Varmint caliber?

[Catfish]

Just for referance on those long shots. A 55 gn. SBT .22 cal. bullet fired at 3600 fps. in a 10 mph cross wind will drift .96 in. at 100 yrds. 4.07 at 200 yrds., 9.75 at 300 yrds., 18.6 at 400 yrds. and 31.40 at 500 yrds. A 1,000 yrds shot is like thorughing pennys at a hat at 20 yrds., if you through enough you`ll eventually hit it.
If it`s your first varmint rifle I would recomand a .223. Unless you really try you`ll never burn up a barrel with it, you can buy ammo for it any place that sells ammo, it will do anything that the super fast rifles will do, just not quite as far out. It`s about as good an all around round as you can get for varmints. Right now I do not own one, I have 3 different .17 cal rounds in varmint rifle, 4 other .22 cal`s. and 2 .25 cal`s. in varmint rifles, I not into 1 allround gun, but I also load all of my own ammo, I have to as 5 of these rifles are wildcats.
Put a 3 x 9 Leupold scope on it, and if you ever deside to sell or trade the gun, keep the scope. With a good accurate gun and the Leupold scope you should never miss a pd out to 250 yrds. on a day with no wind. The greater the wind the shorter your max. accurate range.