Comparing the 22-250, 223, & 204 ruger

hello everybody and welcome back today we will be comparing the 223 Remington versus the 22 250 versus the 204 Ruger then we'll try to decide once and for all which one of these three is the best overall caliber for varmint hunting and for a predator hunting I will start by comparing these three cartridges in depth and then we'll go out to the shooting range so that you can see which one I have selected is my personal favorite and we'll see how that rifle and how that cartridge are performing together as long as if you do like the video please remember to click the like button and be sure to subscribe if you have not yet done so I'm definitely looking forward to your comments and also please look for the patreon link at the bottom of the video in case you would like to support us further as we continue to do our very best to bring you increasingly better quality productions going forward your support is definitely appreciated as we begin our comparison we'll start by talking about how much or how little recoil these calibers would have and why that would even matter you must first realize that the 22 250 is going to have the most amount of power just raw power of these three calibers and that means it's going to have the most amount of felt recoil also how much felt recoil four point seven foot-pounds of energy would be a close approximation of how much recoil is going to deliver to your shoulder so what that means is that you may or may not see your target getting hit if you select the 22 250 is your personal favorite the solution for many shooters and hunters alike is to simply shoot a 223 Remington instead is it has about 3.2 foot-pounds of recoil which is about 32 percent less recoiled in the 22-250 the challenge however is that in shooting a 223 Remington instead of a 22 250 you're giving up a fair amount of your speed and there or you're giving up some of the length of range that you can effectively hunt at so in 2004 a Hornady and Ruger jointly developed the 204 Ruger cartridge it has all the speed of the 22 to 50 and even less recoil in the 223 it has 2.9 foot-pounds of recoil if you select the 40 grain bullet and the tool for River and it has about 2.6 foot-pounds of recoil if you're going to select their 32 grain bullet what does that mean in a percentage basis what that means is that rather than giving yourself a 38 percent reduction in recoil by using the 2 to 3 bullet you could give yourself a 38 percent reduction in recoil by going with the 40 grain to a forever or you could give yourself a 44 percent reduction in felt recoil if we're going to go at that 32 grain 204 Ruger okay what you're looking at here is a 204 Ruger bullet on the left it's a 32 grain bullet on the left you're looking at a 55 grain bullet on the right which is a 2 to 3 Remington you'll notice that the cartridge is just a little bit taller on that 204 Ruger so it does have a little bit more room for a gun powder typically this 2 to 3 will hold between 24 to 25 grains of gunpowder whereas the 204 Ruger they're usually loading that between 25 and 27 grains of gunpowder when you look at the bottom of these bullets you'll notice it's the same basic case on the bottom the only difference is a little bit of added length on the 204 Ruger to the case on top of that and you may notice if you look close the tool for Ruger is just a little bit more narrow on the diameter next up we'll set the 22-250 in the mix we'll set that right next to the 204 Ruger and you can see kind of with the naked eye the size difference with that 22-250 it's it's a taller casing it's actually a or casing as well and usually manufacturers will put about 36 grains of gunpowder in your 204 River so when we turn these sideways you can see the how how much wider and how much more case capacity that 22-250 actually has okay so to compare these four rounds at the 204 Ruger the 204 Ruger 40 grain and 232 grain the 2 to 3 Remington and the 22 to the 50 Remington as you can see now on the 204 Ruger 32 green you're looking at a ballistically efficient of 0.2 1 again ballistic coefficient is a measure of how efficient a bullet is at cutting through air cutting through the land without being blown around by the wind and it's also a measure of how efficient a bullet is it retaining its starting speed so this is going to be your poorest performing ballistic coefficient and then in second place tied for second is your 55 grand bullets with your 2 to 3 and your 22-250 at 0.25 5 each and your best performing ballistic coefficient of this group is gonna be your 40 grain 2:04 Ruger as you can see 0.275 so as far as the starting velocities of these rounds you'll notice your best starting speed is going to be found on that tool for River at 4200 and 25 feet per second coming in second place is also the two of for Ruger at 3900 feet per second third place as you can see is your 22-250 hit 36 80 feet per second and lastly you've got 30 240 feet per second on your 2 to 3 Remington 55 grain now in terms of foot-pounds at the muzzle it's easy to see that the 22-250 remington has the most amount of foot-pounds in fact it has the flip patents compared to your second-place finisher your 204 Ruger you're looking at about 31 and a half percent more foot-pounds at the muzzle then the 204 Ruger but again let's remember we don't shoot animals two inches away from the barrel where does not that skilled at calling them in so let's see what happens when these bullets travel downrange a bit we get out to 50 yards all of