22-250 Info

TXCOONDOG

TXCOONDOG

Well-known member
I've never owned a 22-250 and decided that I want one. I know it's a barrel burner, but barrels are cheaper than the ammo cost to burn one up!

I plan to use it on predators and varmints and want it as flat shooting to 300 yards as I can get.

Recommend twist rate and barrel length?
Since I reload, any recommendation on bullets, powders and/or primers?
 
Flat shooting as you can get, more than likely the 40gr NBT will fill the bill. A great shooting load would be the 50gr NBT, 55gr Vmax, 55gr Sierra SP for a 300 yard predator load. I personally shoot 52gr Speer HPs out of my 22-250s for hunting and occasionally 52gr Hornady match for targets. All of the above will kill anything smaller than coyotes also.

The standard 1-14 twist works well, you are looking for flat shooting under 300 yards. You might want to look at a faster twist if your looking at going lead free or shooting heavier or longer match bullets in the future.

Powder I shoot H-380, 4320, 4064 and R-15 old school stuff. I'd like to find some 760 to try.

For primers I use Win LRs

I have two 22-250s now and find them to be too much gun for most of the hunting I do. It seems that every time I take the 22-250 out for an open country hunt I end up calling them in under 50 yards. I have seen my nephew and my BinL make some spectacular long shots though with their 22-250s.
 
I'd look for a Tikka with the 1-8 twist barrel then work up a load with the 53gr Vmax and either IMR or Hodgdon 4895.

I would prefer the 8tw Tikka 22-250 because it gives you the flexibility to shoot heavier bullets if you ever wanted to but if you have no interest in that Tikka also makes a 22-250 with a 14tw barrel and if you go with the 14tw I'd work up a load with the 52gr ELD-M and the same 4895 powder/s. I've always been a Rem 700 fan but for a factory off the shelf rifle, Tikka is realllllly hard to beat and their guns just flat seem to always shoot very well.

I pretty much only use Fed 210M's or CCI BR2's because that's just what I have. Others may work fine too.

Right now the biggest trouble you could have is finding 22-250 brass.
 
Agree with B23. 8 tw if you want to go heavy. I have found the 12 tw to be a sweet spot for 50-60 gr bullets. For me anyway. I run two 12 tw, 24" barrels with varget, cci large rifle, and a 60 gr vmax at 3650. Very accurate and smacks coyotes.
Also a fan of the 50 gr NBT with H4895. 3700 out of a 20" 14tw barrel. Also smacks coyotes hard.
 
1/14 twist is fine for standard cup/core bullets from 40-55 gr in the 22-250. When I rebarrel I go 1/12 to make sure I can run the 53 gr vmax. Varget, H4895, AR Comp. 6.5 Staball. The Sierra 1365 would have to be considered if hogs are potential targets, as most of the tipped varmint bullets are too frangible. Nosler 55 BT and Varget is my do all 22-250 load.
 
I thought about Tikka, but rumor has it that the barrels tend to run lower velocities and can be difficult to find certain models with threaded muzzles.
 
Years ago the 22-250 and the 220 Swift were notorious about scorching barrels. I have a feeling most of those were rifles shot on a prairie dog field. IMO nothing lives long on a prairie dig fields. With todays steel I think barrel life is much better than years ago if using a quality firearm an/or barrel. I think in a varmint/predator rifle where your not over heating the barrel, it should last a long time. I bought a used 22-250AI and shoot 52 grain Bergers with Varget powder. I run them right at 3750. I could push them harder but this is a very accurate load for this rifle. With an unknown round count when I bought it and although I don't shoot it a lot but it does get shot and 1/2 inch groups at 200yds is pretty normal if I'm on my game. I think if you watch barrel heat and sensible loads a barrel should last quite a while shooting coyotes.
 
TXCOONDOG said:
I thought about Tikka, but rumor has it that the barrels tend to run lower velocities and can be difficult to find certain models with threaded muzzles.
Click to expand...
I have the 1:8 22-250 tikka. It’s a shooter but is a little slower than some others. My barrel is broken in and I’m getting a 53 grain vmax to go 3445fps with varget and Lapua brass. My buddy has a mossberg patriot and shooting my handloads, his is getting 3670fps if I remember right.

My tikka seems to hit pressure a little earlier than his gun too. I’m below a book max load too.

Either way, it shoots great and I don’t have an issue dialing for longer shots.
 
William Suter said:
Years ago the 22-250 and the 220 Swift were notorious about scorching barrels. I have a feeling most of those were rifles shot on a prairie dog field. IMO nothing lives long on a prairie dig fields. With todays steel I think barrel life is much better than years ago if using a quality firearm an/or barrel. I think in a varmint/predator rifle where your not over heating the barrel, it should last a long time. I bought a used 22-250AI and shoot 52 grain Bergers with Varget powder. I run them right at 3750. I could push them harder but this is a very accurate load for this rifle. With an unknown round count when I bought it and although I don't shoot it a lot but it does get shot and 1/2 inch groups at 200yds is pretty normal if I'm on my game. I think if you watch barrel heat and sensible loads a barrel should last quite a while shooting coyotes.
Click to expand...
This is good advice.

I run all my rigs for fast, flat and accurate.. so the 40gr get the nod for me. That’s out of an old 22-250 AI, and a 220 swift currently.

The whole “only lasts 1200 rounds” thing that you hear people talking about, well that may be a big deal in a target shooters world. But in a coyote hunters world, that’s 1,000 coyotes included in sighting in and plinking.

Out to 300 is really no stretch for a 22-250. In my opinion and my experience, a 40gr will be the flattest shooting you find and will do the job no problem. The other guys here telling you about the 52gr are right too, little less speed but still good performers.
 
