Salvaging my old Model 700 22/250

Don't give up. I still have a 700 in .25-06 from 1977 that I had rebarreled, only difference is I put a Krieger barrel on it. First outing I thought I was taken for a ride, 1.5" groups. Second outing with a different bullet and groups are almost down to 1/4".

The only question I have is what is the OAL of the cartridges. I'm asking this for a good reason. Two years ago a friend and I both bought new 700's in .22-250. Oh it was a lesson in reloading. The best I could do with both rifles was 2" groups, pretty sad for a heavy barrel with Timney trigger and B&C stock. Factory ammo would shoot about 1" groups.

Wasn't till someone on here or my other favorite site told me to use the OAL in the loading manual. I tried that in desperation, groups shrank to 1/2". Both guns prefer the Sierra 52 gr match bullet, anything else will not shoot as well. So, these two guns like one bullet and book OAL. Tried H380 but it is too temp sensitive for me. I now use Varget.

I almost think the chamber is cut different on the newer guns. That may be why you can't get it to shoot well. The two guns I fooled with did not like the bullet being seated out nearer the lands. Nosler 50 gr BT's also group 2" out of both guns even when using the book OAL. I'm not impressed with reloading for the .22-250.

I also disagree that you've cheaped out. But if fooling with the OAL doesn't work I'd lose the barrel and get another but I would not sell the rifle.
 
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Originally Posted By: pyscodogI'm no gunsmith but shooting out the headspace sounds a little strange to me. Throat yes, head space????????? A guy at the range told me shooting hot loads would change my head space! What-ever!!!

I think the guy at the range needed his head space checked
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Originally Posted By: pyscodogNot disagreeing with you catshooter, but some people take new rifles and just use the action as a doner and sell the parts, thus new unfired take-off barrels. LOL
Ya me too. I got a take-off from a top gunsmith ($45) back on the east coast for my Rem 700, 7mm mag. Had the throat bore out 70 thousands to accept the Barnes X bullets (so they aren't seated so deep) and it now shoots really nice, some times one hole at 100, especially with the "moly" bullets.

 
Originally Posted By: pyscodogNot disagreeing with you catshooter, but some people take new rifles and just use the action as a doner and sell the parts, thus new unfired take-off barrels. I know of a few that have done that, not mentioning any names!! LOL

Yeah... it "can" happen, but if someone is looking for a donor action, most of the time they get a used rifle - it is way more cheaper than buying a new gun, stripping it, and parting it out.


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Well catshooter, I'm gonna disagree with you again(Cause its fun). A buddy bought a NIB Remington SPS 243 at Academy for like $379.00 a few years back and had a smokeless muzzle stuffer built out of it. Never fired a simgle round through it. Crazier stuff has happened! LOL
 
Originally Posted By: RONINFLAGput krieger barel on it. plenty of 700 shooters have learned that trick. i have one that is on its third barrel.

Trick? What makes a Krieger barrel better than any of the others?
 
Well I did learn quite a bit from this post but the best advice I got was in a private message suggesting I shim my free floated forearm and put a slight bit of pressure on the barrel. My groups went from 3 inches to 1 inch. My conclusion is that this could be the problem. When I had the take off barrel put on my rifle the gunsmith doing the work told me he had to do some stock work to free float the new barrel as it was not exactly the same as my original barrel from 1973.
Anyway here is a new group not perfect yet but certainly min of coyote ready for this fall.
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There ya go!! I had a Ruger 77/22 that shot pretty good. Figured floating the barrel would help. WRONG! Some like a little barrel pressure, but ya never know till ya try.
 
I have seen this work many times on 22-250,s with sporter weight barrels, but the barrel channel must be free floated, and the pressure applied with rubber. When it works, it works.
 
JCL,
I have floated the barrels of probably 25 Rem 700's and 3 of them have been the 22-250 with the sporter barrel. They (22-250) have all come out shooting 1/2" or less @ 100 yards with the barrel completely free-floated.
So if you can't get that 700 to shoot 1/2" or less, then try going back to completely free-floating it and work from there. I suspect that the stock around the action may need to be looked at.

I know that on a couple of Rugers & one Winchester, with the pencil barrels, I had to put a pressure point at the forearm tip (usually between 5-7 lbs) and then they shot pretty good.
 
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