambered in the company’s renowned Model 700 series rifles. While viewed primarily as a varmint round, many have used it to hunt light, big-game animals such as deer and pronghorn. ...Read More >

They called it the Hummer, and back in 2002, it was the talk of the SHOT Show and around the feed stores and over pickle barrels from Halifax to Hermiston. Marlin and Savage were building rifles and the hardest thing was finding 17 HMR ammunition on the shelves. Those of us who were used to buying a brick (500 rounds) of 22 Long Rifles for $10 gulped before forking over $8.99 for a box of 50, but we soon got over that. Hornady developed the 17 HMR (Hornady Magnum Rimfire) by necking down the 22 WMR case to accept a .172 diameter projectile. Twenty-one years later, the 17 HMR is all grown up. ...Read More >

Introduced in 1950, the 222 Remington was designed by Mike Walker, who was a lead firearms and ammunition designer at Remington for close to three decades. Other cartridges to his credit are the 244 Remington (later known as the 6mm Remington), and the 6mm BR Remington, which he co-developed with fellow engineer, Jim Stekl. Walker was instrumental in the development of the button method of rifling barrels and was in charge of the design and development of the Model 721/722 and Model 700 rifles. He also founded the company’s custom shop, which for many years was located at the Ilion, New York, factory. At the time, the Model 722 was the most accurate standard-production, centerfire rifle built in America and it proved to be the perfect platform for introducing the 222 Remington to varmint shooters. The rifle sold for $82.80 with a Weaver K10 scope and mount bringing the total tab to $152.05. ...Read More >

Mention the 204 Ruger, 22 Nosler or even the 22 Valkyrie and everyone takes notice. Then, turn the conversation to the 225 Winchester and your friends look at you as if you just popped out of the last century. Strange as it may seem, the 225 Winchester in the right hands and in the right rifle with selected handloads, is still a cartridge much in favor with serious varmint or small-game hunters. Yep! Even today my friends… ...Read More >

Wayne York, owner of Oregunsmithing and Pendleton Composite Stocks in Pendleton, Oregon, created his 24 and 25 York cartridges in 2011. York was seeking a high-performance round in 243 and 257 calibers that would fit into a smaller action but also prove powerful enough to cleanly take big game such as deer and pronghorn. He did so by “improving” the 6.8 Remington SPC case, moving the shoulder forward and necking them down to the desired calibers, essentially creating a miniaturized version of the 308 Winchester. York also developed a 22 York by the same means, but pushed it to the back burner after Nosler introduced the 22 Nosler, which is essentially the same cartridge but with the change of a rebated rim to allow operation with standard AR-15 bolt faces. The 24 and 25 York cartridges are a pair of ultra-efficient rounds that send varmint or big-game bullets at respectable speeds while also burning modest measures of powder. ...Read More >

One day, while at a friend’s house helping him out with some handloads, we got to talking about varmint cartridges. He asked if I ever played with the 204 Ruger. I had not. We started talking about the fast, little cartridge and found it interesting. One thing led to another and after some research, it was found that not only could you run it in a bolt gun, but also in the AR-15 platform as well. This was around 2018 and I decided that I wanted to build an AR-15 in 204 Ruger because the barrel life on these can be short, especially if the shooter is running light bullets at high speed and letting the barrel get hot. A barrel was ordered and it was as easy as that. All that was needed to do was take one of my 5.56 NATO barrels off and put the new 204 Ruger one in and I was off to the races. The first barrel I used was a Shilen Match 24-inch barrel with a 1:9 twist. I wanted to make sure I could shoot heavy bullets in the 40-grain range. ...Read More >

It was the mid-1950s when I became totally infatuated with handguns. At that time in California, there were open areas of land where a kid could shoot without being besieged by a dozen psychiatrists, grief counselors or career motivational speakers. A summer job allowed me to purchase (with assistance from my mother at the gun shop) a Ruger .22-caliber revolver with which I hunted just about every small critter that walked, crawled or slithered. As the years passed and I acquired more “disposable income,” the bore size of my handguns increased along with the size of the animals I hunted. Commensurate with that, felt recoil also increased – dramatically! ...Read More >

So much has been claimed about the 220 Swift, for and against, during its 88-year lifespan that an entire book could be written on the subject. In fact, I’m surprised someone hasn’t already done it. The tale of the parallel careers of the Swift and its chief rival, the 22-250 Remington, since the 1930s would be a plot at least as intriguing as some of the latest movies. ...Read More >