Anyone of my age remember the 218 bee

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Dano4734

New member
Boy I loved that old Winchester when I was a kid do they make them anymore. Probably not. I rolled lots of ground hogs with that thing growing up
 
When we were kids, a buddy had one that his dad bought for him. He shot white tail with it and everything else.

It knocked them down purty good. Sweet shootin' rifle. It was a Win M43 bolt gun.

Last time I checked with him, he still has it. That was prolly 5 years ago.
 
Only thing I can say about the .218 Bee was I'm amazed at the velocity one could get from it with such a low amount of powder. 2500 fps with a 40 grain projectile and uses half the powder a .223 does? A reloader couldn't ask for more.
 
Essentially a necked down .25-20 the Bee was a sweet pest round in the era when cartridges didn't have to fit into an AR to be considered useful.
(and rimmed cases were still commercially viable propositions)

A couple of lever guns, a couple bolt guns, and a fair number of single shots were made or converted to shoot the Bee and its improved version.

Nothing in current production that I know of.

I think Marlin did a limited run of then 1894 in .218, some years back, but I'm not certain. I know they did a .25-20 and I think a .32-20, but good luck finding one of those, and be prepared to pay a pretty penny if you do.
 
About 20 years ago Taurus offered a Raging Bee. Chambered in .218 Bee. My brother bought one, and scoped it. He has shot many small varmints with it out to 200 yards.
 
my marlin 218 out shoots my hornet hands down. (but the 222 rem out shoots both and is nearly as quiet.)…...I like small hand easily carried rifles. I would grab a nice cl marlin and pay the grand it takes to get one if I had to.
…. re7 works awesome in the bee with 46 gr flat nose speers. just ruminating. bob
 
I had a Malin 25-20 lever with a tang peep. Bought it in 1945 at a farm sale. A Lyman 310 tong tool with a bullet mold on the handle. Used wheel weights for lead and axle grease for lube.
Shot a lot of “chucks” in the day.
 
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Yup as well as the 219 Zipper, 22 Hornet and K Hornet and on and on.

I still shoot the 220 Swift and would love to have a slick carbine in 300 Savage.
 
Kind of depends on what your age is, but Hornady loads The Bee. 45 grain HP only though. Both Winchester(supposedly in limited production) and PCI(also not currently available) load it too.
Pretty much the same for brass. Hornady's box of 50 cases runs $37.99 at Graf's.
Don't believe there are any factory rifles currently chambered in The Bee. $1575 for a Win M43 on http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/winchester-43-218-bee-w7156/
 
Anyone of my age remember the 218 bee
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Sure. Got a Winchester 43 hanging on the wall and an original Winchester 1885 Low Wall in the rack, both in 218 Bee. Great little cartridge, but the 223 killed it and a whole slew of other varmint cartridges. I still shoot them just to show new guys that there is something out there besides 5.56 and 7.62.
 
T. O'Heir said:
Kind of depends on what your age is, but Hornady loads The Bee. 45 grain HP only though. Both Winchester(supposedly in limited production) and PCI(also not currently available) load it too.
Pretty much the same for brass. Hornady's box of 50 cases runs $37.99 at Graf's.
Don't believe there are any factory rifles currently chambered in The Bee. $1575 for a Win M43 on http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/winchester-43-218-bee-w7156/
Click to expand...
I may be wrong, but given that .218 Bee is just necked down .32-20, couldn't cases be formed from .32-20?
 
@truthteller: I believer you're correct. Although I'd run the .32-20 brass through a .25-20 die first. The brass is usually so thin that, after re-sizing, you may not need to neck ream.

I always wanted a bee, but could never find a rifle chambered for it, that was in decent shape or affordable. I had to settle for two hornets. One thing I discovered about the hornet: I got better accuracy and more consistent velocities when using small pistol primers rather than small rifle. I wonder if the same might apply to the bee.
 
My first handgun 1975 was a Tc Contender 10" barrel, 218Bee. It was a doe slayer. Shot the biggest whitetail I ever took with that pistol.
 
TruthTellers said:
2500 fps with a 40 grain projectile and uses half the powder a .223 does?
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In order to accelerate a 40 grain bullet to 2500 fps, the powder only needs to supply 555 ft lb of energy to the bullet. That's less than half of the energy needed to accelerate a 55 grain bullet to 3240 fps. Therefore, the gun is actually less efficient than the .223.

40 grain bullet @ 2500 fps = 554.57 ft-lb of kinetic energy
55 grain bullet @ 3240 fps = 1280.76 ft-lb of kinetic energy
 
I've had 218Bee in Win 43s. Never had one that was a tack driver. In fact I've
had several 43s in 22 Hornrt and they were nothing to write home about in the
accurracy dept. The cheap Savages shot as good or better. That put me down in
the jaws because Im a solid pre 64 Win guy. A buddy of mine had a Savage
single shot in 218B and had a old Weaver K4 scope on it. Best shooting 218B
I've come across.
 
B.L.E. said:
In order to accelerate a 40 grain bullet to 2500 fps, the powder only needs to supply 555 ft lb of energy to the bullet. That's less than half of the energy needed to accelerate a 55 grain bullet to 3240 fps. Therefore, the gun is actually less efficient than the .223.

40 grain bullet @ 2500 fps = 554.57 ft-lb of kinetic energy
55 grain bullet @ 3240 fps = 1280.76 ft-lb of kinetic energy
Click to expand...
What are you shooting that requires a 55 grain bullet going 3200 fps over a 40 grain bullet going 2500 fps? My point was you can shoot twice as many .218 Bee's as you can .223 because it uses half as much powder and about 25% less lead.
 
There are currently two .218 Bee rifles in my safe. Both are Martini Cadet rifles with Winchester model 43 barrels. One is chambered for .218 Mashburn Bee.
 
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