Think I found load for my 22-250!

wilee.wade

wilee.wade

New member
I think I finally found a load that my Tikka 22-250 likes. I owe much of it to a lot of you that gave me suggestions. Let me know what you think... This is 35.6 grains of Varget topped with a 50 grain Nosler BT. It measures .42" which is about as good as I can shoot. Excited to put them to use. Thank you again to all of you that helped along the way!

[img:center]http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy276...pg?t=1329513124[/img]
 
Good looking group. That is almost the same load I shoot in my Encore 22-250. I shoot 36.0gr Varget with the 50gr Hornady v-max moly. Have you changed your seating depth much to see if it will bring it in any more
 
WNC - I haven't messed with seating depth yet, that is the next move. These are just at factory OAL. I am also going to try +/- .1 grain and see what that does. Probably not much, but you never know.
 
One other thing you could try that has dropped some of my group sizes is changing primer brand. I usually have best luck with WLR but some loads have been best with other brands. I have also found that my encore shoots best really close to max load. My 50gr load averages 3780fps. and shoots about .375 if i go under 36gr on powder my groups start opening up.
 
WNC - I made up another load .3 grains higher, and it was about 1" groups. 35.6 seems to be my "sweet spot". Like I mentioned before, I am going to try .1 on either side and see if there is a difference. At some point it just becomes the shooter... The original recipe that I was following called for WLR primers, but I don't have any and our local store was out. May try to pick some up this weekend. Thanks for the help.
 
nice group! I just started reloading for a ruger m77 22-250.so far my best groups are 1-1/8 to almost 2" at 100 yards. I'm using rem brass,cci 200 primers,imr 4064,50g speer tnt hp and loaded 5 each from 34-38grn in .5grn incrms.my coal as figured by the maximum that the oal barrel guage would allow however was well above the book max above 2.420.I found that the magazine didn't like that length though.could only single shoot.so i brought it down to 2.400 which works in mag but is still high according to the book.Should I keep going down?is varget a much better powder for that load.I chose the imr because it loaded across a couple different calibers i shoot.also if you have any info for 7mm rem mag that is my next reloading venture for a tikka m series
 
Originally Posted By: sw1indahousenice group! I just started reloading for a ruger m77 22-250.so far my best groups are 1-1/8 to almost 2" at 100 yards. I'm using rem brass,cci 200 primers,imr 4064,50g speer tnt hp and loaded 5 each from 34-38grn in .5grn incrms.my coal as figured by the maximum that the oal barrel guage would allow however was well above the book max above 2.420.I found that the magazine didn't like that length though.could only single shoot.so i brought it down to 2.400 which works in mag but is still high according to the book.Should I keep going down?is varget a much better powder for that load.I chose the imr because it loaded across a couple different calibers i shoot.also if you have any info for 7mm rem mag that is my next reloading venture for a tikka m series

I use 35.8 gr.imr4064,nosler bt and I get ragged hole groups,I tried messing with oal and I get the best with posted oal 2.350 in my rem.700,3697fps
 
im shooting the tikka 22-250 t3 lite.. im shooting 34.2 grains of imr4895 pushing a 55g seirra blitzking. using cci primers.. its a one hole puncher when i do my part.
have you adjusted your trigger yet, the tikka is very easy to adjust.
 
sw1 - I switched to Varget because a couple of my friends recommended it, as did some guys on here. I was using H380 and heard that it was VERY temperature sensitive, which I didn't want to deal with. I don't have any info for the 7mm. I prefer to shoot Barnes bullets when I can, but I couldn't get them to shoot in my 22-250 (twist was too slow for the larger Barnes bullets).

nightwatchman - I have not messed with the trigger at all. I measured it when I first bought it and it measured 2.25 pounds. Guess it could be a little lighter, but it is okay. I have read that it is very easy to adjust.
 
I will try dropping the coal into spec.Setting up the dies seems to be the hardest part of reloading so far.It has a canjar trigger(similar to accutrigger in looks) with about 2-lbs pull without setting it.I have not been setting it at the bench due to a light pull anyway.I bought 1000 bullets off of a friend for 80$ so I'll be shooting those for a while but I'll try varget nex trip to the store.I bought a lb 2 weeks ago but its going fast with 62grns going into 45-70 govt loads:) shoulder:( thanks for the info past and/or future.I'll update with what I am using when my group size comes down a little.
 
Varget works very well in the .22-250, I've been using it for a year now. I can't get the 50 gr bullets to shoot well in my rifle but I want to try seating them out a little further.

