.225 Winchester Handloads For A Fine Old Cartridge

Beginning in the late 1800s and moving forward, a number of extremely successful rifle cartridges were introduced by Winchester.

- Layne Simpson

The .44-40, .30-30, .270, .308, .243, .338 and .458 spring to mind. When it came to .22-caliber varmint cartridges, the company owned the market with the .22 Hornet, ideal for use in settled areas, and the .220 Swift was unbeatable for picking off varmints at barrel-straining distances.

Then came the 1950 introduction of the .222 Remington. During the next few years anyone who was not shooting a rifle chambered for that cartridge was shooting an old wildcat called the .22-250. Some were shooting both. Yielding to obviously overpowering competition, Winchester threw the proverbial towel into the ring in 1958 by discontinuing production of Model 70s in .22 Hornet and .220 Swift.

According to Model 70 guru Roger Rule, Winchester brought the .220 Swift back in 1964 in the “new” Model 70 Varmint, but it was replaced by the .225 Winchester during the very next year. The .22-250 Remington and the .222 Remington were added in 1967 and 1969, respectively. The poor .225 plodded from the starting gate, stumbled along for less than a year, and then bumped headlong into Remington’s domestication of the .22-250 in 1965.

The .225 was dropped from the Model 70 in 1971, making it perhaps the shortest-lived rifle cartridge developed by Winchester. As far as I know, the only other production rifle chambered for it was the Savage Model 340 that was also offered in .222 Remington and .30-30 Winchester.