what is the best (heaviest) bullet for hunting mostly varmints, given the twist is fast. am thinking a build for my nephew.

Hornady 80 gr or 88 gr ELD-M

Yes I said M, as in Match. They do just fine, same as an A-Max always did.

90gr Berger or Sierra, both ar older than the Hornady 88gr and not sure how the BC stacks up. The Sierra is quit thin jacketed and can come apart from what I was cautioned when thinking about it in a 22-243 if pushed to velocity it is capable of. You will want a 1:7 twist barrel for those

80 and 90gr vld kill critters great. The berger target vld have a slightly thicker jacket compared to their hunting line so they are just fine in a hotrod 22. The 88gr eld is darn near a spitting image of the 90gr bergers and shoot the same but I've never hit a critter with one.

80.5 Berger Fullbore is probably the most consistent bullet...bullet to bullet comparison. I've personally not shot anything with them but the word on the street is they hammer deer.

thanks all

This. I load the Berger 80.5 in both a fast twist 223AI and my 22creed. It performs very well in both chamberings. It kills whitetails, pigs and coyotes with equal ease. In the 223ai, it has taken whitetails out to 230yds and his heart fell out when he was gutted. The fast twist Ackley with 80.5's running 2888fps from a 22" 7tw are my 8yr son's go-to recipe for back straps. The bullets are numbingly consistent and simple to tune.

Not recommending, but with all the heavy 22 cal info here, didn't Remington make a 100 grain coreloc for one of the newer .224 chamberings?

L: 55fmj 223
R: 80.5 223ackley

Agree, so far in my .22 Creed the 80.5 Full Bore Berger over H4350 is great. I have some 90 and 95 SMK's loaded to test, waiting for cooler weather. 1-7 twist

biggest problem is finding powder for the 90-95's namely RL-26. Seems to be the go to with heavies. I'm going to try H4831.

.22 Creed is a dead killer..................i've heard but will find out this Fall/Winter

Used the 80.5 today in a 800 yard match. 22 Caliber was max caliber you could shoot. Shot them out of the Switch barrel 22 Creedmoor and they worked well in the constant switching wind. Some of the folks tried shooting 22-250 running 52-55gr bullets 3900-4000Fps but the difference was significant. When I missed a wind call I missed the steel by a couple inches their misses were measured in feet. Few shooters using AR’s shooting 77gr and they did OK but didn’t place in top 3.

good report