a sudden the numbers are getting a little bit tighter they still the bullet that started off in first place with speed is still in first place the speed which is your 204 Ruger and let's just deal with speed for a moment and focus on foot-pounds a little later looking at these two of four Ruger cartridges once you get out to about the 200-yard mark that's the last place where that that's the last point in time in which the 32 grain bullet edges out the 40 grain bullet to a four wheeler in terms of speed they're almost a dead heat at 200 yards the watch that happens when we get out to 250 yards should be here in a moment there we go at 250 yards you can see that that 40 grain bullet is starting to surpass or has already started to surpass the 32 grain bullet 2:04 ruler and when you get all the way out to 500 yards it's still the same you're looking at 20 135 feet per second compared to 1902 feet per second out there at 500 yards so at no time after the 200 yard mark well the 40 grain bullet 204 Ruger failed to be in first place in terms of speed with all of these bullets it will always be in first place for speed after that even the 22-250 remington will not catch it with speed at all in fact that 22-250 remington as you can see that's almost about 6% slower in speed at the Mosul which is not a big difference really so that's 6% slower at most velocity than the 40 great tool for River but as we start to get downrange once we get to about a hundred yards down range you're looking at about a seven percent difference in speed they bring the 204 Ruger at 200 yards this speed number of 3103 compared to 28 67 you're looking at about 8.2 percent increase in speed over the 22 to 50 and when you go all the way out to 500 yards what you'll notice is you're at 20 135 feet per second compared to 1883 feet per second you're talking about a thirteen point three percent increase in speed over the 22 250 cartridge 55 grain bullet but the let's remove it now let's go back and talk a little bit about foot-pounds remember that 22 250 certainly had a big edge with foot-pounds at the start in fact it was about 31 and a half percent more foot-pounds than the second place bullet for foot-pounds which was the tool for Ruger 40 grain but as we get all the way out to 500 yards instead of being 31 and a half percent more it's only about 10% more 433 foot-pounds compared to 405 foot-pounds is about 10% more foot-pounds but it but again let's remember that this 204 Ruger is coming in with more speed the 204 Ruger started with 220 feet per second more speed than the 22 250 55 grain bullet and as both of these two bullets travel downrange instead of being 220 feet per second more it gradually climbs to where it's eventually coming in at 252 feet per second more which is about 13.3% more speed so if you do manage to hit a coyote at 500 yards keep in mind that this is gonna be a very explosive 405 foot-pounds they're both going to be pretty explosive honestly but that 405 foot-pounds you shouldn't feel like that's not enough because it does have more speed working for it it's gonna be a very explosive 405 foot-pounds of energy hitting out there at 500 yards let me make a minor correction here a minute or two ago I had told you that this figure this starting foot-pounds number of 1653 I had told you that it was thirty one and a half percent more than 1350 I was wrong on that it's actually 22% more 22.4% more to be exact and then as it travels down range all the way out at five hundred yards I had told you that it was ten percent more I was wrong it's about six point nine percent more so again that 22-250 55 grain bullet starts off with about 22% more foot-pounds of energy than your 204 Ruger 40 grain that by the time you're out at 500 yards it's down to about roughly 7% more foot-pounds of energy okay realize at this point we haven't really done too much talking at all about the two to three Remington 55 main bullet but the important thing to remember that out of all of these bullets they're all going to be pretty effective on coyotes and bobcats for sure probably the important thing to remember is this that when you get all the way out there at 500 yards whatever you would be able to comfortably do with a 204 Ruger with old foot-pounds and with the 22-250 with those foot-pounds whatever those bullets would do at 500 yards the two to three will do about the same job that it's gonna do it at 400 yards instead 428 foot-pounds right in that same neighborhood between 405 and 433 that look at the feet per second 1873 compared to 1883 on your 22 250 so it's almost as if the 22 250 at 500 is as effective as what the two to three is at 400 so both of these rounds that 22-250 and the tool for Ruger they give you about an extra 100 yards of the effectiveness over the two to three that's the main thing to remember from that okay now so far we haven't really been comparing apples to apples when it comes to the 204 Ruger 40 grain bullet compared to the 22 to 50 40 grain bullet because obviously this bullet right here on a 40 grain had a nice speed advantage at the start over your 22 250 but when we compared a 40 grain bullet to 40 grain bullet let's see how this works out again you've got a ballistic coefficient at 0.275 on your 204 Ruger ballistic coefficient of 0.2 0.2 grain 22-250 when we get out so your starting speed is gonna be faster at 40 150 compared to 39 hundred feet per second more foot-pounds 1529 compared to 1350 so that might be tempted to think that the 22 250 is really the way to go but again those