Benchrest Shooting and the 22 PPC

The world of benchrest shooting has kept many lesser known cartridges in popularity. Mainly because there have been a many number of cartridges that have had excellent performance but have suffered in popularity either because of personal views on caliber size or the basic need for humans for "more power". In 1975 Dr. Lou Palmisano and the gunsmith Ferris Pindell modified the 220 Russian cartridge to create a new wildcat cartridge. They took the Russian case and reduced the case taper to a mere 10 degrees and took the shoulder angle up to 30 degrees. Along with the case dimensional changes they also used a smaller primer pocket with a smaller flash hole than normally used in these types of cartridges. The start of the 22 PPC cartridge began with the obscure Russian 220 target cartridge that was modified from the ever famous 7.62x39mm cartridge. Actually the shorter stubby case happened to be perfectly designed for the pressure of the ignition powder that was used in the smaller rifle primers. When Dr. Lou Palmisano and Ferris Pindell finished modifying the case they have just created one of the finest wildcat cartridges to ever come to the masses. The 22 PPC cartridge was an excellent benchrest and wildcat cartridge that boasted an impressive performance increase over the older benchrest cartridges. Just as history repeats, so does the age old fact of "in comes the new and old goes the old", the main difference here is that the 22 PPC cartridge may be old but it still offers an excellent performance increase for benchrest and in the wildcat areas of shooting sports.

During the first year of use for the 22 PPC cartridge collected a very large number of titles for winning benchrest competitions. This performance had simply surpassed the older 222 Remington cartridge, which quickly fell from its high position as benchrest king. The 22 PPC cartridge with its overall performance advantage over the other benchrest cartridges quickly took the top position for benchrest favorite. Not only was the 22 PPC cartridge great for benchrest competitions it also was a very deadly cartridge for varmint use, because of the efficient design of the overall cartridge, it falls in between the 223 and the 22-250 cartridges when compare in performance. Since the 22 PPC cartridge was introduced, many firearm manufacturers have started to produce firearms chambered for the 22 PPC cartridge. Sako imports many rifles chambered for the 22 PPC cartridge, and Wichita Precision builds some great rifles all chambered for the 22 PPC cartridge. A great number of custom gunsmiths also build some great rifles based on the 22 PPC cartridge, but for those with a shallower pocket there is always the Ruger line of rifles. Ruger has chambered some awesome rifles for the 22 PPC cartridge, and since Palmisano and Pindell have also developed a 6mm PPC based on the same case, but the 22 PPC has remain very popular, and both Sako and Norma import many cases and factory loaded ammunition.

The 22 PPC cartridge is still classified as a wildcat cartridge and because of the foreign nature of the cartridge there is actually no American pressure standards technically listed for the reloader for the 22 PPC cartridge. Dan Pawlak did do pressure research on the 22 PPC cartridge using electronic transducer equipment which listed the pressure around 55,000 PSI, but just like all things there are variations that occur. Many rifles do have variations in between them so for the home reloader working up the load must be taken very seriously and be done very carefully. The rifles build for benchrest shooting in this caliber tend to be really tight in the throats and necks and it comes highly recommended that the cases be turned or case failure can result. Even with these variations and rather vague information, it should not keep you from reloading the 22 PPC cartridge or shooting them for that matter. The 22 PPC cartridge is an excellent cartridge for any general use and with its performance will always be able to find a strong group of enthusiasts where ever rifle accuracy is concerned.