What caliber would you buy?

My brother is in the market to always buy a new rifle.
He currently has an SKS for “cheap fun plinking”.
He has a very nice model 70 .243
With that said;
He found a pretty good deal on a varmit rifle, the Remington 700 SPS. He is pretty hot to purchase this and he is debating between the 22-250 or the 223.
The 22-250 is a better caliber, but really not by a whole heck of a lot. However, it is truly better.
The 223 is a good round, it is cheaper ammo, and can be found at any store, even Walmart.
The 22-250 is a bit more spendy (you don’t have the option to purchase an ammo can of 500 for $75 at Cabelas, like you can the 223.)
You can’t go “anywhere” to always buy 22-250 ammo.

So, with the SKS for plinking and the .243 for yotes, and even deer and antelope, would you go with a 223 or a 22-250?

I’m thinking the 22-250, because of the little more distance you can get with the round if you ever wanted to go praire dog hunting???

I like 22-250’s better, but then again, I reload my own ammo going for greater accuracy. If you don’t reload, the price of ammo is a huge factor. The .223 is a lot cheaper. If he wants to go prarie dog hunting, the .223 is a lot cheaper and the barrel takes a little longer to get hot than the 22-250. If he wants to shot distance he can always use a lighter weight bullet in the .243 and he will gain the speed required for long range. My favorite varmint round for pure distruction is actually my .270 with a 90 grain Speer TNT. That relatively light weight hollow point combined with all of the powder you can back in the relatively large .270 shell results in an explosive combination. I have nearly beheaded coyotes and totally vaporized prarie dogs. The nice part is that the bullet is still heavy enough to have plenty of long range kinetic energy. You could accomplish the same thing with the .243 if distance was your objective.

If I had it to do over I would have bought a .223 instead of a .22-250. Just because my shots are usually w/i 100 yards and rarely further than 250. Price of ammo is a huge factor also. If he already has a .243 he is already in good shape. Both Hornady and Winchester make light ballistic tips in .243 that are ideal for varmints.

From an economic standpoint the .223 is the way to go. I also agree the 22-250 is a “better” round. All that said, has there been consideration to the new .25 WSSM? This is a hot round as well and a little less “popular”. I know several folks, myself included, that like to use something just a little different than everyone else.

I guess it comes down to economics for most people then preference from there. As it is all ammo has increased a lot in price, to the point you can’t even consider .223 “cheap plinking” anymnore.

Is the 22-250 alot more expensive given the same brand of ammo and bullet? Say if you got both in a Federal Premium with a ballistic tip, is the 22-250 that much more per box?

I like that gun myself, have him take a look at the 204 I think he might be impressed. on remingtons web siteyou can do a ballistic comparesion between 3 calibers at ounce.

It all really depends what you want to do with it. If your are talking trigger time and a lot of practice, then go with the .223. If you are wanting to do long range shooting, 500 yards and up, get the 22-250. In the 250, the extra 400fps you can easily get over the .223 will help you defeat wind drift a little more. When you are talking bullets the nice thing is that they are the same bullet and you can get the same weight for each. I agree that finding ammo for a 22-250 in bigger lots isn’t as easy, but many places do carry standard 20 round boxes for the 22-250.

It all depends on your usage, they are very similar to each other but yet different, if that makes sense.