are just muzzle velocity numbers let's see what happens when we get out in a little bit of distance here at about a hundred yards those numbers are real close and velocity let's see what happens at about a hundred and fifty at a hundred and fifty yards all of a sudden that to these rounds are about a dead heat in fact the 2:04 ruler maybe just a tad faster at a hundred and fifty yards maybe not enough to really make any difference the foot-pounds numbers they're looking at 960 foot-pounds compared to 958 so they are basically the identical performing cartridge at 150 yards so anything before 150 yards you will have a slight edge with your 22-250 the after 150 yards let's see what happens at 200 yards you have a definite speed edge with the 204 Ruger cartridge a definite edge and pounds as well 855 compared to 816 and what if we just go ahead and fast-forward all the way up to 500 yards here what would we wind up with trying to get there there we are looking at 20 135 feet per second on your 204 Ruger compared to 1773 feet per second on that 22 250 now look at the foot-pounds numbers 405 compared to 279 so it while it might be tempting to think that the 22 to 50 40 grain bullet is the way to go it's only the way to go for the first 150 yards remember that but after that it's really not the way to go so but what about the the 50 grand bullet to be honest Hornady superformance makes a really nice performing 50 green bullet for that 22 250 so let's see how that Hornady superformance will stack up let's bring those numbers in so here we go with your ballistic coefficient at 0.2 for two under 50 grain bullet you're starting off with four thousand feet per second so you do have a slight edge over your 204 Ruger at the start 1775 foot-pounds so this is where you do have a 31 percent 31 and a half percent edge and foot pounds over your tool for Ruger and then when we start to go out into some distance here at what point does the Ruger does the tool for River to catch up to it or does it catch up to it at all at about 150 yards it's the same thing though 32 88 feet per second on your 204 Ruger it's 40 grain 3284 on the 40 grain 22-250 and 32 96 feet per second on that 22-250 50 green so the speed at 150 is about the same on all three cartridges and then you definitely still have an edge in foot-pounds though with your 50 grain bullet 22-250 definitely an edge in foot-pounds there's no denying that when we move out to 200 yards though you'll notice that that 40 grain 204 Ruger is still outperforming both your 40 grain 22-250 as well as your 50 grain 22-250 as well in terms of speed it's outperforming it but not in terms of foot-pounds with a thousand and fifty seven foot-pounds still easily beating your 855 foot pounds on that 204 Ruger let's see what happens when I go all the way out to 500 yards though out at 500 yards you're looking at 446 foot pounds on that 50 grain 205 22-250 compared to 405 so at that point you do actually have about 10% more foot-pounds on the 22 250 so that bullet started off with about 31 and a half percent more foot-pounds 5/8 500 yards 10 percent more foot-pounds and as far as your speed you still have a nice speed edge with the 204 burger at 21 35 compared to 2,000 feet per second so again 405 foot pounds on a real fast moving bullet you should not feel like that's just not enough that's probably more than substantial to get the job done at those distances well as you may have guessed by now I did indeed choose the 204 ruder as my personal favorite the rifle I chose is the cz 527 varmint with a 25 point six-inch barrel length the first footage that you're about to see is of one of my friends shooting the rifle first with the 32 grain bullet and then with the 40 grain bullet now you're going to notice that there was a lot of noise at the shooting range that day and it may be a bit hard to distinguish when the 204 Ruger is actually being fired because it has so very little recoil and then when it comes to target pictures the first target pictures that you will see are of my groups that I shot at 100 yards first with the 32 grain bullets and followed by the 40 grain bullets in the second picture it is important to note that I had never in my life even fired a 204 Ruger before this event and it had been more than a year since I had even been to a public shooting range so I'm not really the most active shooter is what I'm trying to say now I found that that rifle and that bullet combination were remarkably easy to get used to the five to seven varmint had only had 23 rounds put through it what you're looking at is bullets number 24 25 and 26 to have exited the barrel those are 40 grain vmax of 100 yards bullet it's a 32 grain v-max Hornady superformance at 100 yards this is a three shot group with the 40 grain Hornady superformance 204 Ruger at a distance of 200 yards and the rifle is still not yet broken in it's had less than 35 rounds through the rifle at this point this is a three shot group of the 32 grain Hornady superformance 204 Ruger at a distance of 200 yards the rifle has had less than 35 rounds through it so it's still not even broken in yet [Music]

Channel: outdoor adventures

Views: 187,858

Rating: 4.5441279 out of 5

Keywords: 22-250 vs 223 vs 204 ruger, 22-250 remington, 223, 223 remington, 204 ruger, varmint hunting, varmint rifle, predator rifle, predator hunting, jesus saves, donald trump, 22 lr, 22 long rifle, cz 527, cz 527 varmint

Id: Br-spn2RILg

Length: 21min 51sec (1311 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 11 2018