.218 Bee

.218 Bee
File:218 Bee.png
Type	Rifle
Place of origin	USA
Production history
Designer	Winchester
Manufacturer	Winchester
Produced	1938
Variants	.218 Mashburn Bee
Specifications
Parent case	.32-20 Winchester
Case type	Rimmed, bottleneck
Bullet diameter	.224 in (Bad rounding here mm)
Neck diameter	.242 in (Bad rounding here mm)
Shoulder diameter	.329 in (Bad rounding here mm)
Base diameter	.349 in (Bad rounding here mm)
Rim diameter	.408 in (Bad rounding here mm)
Rim thickness	.065 in (Bad rounding here mm)
Case length	1.345 in (Bad rounding here mm)
Primer type	Boxer; small rifle
Ballistic performance
Bullet weight/type	Velocity	Energy
35 gr (Bad rounding here g) VMax	3,205 ft/s (Bad rounding here m/s)	799 ft·lbf (Bad rounding here J)
40 gr (Bad rounding here g) BT	3,130 ft/s (Bad rounding here m/s)	870 ft·lbf (Bad rounding here J)
46 gr (Bad rounding here g) JFP	2,708 ft/s (Bad rounding here m/s)	749 ft·lbf (Bad rounding here J)
50 gr (Bad rounding here g) BT	2,654 ft/s (Bad rounding here m/s)	782 ft·lbf (Bad rounding here J)
Source(s): Hodgdon

The .218 Bee is a .22 caliber centerfire rifle cartridge designed for varmint hunting by Winchester in 1938. The cartridge was originally chambered in lever-action rifles, which may have ultimately led to its lack of popularity. The cartridge is named for the bore diameter of the barrel in which the cartridge is chambered rather than the usual practice in the United States of having the cartridge's nomenclature reflect in some way the bullet diameter.

History

The .218 Bee cartridge was designed by Winchester for use in their lever-action rifles. Winchester designed the cartridge by necking down the .25-20 Winchester cartridge to accept a .224 diameter bullet. As the .25-20 had been based on the .32-20 Winchester, the .32-20 Winchester can be considered to be the parent cartridge of the .218 Bee. The cartridge was introduced as a commercial cartridge by Winchester in 1939 in their Model 65 lever action rifle, which was also chambered for the .25-20 and .32-20 Winchester cartridges. However, while the .25-20 and the .32-20 Model 65 rifles had 22 inch (560 mm) barrels, the rifles chambered for the Bee sported 24 inch (610 mm) barrels.

While early on the cartridge showed some promise, the cartridge never really caught on, even though it was later chambered by Winchester in the new bolt-action Model 43 rifle and by Sako in their L-46 rifle. There was some question about the accuracy of the .218 Bee as compared to the .222,^{[citation needed]} but that was likely due to the difference of inherent accuracy between the bolt-actions rifles commonly chambered for the .222 and the lever-actions commonly chambered for the .218 Bee. Although not in common use, it's still a very effective cartridge in its class, for example small to medium varmints out to about 200 yards (Bad rounding here m). Production ammunition and rifles are still available from a few manufacturers.

Performance

In terms of relative performance, the .218 Bee falls between the smaller .22 Hornet, and the larger .222 Remington and the more popular .223 Remington. In terms of short range velocity the .218 works quite well.

See also

• List of rifle cartridges
• 5 mm caliber
• .25-20 Winchester

References

• Cartridge Dimensions
• .218 Bee at The Reload Bench
• The .218 Bee by Chuck Hawks

External links

• Contender Varminting - .218 Bee at Rocky's Reloading Room