After my dad bought me a box of .222 Winchester-brand ballistic tips, and nearing the end of when we headed off to the range a week later, I loaded up a few of these babies and found out they didn't load in my AR.  They would chamber ok in the throat of the barrel, but my bolt would not catch it.  I pulled the thing out, turns out it's about 85-90% the size of my M193's, and it said .222 Remington on the bottom; I guess neither one of us looked and saw that it was the wrong caliber.

Which leads me to the ultimate question, out of the .222, .223, and .224 Remington's, what in the HELL rifle fires these calibers?  The middle one is an obvious, but the other two confuse me.  I'm sure custom guns and barrels are made for them as well (like .17 and those .22-? Swifts out there), but are there any STOCK weapons that load these things?  Just curious.

Jew~

I had a Thompson Contender in .222 Rem.

Though relatively rare the AR15 has been chambered in .222.
What other guns are chambered in it? Take your pick,
Remington,
Savage
Browning
Winchester
Ruger
The .222 and, to a lesser degree, the .220 Swift are common factory offerings.

Well, it's a damn good thing it didn't fire b/c the case dimensions are, as you learned the easy way, different.  The .223 is based on the .222 design.  One of my friends has an old Sako in .222, and the thing is a tack driver.  The .223 slightly out performs the .222 with its greater case capacity.  As far as AR's go, Colt used to manufacture some in .222 for export to countries that don't allow civilians to possess military caliber weapons.  Hope this answers some questions.

The .222 was the predecessor to the .223.  The .223 is a tad longer, has a shorter neck and a little more case capacity.

Mini-14's, AR's and other rifles similar are often chambered in .222 Rem for export to countries such as France and Italy where private ownership of military calibers is restricted.

Some countries prohibit private ownership of firearms in calibers used by the countries' military.

Hence, the modern chambering in .222.  

More accurately, the .222 Rem was the predecessor to the .222 Rem Mag, which was the predecessor to the .223. The .222 Rem Mag is almost identical to the .223/5.56mm

arnt almost of  the 222 on the market now manely for varmit guns?

I saw a .222 Mini-14 on gunbroker.com a few days ago. the price seemed to be consistent with the prices of the .223 version.

I have seen a couple of AR15's in the .222 chambering but mostly this is a varmint round found in bolt action rifles. I have a Ruger M77 heavy barrel in this caliber and it is great for popping groundhogs.
Finnbear out

troy: was it called the 222 magnum, then changed it to 223?

Ruger mini-14, several bolt action models and Mfgs. It's a popular round for prairie dog shooting.