Gary Reeder
Comparing the 222 or 223 and the 357 Herrett
Sunday, February 04, 2024, 15:49

are like apples and horse turds. No comparison. The 222 and 223 are rifle cartridges and not the greatest in a 10" handgun. The 357 Herrett along with the 30 Herrett were both designed for shorter handgun barrels. Both Bob Milek and Steve Herrett did a lot of work designing these two cartridges to be efficient in a handgun, either 10" or 14". Obviously the 14" barrel would be more efficient and burn a bit more powder.
These days with new better powders an AR-15 in 223/5.56 in a 10" barrel is more efficient than 15 or 20 years ago but still you don't get full powder burn and obviously you don't get full power potential. But those short barrel AR-15s are intended for close range combat situations and 80% power in those situations are considered fine.
Having a 222 or 223 in a 10 inch TC barrel is OK as long as you realize the power loss. One of my favorite hunting handguns was a custom XP-100 I built in 224 Weatherby. I don't know how much power or speed loss I had but it was extremely accurate and killed a lot of ground hogs so I didn't worry about the power loss.

I mentioned a few days ago about good friend Tom Thomason that had a custom 10" TC barrel in 358 Winchester. There was no way he got full powder burn in that little thin octagonal TC barrel but he loved it and took a big Bison in Utah with it. It took 3 or 4 shots but he killed it.

What this leads us to is if the owner of the gun likes it and it does what he expect of it than why worry about it. Enjoy it and have fun.