.22 CREEDMOOR EXCLUSIVE

The Ultimate Varmint Catridge?

- Patrick Meitin

If you make a habit of perusing gun magazines, for the past several years you could be excused for believing the 6.5 Creedmoor was the only centerfire cartridge of significance. Though gun writers can’t seem to discuss anything else today, the round never really grabbed me. My obsessions lean heavily to burrowing rodents or predators willing to investigate the morbid cries of dying bunnies. So, it wasn’t until the 6mm incarnation appeared that the Creedmoor name entered my orbit.

My first was chambered in Ruger’s Precision Rifle topped with a Vortex Optics Viper PST 6-24x 50mm scope. That combination worked well when distances exceeded 400 yards, especially when prairie winds stir. The thing that makes that rifle sing, besides the chassis design and precision turret system, is its 1:7.7 rifling that stabilizes long-for-caliber 6mm bullets with exceptional ballistic coefficients (BC).

When I heard the first rumblings of a .22 Creedmoor, my first thoughts were of gross overbore and short barrel life, but I was also envisioning 55-grain bullets pushed to 4,000-plus fps. When I had the opportunity to hold a 6mm Creedmoor next to a .22-250 Remington, my assumptions proved somewhat overblown.

I had also discovered the .22-250 Ackley Improved closely mirrors the .22 Creedmoor (CM) dimensionally. The notable difference is .22 CM rifles are normally equipped with faster rifling twists to stabilize heavier, higher BC bullets. Shooting heavier bullets at more reasonable velocities also calms some barrel-burning qualms. This also creates a different beast altogether, including higher maximum pressures (based on SAMMI 6mm CM numbers). The .22-250 AI and .220 Swift, with their traditional 1:14 to 1:12 rifling, will always be limited to lighter, low BC bullets and all that entails.