Thread: .222 turning back the clock

Originally Posted by Nathan F

@Tahr I’m just home from two nights away. I shot a stag on last light last night. Was 9:30 pm before i began the 90minute trek back to camp. Right on cue it started pissing down. Was quite glad I had the Swazi ultralight jacket not the old green swannie. Big donkey of an animal.

be keen too see a pic of this stag an the 222? fella

2pm and Im out of here for a hunt. Its a bit windy, and the antlers are hard. Ranges will be out to 300 yards - last one there was 220.

My brain says take the 270wsm - and it was packed. But then I saw this thread and my heart kicked in. Now its the trusty old Savage Lightweight .223 and 64 grn Noslers that are packed...

We will see...

Well done,

Looks like the 223 did the job ok Bruce

Originally Posted by Mooseman

Looks like the 223 did the job ok Bruce

Im just now writing a little story for the report section.

Can’t remember if I previously posted it but back in the 60’s Dad had a Parker Hale 222, shot a few deer with it but rapidly became disillusioned with it - action too long for 222 and the safety kept falling out.

So he traded it in on a brand new Vixen 222, he was very happy with it.

(I used it more than him until I got my Finnwolf.)

Originally Posted by Finnwolf

Can’t remember if I previously posted it but back in the 60’s Dad had a Parker Hale 222, shot a few deer with it but rapidly became disillusioned with it - action too long for 222 and the safety kept falling out.

So he traded it in on a brand new Vixen 222, he was very happy with it.

(I used it more than him until I got my Finnwolf.)

What happened to the Vixen?

Originally Posted by Tahr

What happened to the Vixen?

Dad did a deal and ended up with a Mini-14!

I know they guy he did the deal with and you couldn’t pry the Vixen out of his hands with a crow-bar!

Rest assured it’s in good hands.

Like many others I've read about exploits of hunters with the .222 and .223 but never really thought of it as a cartridge for deer hunting until i was in the Kaimanawas 12 years or so back and bumped into a hunter with a .223 and he did quite well.

Anyway I bought a T3 .223 and never looked back where I'd have to say I've shot more deer with that calibre than any other calibre I've owned combined as the .223 just dropped deer including my biggest sika stags I've shot.

I've always wanted a Sako .222 so I ended up with two, one is an A1 and the other a L461 which has since been re barreled to a 6x45 as the barrel was kept in pour condition never being cleaned.

I used the A1 .222 on a few deer with this one being its first kill.



Scoping out a hind and its fawn... neither were shot!



Don't underestimate the power of the .222/.223 on deer as there very efficient killers on deer.

Love my sako 222 , pretty hard to find them nowadays, took me a while to find this L461 to replace my first vixen lost in a burglary. Hands down the best 222 you can get is the Sako vixen imo.



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May have already said but : I only bought the old twin trigger BRNO because there were no Vixens available (in any case would have been outside my budget)
But what great we rifles the L461s are.

I stared with a Anschutz 222 and then a vixen turned up in the local sport shop so i sold an under & over shotgun plus the Anschutz to buy it, it was a lot of money at the time but I’ve never regretted it. In saying that the Anschutz shot well and I took a quite a few animals with it including my first chamois.


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Originally Posted by Rangireice

Love my sako 222 ,

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Hey that gun looks very smiliar to mine, cept mine has a cheek piece and also iron sights- i think they called it a Sako A1, the first few letters of the serial is A1.. some similiar models in similiar eras i think with slightt differences from that time?

Originally Posted by Rees

Hey that gun looks very smiliar to mine, cept mine has a cheek piece and also iron sights- i think they called it a Sako A1, the first few letters of the serial is A1.. some similiar models in similiar eras i think with slightt differences from that time?

Yip correct this one starts with A1 as did my one that got stolen in a burglary except that one was a later model and the last model made with the newer Sako hunter stock( very nice model)


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