.224 Weatherby

History

Although Roy Weatherby's cartridges have been extremely successful as well as helping introduce the hunting world to the benefits of high velocity, his contributions to the .22 centerfire market have achieved a more limited success. Weatherby's first foray into the .22 centrefires during the 1940's resulted in the .220 Weatherby Rocket. Based on the .220 Swift with improved dimensions the .220 WR suffered immense throat erosion. Weatherby's next cartridge, the .228 Weatherby magnum was based on a shortened version of the .300 Holland and Holland magnum necked down to accept a 70 grain .224 caliber bullet. The .228 was no more successful than the .220 and soon became obsolete.

Finally in 1963, Roy Weatherby introduced the .224 varmint master. This .224 cartridge was a scaled down version of the .300 Weatherby giving ballistics almost identical to the .22-250. To obtain the maximum amount of power, the chambers of the .224 were cut long to allow a longer peak pressure to build up bullet speed (a necessity of the RUM cartridges also). When Remington adopted the .22-250 in 1965 the .224 was blown off the market. To recoup sales losses Weatherby decided to chamber rifles for the 22-250. This was the first commercial cartridge to be chambered by Weatherby and led to the full range of standard chamberings that are available today.

Performance

Like other ultra velocity .22 centerfire cartridges, the .224 is best suited to game weighing up to 40kg (90lb) up to a safe maximum of 60kg (130lb) while heavier game of up to 80kg (180lb) require very careful shot placement. Bullet construction is a major factor in determining optimum shot placement when using the .224 Weatherby on medium game. The .224 loses velocity very quickly therefore wounding at 50 yards and wounding at 250 yards is dramatically different. As varmint cartridges, the ultra velocity .22’s are excellent at long range but as medium game cartridges, best performance occurs inside 125 yards.

Factory ammunition

Weatherby currently list one load for the .224 Weatherby featuring the Hornady 55 grain soft point projectile at 3650fps. This projectile is very soft and prone to complete bullet blow up at impact velocities of above 3000fps. Naturally, the Hornady bullet is not suitable for chest shooting lighter medium game at close ranges due to the risk of inflicting wide, shallow but non fatal wounds.

Hand loading

Brass for the .224 can usually be sourced through either Weatherby or Norma agents worldwide. Although powders in the 4064/Varget range would seem ideal, more uniform performance can be achieved with slightly faster burning powders such as IMR 3031 and Hodgdon Benchmark. Safe working velocities from the 26” barreled Weatherby include 3750fps with 50 grain bullets, 3700fps with the 53 grain Barnes TSX, 3650fps with 55 grain bullets. The Varmint Master rifle barrel has a 1:14 twist rate and is not particularly suited to 55 grain boat tail projectiles or heavier projectiles of various styles. Nevertheless, this is an excellent twist rate for experimenting with 55 grain FMJ projectiles for an ultra velocity version of Eugene Stoner’s tumbling load (see .223).

Closing comments

Like most other .22 centrefires the .224 was not designed for use on medium game and those who wish to use the .224 in this way are strongly urged to read all of the notes on the .222, .223, 22-250 and 220 swift.

Suggested loads: .224 Weatherby					Barrel length: 26”
No	ID		Sectional density	Ballistic coefficient	Observed MV Fps	ME Ft-lb’s
1	FL	WBY/Hornady 55gr SP	.157	.235	3650	1627
2	HL	53 grain BarnesTSX	.151	.231	3700	1611
3	HL	55gr FMJ	.157	.272	3650	1627

Suggested sight settings and bullet paths
1	Yards	100	150	243	281	350
	Bt. path	+1.7	+2	0	-2	-8
2	Yards	100	150	245	283	350
	Bt. path	+1.7	+2	0	-2	-7.5
3	Yards	100	150	248	287	350
	Bt. path	+1.7	+2	0	-2	-7

No	At yards	10mphXwind	Velocity	Ft-lb’s
1	300	10	2403	705
2	300	10	2421	690
3	300	9	2506	767

	Imperial	Metric
A	.430	10.9
B	.416	11.7
C	R .151
D	.395	10.03
E	.252	6.40
F	1.48	37.6
G	.454	11.53
H	1.925	48.9
Max Case	1.925	48.9
Trim length	1.915	48.6