The .222 Remington won every benchrest match worth winning for twenty years and then the .223 took its rifles and its shelf space. It is still the most pleasant cartridge on this site to shoot: mild, accurate, and quiet enough not to empty a field.
Seven factory loads, and the spread inside that small table is wider than it looks.
The loads
| Brand | Load | Bullet | Grain | BC | Test barrel | Muzzle | 300 yd | 500 yd | Muzzle energy | 500 yd energy | Drop at 500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hornady | Superformance ★ | NTX® | 35 | 0.170 | 24” | 3,760 | 2,140 | 1,369 | 1,099 | 146 | -46.0” |
| Federal | V Shok | Nosler | 40 | 0.221 | — | 3,450 | 2,187 | 1,533 | 1,057 | 209 | -45.0” |
| HSM | Varmint Gold | Match Varmint Flat Base | 40 | 0.155 | 24” | 3,357 | — | — | 1,001 | — | — |
| Nosler | Varmageddon | FBHP | 40 | 0.158 | — | 3,400 | 1,740 | 1,088 | 1,026 | 105 | -69.1” |
| Nosler | Varmageddon | FB Tipped | 40 | 0.211 | — | 3,400 | 2,095 | 1,437 | 1,026 | 183 | -48.6” |
| Hornady | Superformance Varmint | V-MAX® | 50 | 0.242 | 24” | 3,395 | 2,203 | 1,595 | 1,242 | 283 | -44.4” |
| Remington | Premier Accutip-V | AccuTip-V, Boat Tail | 50 | 0.242 | — | 3,140 | 2,045 | — | — | — | — |
What it does
At 500 yards the best load here is doing 1,595 feet per second and the worst is down to 1,088. Five hundred feet per second between two loads in a seven-load table is a real choice, not a rounding error, and it is almost entirely bullet shape — 0.242 against 0.158.
The 50 grain V-MAX is the one to buy for coyotes. It carries the most energy to every distance past 100 yards, it is a varmint bullet built to come apart, and it is the load the cartridge was rehabilitated around.
The 35 grain NTX is the interesting new one and it is a specialist. It leaves at 3,760 feet per second, which is .22-250 territory out of a case two thirds the size, and then sheds it faster than anything else here — 1,369 at 500 yards against the 50 grain’s 1,595. Lead-free, spectacular inside 200, wrong past 300.
Against a .223 the honest position is that the .222 is a slightly milder, slightly slower version of the same thing with a quarter of the ammunition choice. Nobody should buy a new rifle in it for coyotes. Everyone who already owns one should know it still works perfectly.
Notes on the data
These are the manufacturers’ published figures, and where a maker publishes nothing the cell is empty rather than guessed — which is why the HSM and Remington rows stop at the muzzle. Sources: Hornady, Nosler, Federal and Remington.
★ marks a load added in the September 2026 catalog check. The bulk of this table was compiled some years ago and the makers’ current line-ups were re-read while building this page.
† marks a load that exists and whose published figures are not yet on this table. The rows are here so the list is honest about being incomplete rather than looking finished.
Know a load that should be here? Tell me and I will add it. And check your state’s rules before you go.