.22-250?

IndianaBoy said:

It would. The new 224 Valkyrie would be a turnkey solution with similar capabilities.

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My Valkyrie lacks about fifteen grains of powder to the Two Fifty.
I liken it to merely a short Two Twenty Three, able to use the eighty grain bullets I like.



There's nothing like a bullet half that wieght at seven hundred feet per second faster on a hundred yard viscous target.


I have read, from a very smart man, "Horses for courses...".
Horses? I hate the wretched things. But there is a reason for so many "obsolete" cartridges. I wouldn't call them a one trick pony. I would say," a proper tool for the job that needs being done.".
Target bullets just don't vaporize like a varmint "Grenade".
(That's not really true either, but I hope you catch my drift...)

Am building a R700 22-250 rig for 2020 varmint blasting. The goal is 3100-3200 fps with cast bullets. My Savage runs nicely @2800.... but is a pencil barrel. New 250 is fluted fat stainless.

Lead bullets at these speeds,are explosive on varmints. The 22-250 has a .473 case head diameter...... so much easier than dinking with 223's on typical bolt guns.

I'll never be without a cpl. Where the 223 runs out of steam,the 250 is just getting interesting.

IMO, you can use a .204 to do pretty much what a .22-250 does with less blast, noise, and barrel wear. I love my .204 for prairie dogs when I get bored with my .223

I have a "thing" for the early "fast movers" as I call them. 22HP, 250 savage, 220 swift, 22-250......but stupid me tends to go with the goofy stuff....was 22HP ever in anything other than a 99....don't think so. I even have 22-250 ammo and no rifle.....I keep looking at them, have the money but nothing lines up perfect.

But really there is a big why bother factor with these.....Now I am an old and odd duck nut, and hate....as in HATE anything new...a little like old Steve in that movie Hunter. But if you want utility and something to zap PD's or ground hogs....really the 223 will reach right out there and put a whoopin on them.....to the point that dogs just vanish in red mist. But to me that is just not fun....I like the old guns and the old cartridges....sure it will take you longer to dig into them as not every swinging..........has one.....but to me they show us where we came from.....and really we have not moved the bar forward at all.

I do a lot of woodchuck/ground hog hunting in the spring and summer and my hunting buddy carries a Remington 700 stainless fluted barrel 22-250 wearing a 6-18 Burris scope and he hand loads 50gr V max for it. I have watched him hit woodchucks out to 400yards from a shooting tower. I shoot a 223rem because there isn't an obnoxious muzzle blast like the 22-250. As far as barrels being shot out-when he wanted to reload for it we got a Hornady modified case and used my Hornady OAL tool and the bullet would fall out of the case before touching the lands. I tried about 10 times and finally gave up and said load to book OAL. The rifle will still touch holes at 100yards but being so far from the lands concerns me. He said one day he will either get the barrel turned down or re-barreled. I have tried to shoot woodchucks with it and the muzzle blast is just too much for me. Its an awesome woodchuck and coyote rifle but not something I would target shoot with or much else.

I kill big hogs with mine all the time.

A 22-250 was my first "high powered" bolt action rifle. I wanted the fastest. I loaded 36gr Varmint Grenades to 4,400 FPS chrono'd. It vaporized small vermin with ease but was obnoxiously loud. If I lived somewhere with ample critters at long distances, I would probably still have it, but around here the juice just wasn't worth the squeeze when 90% of my shots were within 100 yards so it got traded to a more practical x39 carbine.

I had a 26” 22-250. It was a hotrod .22 for sure but if you’ve ever owned hotrods, you understand their limited use.

I might get another some day so I won’t bad mouth the round but like a lot of other stuff I have, it really doesn’t fill any need.

We have been running .223s and several .243s for quite a while, dad has an older 14twist .22-250 that bugs me due to the slow twist, and honestly with the .243 population in the house we don't NEED one either but we WILL be building momma horsey a fast twist heavy barreled rig in .22-250 for longer distance play. She has no qualms running her current .243 prone from a pod, but after a very short period is still ready to be done, so, if we push an 88 eld at 3100 fps with roughly 37 gr of powder, she'll be able to stretch out to fun distances and do so happily and comfortably. A Valk could fill this role too, but I'd rather run that in a semi, and she really wants to stay with a bolt, it may wind up getting rebarrelled to .243 again down the road, but it's filling the niche for now. The middle one wants to run long distance varmints and maybe larger game way down the road, so he's the perfect candidate for the Uber hot .22 but honestly we'd all survive just fine with our .243s.

With that 1:14 twist, I'd load 40-grain bullets to somewhere around 3,500 ft/sec. That should reduce burning of the leade and give good barrel life.

When I wanted to add a "high-stepping" .22 cal. rifle to my varmint hunting battery, I admit that nostalgia played a role. I've never had cause to second-guess my choice, a Ruger Number One Varmint rifle chambered in .220 Swift, because it is the most accurate centerfire rifle I've ever owned. I will concede though that, even with a 26" long barrel, it is a loud sucker-the short, single-shot action makes a longer barrel seem shorter in terms of decibels reaching your ears. Muffs are donned when hunting 'chucks.

