.224 Weatherby Magnum

The .224 Weatherby Magnum was developed in 1963 by Roy Weatherby after about 10 years of development. It is a proprietary cartridge based on a shortened .300 Weatherby Magnum case, with no major firearms manufacturers using it other than Weatherby.

The cartridge design began years earlier, but its introduction was delayed, at least in part, because of the unavailabilitiy of a suitable action. An earlier high-velocity .22 caliber round from Weatherby called the .220 Weatherby Rocket was based on the .220 Swift, but was unsuccessful and never manufactured.

Performance wise it is similar to the popular .22-250 and lesser used .225 Winchester, putting it in between the .220 Swift and .223 Remington cartridges. Possibly because of the similar performance and popularity of the .22-250, this round has never gotten a very large following. Costs for ammunition and rifles for this round also tend to be more expensive.

.22 caliber rifles are legal in some areas for game up to deer-sized. However, this cartridge is better suited to long-range varminting.

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