Duhhh said:
I have the 1:8 22-250 tikka. It’s a shooter but is a little slower than some others. My barrel is broken in and I’m getting a 53 grain vmax to go 3445fps with varget and Lapua brass. My buddy has a mossberg patriot and shooting my handloads, his is getting 3670fps if I remember right.

My tikka seems to hit pressure a little earlier than his gun too. I’m below a book max load too.

Either way, it shoots great and I don’t have an issue dialing for longer shots.
Click to expand...
Even using Duhhh's scenario, which I'm certainly not doubting but 230fps probably isn't the norm with regard to velocity difference, with a 200yd zero is only .8 lower at 300yds between those two rifles.

For me the two most important things are like Duhhh said, "It's a shooter" and "it shoots great". :)
 
Back in the day I bought an old Mauser action with a 22-250 barrel on it. It has killed more critters than I care to talk about. That gun made about 3-4 others buy 250s after they seen the shots I made. It is topped with a $20 3-9 scope purchased at Walmart. It has only ever shot the cheap Remington 55gr factory stuff. It was nicknamed "sweet thang" by someone. Best rifle I have ever had. Pretty no. Fancy nope. It just gets the job done.
 
L
tractorman said:
Back in the day I bought an old Mauser action with a 22-250 barrel on it. It has killed more critters than I care to talk about. That gun made about 3-4 others buy 250s after they seen the shots I made. It is topped with a $20 3-9 scope purchased at Walmart. It has only ever shot the cheap Remington 55gr factory stuff. It was nicknamed "sweet thang" by someone. Best rifle I have ever had. Pretty no. Fancy nope. It just gets the job done.
Click to expand...

Love it
 
I've used up 5 .22-250 barrels on one action over the last 50 years. The claims that they are shot out in 1000 rounds are total hog wash. I've never had one that didn't provide acceptable varmint hunting accuracy for at least 2500 rounds. That's assuming that you don't roast them in a dog town of course. Of those 5 barrels none of them have been taken out of service because of accuracy issues. I have removed those barrels because they have gotten so fire cracked and rough that they start damaging jackets to the point of loosing lead from a split in the jacket on the way to the target, or because they start copper fouling so badly that I simply don't want to spend the time required to remove the copper from the barrel. The last one I took off had just over 3000 rounds through it and was still capable of 1/2 inch groups but copper fouled to the point that it would take $5 worth of patches, solvent and abrasives to get it clean, not to mention 2 or 3 hours of time. I'll post up a bore scope photo that I took as a point of interest.
 
Photo on 5-24-23 at 6.04 PM.jpg

This is a bore scope image of one of my .22 Creedmoor barrels. You can see the end of the neck of the chamber at the bottom of the image, the freebore section and the leade of one land. You can see some very mild fire cracking throughout the image, but you will notice that the edges of the land are still very crisp and uniform. This barrel is only slightly less accurate than it was when fresh and will still produce some groups in the 1 to 1.5 inch range at 400 meters (430 yards). I've heard it said many times that this cartridge is no more than an 800 round proposition before they are done. Anyone want to take a guess as to the number of rounds on this barrel?
 
I hate to be that guy, but I have killed metric shat tons of coyotes since the 80s with 22 250s. 300 yard shots are not that tough with them. I really don’t understand how some guys think it’s to much power or recoil…for me it’s the minimum for coyote hunting. I don’t shoot anything less really. If I want a bit heavier setup I just pick up a .243 with 75 grainers.I really prefer just old school 52 gr hollowpoints for the 22 250 at around 3650 for coyotes. In Kalifornia I went to shooting 35 grain lead free bullets at somewhere over 4 grand and it was basically hold on fur and pull trigger. These are on factory Remington 24” 1/14s mostly.
I quit worrying about barrels long ago. They’re expendable. You’ll be over it before you shoot it out for real. Shoot the hell out of it and have fun then replace.
Mark
 
Last edited:
TXCOONDOG said:
I've never owned a 22-250 and decided that I want one. I know it's a barrel burner, but barrels are cheaper than the ammo cost to burn one up!

I plan to use it on predators and varmints and want it as flat shooting to 300 yards as I can get.

Recommend twist rate and barrel length?
Since I reload, any recommendation on bullets, powders and/or primers?
Click to expand...

The 250 has been my cartridge selection for Coyotes, I can't count on 2 hands the custom builds I've put together over the past 15 years. My scenario may not work for you, but I cut all my barrels to 18" I'm running a few 7.7 twists and more than a few 8 twists. I have had zero issues with solid performance from the 50 Vmax, to the 75 Amax. The past year we've been working with Hornady on the new 62 ELD-VT's which I am now very partial towards and will probably be my go to projectile. I use only Varget in all of my 250's, with Lapua, Norma, Nosler and Hornady brass designated on different builds. The FGMM 210's have been my go primer for the past decade as well.
 
skinney said:
The 250 has been my cartridge selection for Coyotes, I can't count on 2 hands the custom builds I've put together over the past 15 years. My scenario may not work for you, but I cut all my barrels to 18" I'm running a few 7.7 twists and more than a few 8 twists. I have had zero issues with solid performance from the 50 Vmax, to the 75 Amax. The past year we've been working with Hornady on the new 62 ELD-VT's which I am now very partial towards and will probably be my go to projectile. I use only Varget in all of my 250's, with Lapua, Norma, Nosler and Hornady brass designated on different builds. The FGMM 210's have been my go primer for the past decade as well.
Click to expand...
What can a person reasonably expect velocity wise with the 62s, 18 inch 8twist barrel, and varget? Understanding barrels vary a bit but just a ball park.
 


Write your reply...
Back
Top