Triple Deuce

[ImBillT]

It’s a marlin barrel too. I have one in a heavy barrel. Shoots lights out man. The Micro Groove barrel was a ten groove, single-tooth, cut-rifled barrel. I believe Marlin did it with a Pratt and Whitney rifling machine from WWII. Im thinking Remington had one in the custom shop that they used for 40X barrels. They also used Hart barrels on custom shop guns. Krieger used a few Pratt and Whitney rifling machines as well for a long time. There were only a handful ever made, and they made the best barrels money could buy until modern rifling machines started being made in recent years.

Micro Groove barrels were known for having very short lives before accuracy degraded, but I have not experienced that with mine. It was not my first .222Rem, but that rifle introduced me to detachable mags, and boy do I love them!

 

[ImBillT]

Very cool and rare rifle you have there.

As P_Ham mentioned, that's either a model 422 or 322. I don't know enough to tell the difference between them, without seeing the stamping.

Good job on keeping it factory original.

Shoot it and enjoy classic walnut and deep blued steel, handled and shot by your forefathers!

The 422 was stainless.

 

[mtmuley]

I know a guy with two Model 700 .222's. He won't let go of either one. mtmuley

 

[88man]

I know a guy with two Model 700 .222's. He won't let go of either one. mtmuley

You?

 

[mtmuley]

You?

I wish. I've tried to talk him out of one. He won't budge. mtmuley

 

[ImBillT]

I bet it has a 12” twist in it. Mine does. Most .222Rems are a 14” twist. I worked a load for 60gr partitions in mine. Can’t do that with with a 14” twist....I tried.

 

[p_ham]

The 422 was stainless.

The rifle pictured is stainless.
The 322 had a heavy barrel and a straight comb.

 

[cwitherow]

Man, I'm sure happy I posted this now! You guys know a ton and being able to share more information and history of the gun will just be icing on the cake for my dad.

 

[p_ham]

It’s a marlin barrel too. I have one in a heavy barrel. Shoots lights out man. The Micro Groove barrel was a ten groove, single-tooth, cut-rifled barrel. I believe Marlin did it with a Pratt and Whitney rifling machine from WWII. Im thinking Remington had one in the custom shop that they used for 40X barrels. They also used Hart barrels on custom shop guns. Krieger used a few Pratt and Whitney rifling machines as well for a long time. There were only a handful ever made, and they made the best barrels money could buy until modern rifling machines started being made in recent years.

Micro Groove barrels were known for having very short lives before accuracy degraded, but I have not experienced that with mine. It was not my first .222Rem, but that rifle introduced me to detachable mags, and boy do I love them!

Micro grooves are button rifled, Marlin refers to their cut rifling as Ballard. They started making the switch from ballard to micro in the mid 1950's to save cost. Marlin experimented with a number of groove counts but .22 cal should have 16 grooves.

 

[Addicting]

I know a guy with two Model 700 .222's. He won't let go of either one. mtmuley

GunBroker.com - Error

 

[ImBillT]

The rifle pictured is stainless.
The 322 had a heavy barrel and a straight comb.

Well there it is. Mine is the heavy barrel, and does say 322 on it I think. I guess they iron plated the 422 to get the blue to take?

 

[ImBillT]

Micro grooves are button rifled, Marlin refers to their cut rifling as Ballard. They started making the switch from ballard to micro in the mid 1950's to save cost. Marlin experimented with a number of groove counts but .22 cal should have 16 grooves.

I could have sworn the were cut...but a button would make sense as a reason for shallow grooves. I’ll have to count when I get home. Thought it had ten.

 

[p_ham]

Well there it is. Mine is the heavy barrel, and does say 322 on it I think. I guess they iron plated the 422 to get the blue to take?

You can blacken stainless in a hot tank but it's a different process than traditional blueing. You usually wind up with a darker, more dull finish.

 

[ImBillT]

There were some early Rem. 700s with a stainless blue barrel. I have a barrel in 7 mag. My brother has a 700 bdl varminter in 222 he has shot a lot. I think the 222 is easy on barrels.

The Marlin Micro Groove barrels were specifically known for not lasting very long. I believe those 7 mag barrels were stainless specifically to increase barrel life, so the OP’s barrel may not have that issue. I do think the Remington 7Mag barrels were stainless that was iron plated and then blued. P_ham may know for sure. I don’t know what steel was used for barrels back then, but I think today’s CrMo barrels have a slight edge on stainless in the wear department.

All that said, I have a 322, which was a Micro Groove barrel that was non-stainless in a .222Rem, that has had quite a few rounds down it, and still shoots around .5MOA.

 

[.270]

I have a model 722 in .222 with the stock cut down for a youth. I changed out the trigger for a Timney and have plans to do some load development this spring for my kids to practice with.