The reason I bought a .22-250 a couple years back was I love to coyote hunt all year when I am not doing any big game hunting and in my home state you are not allowed to carry a 6mm or larger rifle during big game season if you do not have a big game tag. That left me with the options of .204, .223 or .22-250 as I did not reload at the time. I felt that the .22-250 had just enough more to it that it made sense, and I have not regretted that decision once. I love my .22-250, I am more accurate with it than any of my other guns. There’s just something about it that brings a smile to your face every time you squeeze the trigger.

If I were building a bolt action prairie dog rifle which wasn’t a 223rem, it would be a 22-250, with a 220 swift or 22-243 behind that (maybe a 22 creed now that brass is available).

It is true, we’ve moved out of the era of “fast and light” and into a more educated era of aerodynamic efficiency, so the 22-250 doesn’t fit current trends as well as it did in the past. 20yrs ago when online forums like this were just getting rolling, “ballistic coefficient” was such a foriegn term, we certainly couldn’t make an assumptive abbreviation of “BC” and had to explain what ballistic coefficient meant any time it came up... today, it’s much more widely understood. So the slow twist 22-250 with lightning fast 50grn pills doesn’t make as much sense today as it did before we “knew better.” But 50grn pills out of a slow twist 22-250 will still splatter any prairie dog to 600+ yards you might find in your scope. My first 22-250 was a Rem 700 Sendero, my current a Savage 12 Varminter (not lopro). I’ve had a fast twist 22-250, and it does improve the long range performance with heavier pills.

If we define the current “world”:
• Rifle buyer’s are no longer primarily hunters, so on-game performance isn’t the yardstick by which cartridges are measured.

• Long Range target shooting (at least capability) is all the rage, and aerodynamic efficiency is the best means to get there.

• Ammunition cost importance has become a major deciding factor, even for those guys who claim they want long range capabilities, and some cartridges cost more and eat more powder than others.

• Long range shooters used to be unafraid of building or rebuilding with custom barrels. Despite greater popularity today, the new kids on the block tend to be very averse to gunsmithing costs and custom barrels - or replacing barrels as they burn out. Guys want factory rifles they never have to spend money on again after initial purchase.

• “New Hotness” is the new hotness, and old school isn’t cool any more. Sometimes new hotness is legitimately better, sometimes it’s just new. 6.5 creed is legitimately better than 260, 6 creed better than 243win, but 224 Valk isn’t better than 22-250.

So a 0-600yrds prairie dog and coyote rifle doesn’t appeal to the average gun buyer today, especially one which shoots low BC, lightweight bullets, no matter how fast and flat it shoots. A custom fast twist barreled rifle which eats more powder than a 223rem or 224 valkyrie to only do marginally better at 800yrds+ on their paper targets and has lesser barrel life doesn’t appeal to the guy wishing to shoot 1,000yrds “someday” but who only has access to a 100yrd range he visits 4 times a year...

I wouldn’t buy anything else other than a 22-250 for a prairie dog rifle, and I prefer 22-250 as a coyote rifle in a bolt gun (but I always hunt an AR). I would buy a 223rem for target shooting only inside 700, and a 6.5 creed for a long barrel life cartridge outside of 700. But I don’t think I will ever NOT have a 22-250 in my safe, and doubt I will ever live a year where I don’t take one to the range.

Varminterror said:

If I were building a bolt action prairie dog rifle which wasn’t a 223rem, it would be a 22-250, with a 220 swift or 22-243 behind that (maybe a 22 creed now that brass is available).

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Speaking of building a .22-250 rifle for prairie dogs, here is a purpose built .22-250 I made by Jarrett Rifles for prairie dog expeditions. Left hand bolt on the Stolle benchrest action make it more efficient in a hot patch, and the 12-42X scope is about right for the purpose. But while I consider the .22-250 a good choice for prairie dogs and similar targets, it's not my favorite for the job, but does rank in my top-five choices. ..

bme27 said:

That left me with the options of .204, .223 or .22-250 as I did not reload at the time.

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A Swift is swifter and you don't have to reload to shoot them.

I know where I can pick up a nice looking older Savage 112V J series .220 Swift single shot for $200 (and a matching .25-06 for same price ) , has massive stippled walnut stock and godd trigger from 1980. Barrels look good too. I don't want any more new calibers

I bought that exact rifle in 22-250 just last year. I love the stock, but I needed a raised comb and I wasn’t going to cut up that beautiful walnut, so I put the action into a Boyds ProVarmint. I also screwed on a 26” McGowan 1:8” barrel. It’s literally my favorite rifle.

For $200, it’s a steal just for the action.

Your a tempter bro. I actually did some research on the 112v series j , apparently the 25-06 , and all the other calibers it was offered in are a Short action but with an enlarged ejection port that will handle 30-06 length cartridges. Apparently the .220 swifts have a .470" bolt face ( whereas the .22-250 and .243 ect have .473) . So if I could probably get a 6.5 Creedmore barrel from McGowen and slap on a big scope. . I have a 6.5 CreedAr-10 and dies.ave Swift's apparently are worth more. I think I am out $200+ fees + $200 +,+,+.

Legionnaire said:

^^ That, right there, sounds like a good reason to own a .22-250.

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Yeah, because nobody ever poached a deer or other medium game with a cartridge less than 6mm in diameter..