A word on Varget. I've had a hard time getting advertised velocity out of the last couple batches. When I settled on 36.5 gr with the 52 gr bullet I found I was only getting 3450 fps from it. I didn't buy a .22-250 to shoot at .223 velocities, I had to go to 38.0 gr before I got to 3670 fps. I noticed the same thing in my .308 Win.
 
sw1indahouse, when I first started loading for a friends .22-250 the best I could do was 2" groups. I actually thought it was him so shot it, same thing. Factory ammo would group in just under 1". I checked everything with no luck till someone on a forum told me to try the specified cartridge length.

I thought that was crazy, but as a last resort I tried it. Groups dropped from 2" to just over 1/2". I don't know why the .22-250 would not like bullets seated out further but some are like that. The .22-250 is the hardest cartridge to load for accuracy and I've been doing this for 35 years.
 
Joed - That makes me feel better that you have found difficulty loading for 22-250 with all of your experience. I tried a lot of different bullets, powders, and finally found this recipe (with some help from the guys on here). My rifle seems to like the bullet seated at factory specs, I may try sneaking it out a little and see if I can tighten it up a little. But, pretty happy with my most recent group.
 
Originally Posted By: wilee.wadeI think I finally found a load that my Tikka 22-250 likes. I owe much of it to a lot of you that gave me suggestions. Let me know what you think... This is 35.6 grains of Varget topped with a 50 grain Nosler BT. It measures .42" which is about as good as I can shoot. Excited to put them to use. Thank you again to all of you that helped along the way!

[img:center]http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy276...pg?t=1329513124[/img]



Even though I don't get the speed out of Varget I do get the accuracy

atarget-good.jpg


This is the best but I was using a used target sorry, the bullet is going around 3800 fps is all. 22/250 TC Venture predator. 1x 14 twist

aonetarget.jpg
 
Originally Posted By: wilee.wadeJoed - That makes me feel better that you have found difficulty loading for 22-250 with all of your experience. I tried a lot of different bullets, powders, and finally found this recipe (with some help from the guys on here). My rifle seems to like the bullet seated at factory specs, I may try sneaking it out a little and see if I can tighten it up a little. But, pretty happy with my most recent group.

It's been the nastiest cartridge I've ever loaded. My rifle likes one bullet, the 52 gr Sierra match. Same for my friend with the same rifle.

I have no idea what's up with the bullet needing to be at factory specs, no other cartridge complained about it.

So far for bullets I've tried Hornady Vmax 55 gr, Nosler 50 gr BT and Sierra 50 gr. All produced 2" groups while the 52 gr Sierra produces 1/2".

Never seen a cartridge so picky on bullets. Powder hasn't mattered, they have all worked.

I did wrong when I bought this rifle, this is the second time I've owned a .22-250, should have gone to the .243.
 
Try 50 gr Nosler BT's with H380 Powder. CCI 200 LR Primers. I have Rem Cases but like Win also. This load shoots very tight. My rifle shoots very well from 38.0 grs to 39.6 grs. My current load is 39.6 grs H380 with a 50 gr NBT. I have a Shilen S/S Match barrel at 26". I have shot the Sierra Blitz Kings and V Max but the NBT Shot a little better. H380 is a very Accurate powder for the 22-250 with many load receipes for it. Both 50 and 55 gr shoots really well. It puts down what you shoot with it. Crows make a big Red Mist,Grounghogs too. Try some H380, I believe you will like it. It has shot well out of every .22-250 I have owned.
 
Originally Posted By: yotekiller47Try 50 gr Nosler BT's with H380 Powder.
H380 was the first powder I ever used in the .22-250. It worked well and gave some nice groups in July. But this is the frozen north. From August thru January the bullet POI would change as temps dropped. In Jan when I noticed the bullet dropped over 2" from July I switched to Varget. Used Varget all year last year and never noticed a POI change.

I've sworn off ball powders, they may be great if you live in Hawaii but they are just to temperature sensitive for my use.

My next powder will be RL 15, that I plan to try pretty shortly.

From my experience with this cartridge powder doesn't seem to effect accuracy as much as the bullet used. This may be because of the slow twist, I don't know. The rifles I'm working with have a 1:14 twist.

Sierra warned me the 55 gr bullets would not shoot great in this twist. They were right, lead tipped 55 gr bullets are fine but plastic tip don't group that well.
 
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Give N140 a try you might just make it to a one ragged hole group.

With CCI 200 primers and Win. brass and sierra 52 GR Matchkings, I can get one raged 5 shot groups from H380, IMR 4064 and N140 in my OLD Ruger 22-250.

I have gone to the N140 even in my .243 win. with Nozler 80 GR BT's best accuracy so far in the .243 of all the powders I have tried. Not one raged hole like my 22-250 but like the size you are getting.

That is one heck of a group you are getting.

DAB
 
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