Posted: 4/19/2013 12:40:01 PM EDT
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Anyone shoot 218 bee?
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Received reloadig stuff including dies from an uncle. Wondering if it worth the time to find a rifle. Finding a rifle in that caliber is not easy, but is doable. I have a Winchester 43 in .22 Hornet and they also chambered that model in .218 Bee, but I have seen very few. There are some others, but the Bee was somewhat rare. Your best bet is the net. |
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The bee was originally chambered in the Model 65 Winchester and was later offered in the Model 43. I have one of each here at the house, they both belonged to my grandfather. He was a fan of the rifle and its a fine little varmint cartridge. It is based on the 25-20 Winchester and is easy enough to reload. In a bolt gun or single shot it can produce accuracy with spire point bullets that is very exceptional. The cartridge because of its original lever gun chambering gained an undeserved reputation for inaccuracy. Still my grandfather shot many , many coyotes with the old Model 65. I have taken more than one or two myself. My favorite bee is a rebarreled Model 1885 with a Fecker scope that I bought 25 years ago. It will put every shot into a nice little ragged hole .
Winchester still makes the occasional run of the ammo, the last batch they made several years ago was hollow points I bought about 500 rounds of it just for the brass. You are hard pressed to find a better varmint cartridge. |
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How's that Fecker shoot? I had it rebuilt about 10 years ago because it was hazy , since the rebuild it is wonderful. It is a quality scope for its era, and was common on bench and varmint guns of the period. It is perfectly capable all of the accuracy the rifle is and I have taken more than a few yotes with it, however it primarily knocks holes in paper. If I do my part it will put 5 shots into one ragged hole, it does not hurt though that the cartridge generates practically no recoil to speak of. |
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Ammo is too expensive to shoot that thing.  You would be surprised how cheap it is to shoot. I have not bought any factory ammunition in a long time, but last time I did was in 2003 and I bought 500 rounds it was $25 a box but keep in mind Bee ammo is sold 50 rounds to a box not 20. Plus its extremely economical to re load. In fact you will not find many cartridges cheaper to hand load than a bee. Its about all I shoot in my rifles , including some cast bullets from time to time. |
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My best friend has had a Martini Action barreled in 218 bee for many years. He picked it up and tinkered with it reloading, fun little gun to shoot , very accurate,not expensive to reload once you aquire brass.( got to watch him around my 25-20 brass)
Brass is still availible. He eventually had to leave Florida and move to Colorado just so he could shoot prarie dogs with it!
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Ammo is too expensive to shoot that thing. You would be surprised how cheap it is to shoot. I have not bought any factory ammunition in a long time, but last time I did was in 2003 and I bought 500 rounds it was $25 a box but keep in mind Bee ammo is sold 50 rounds to a box not 20. Plus its extremely economical to re load. In fact you will not find many cartridges cheaper to hand load than a bee. Its about all I shoot in my rifles , including some cast bullets from time to time. It's like $1.50/round right now.
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Quoted:
Quoted:
How's that Fecker shoot? I had it rebuilt about 10 years ago because it was hazy , since the rebuild it is wonderful. It is a quality scope for its era, and was common on bench and varmint guns of the period. It is perfectly capable all of the accuracy the rifle is and I have taken more than a few yotes with it, however it primarily knocks holes in paper. If I do my part it will put 5 shots into one ragged hole, it does not hurt though that the cartridge generates practically no recoil to speak of. I don't know the cartridge but I have a Marlin 1889 in 32-20 that shoots like a 22. Is it similar? |
| Many years ago, a few of the gun magazines had some one page ads for the Marlin lever gun in 218 Bee. I wanted one so bad. Never found one, so I bought a Remington 700 heavy barrel 223 ( this was about 20 years ago). A few years after that, a local gun store had a new Marlin 218 and it set on the rack for what seemed like years. Wish I would have bought it. |