Fast twist 22-250

[Will Learn]

I'm thinking about putting together a 22-250 with a 1/7 twist, maybe even 1/6.5(if they make it). The idea would be to use it for shooting heavier bullets(70-90gr) out to longer ranges. Have any of you done this? If so, how far could you reach out and do you have any suggestions?

 

[taliv]

i wanted to do it with a 220 swift but never got around to it. i talked to sierra about it and they said someone had done it before with one of their 90g bullets. they got an insane velocity out of it. i was impressed.

 

[Jim Watson]

I know a guy with a fast twist .220 Swift, I have a fast twist (6.5) .223.
Heavy .22s will shoot to quite long ranges. My 90 grain .223s have the trajectory and windage of a 175 grain .308 although a little finicky to work with.

A 7 twist would be ample for any .22 bullet I know of in a .22-250 and you might could use a 7.5 or even an 8. I'd contact Berger or JLK and ask their recommendations.

I don't know what a 90 gr Sierra would do in a .22-250, I do know that I could not drive one hard enough to stay supersonic at 1000 yards with a long barrelled .223. They would deform or come apart.

 

[Strongbad]

The .223 case is too small. You need something bigger, but with a big case you can shoot heavy 22 cals at 1000 yards. In fact, I was just re-reading an article in the January issue of American Rifleman titled "Half-mile .22's". It talks about this very thing. In the article the author used a 6mm Remington, blown out, necked down to 22 with a 40 degree shoulder.

 

[Gordon]

I shoot a .22-250 AI with a 1 in 7" twist I had done 11 years ago. I shoot Sierra 77 match kings at 3400fps from it's 28" #5 countour Lilja barrel (.750" muzzle) on a Rem 600 action. It does under 1 inch at 200 yards with the Leupold 12x scope on bags. It weighs 10 1/2 pounds. It is my prarie dog windy day rifle these days.

 

[ziggy222]

to shoot a 70-80 gr bullet at 22-250 velocities you could just get a 243winchester.

 

[KI.W.]

For me 3400fps is to slow for 22-250.
I use lighter bullets with 12" twist meaning over 4000 fps.

 

[Art Eatman]

If any sort of hunting is part of the deal, it seems to me that you'd be defeating the purpose of a .22-250. For one thing, almost any common barrel length of .243 will drive a 70- or 85-grain bullet faster than what you can get with those weights from a .22.

For target shooting, the other comments, here, mostly seem righteous...

, Art

 

[KI.W.]

My Voere Mauser rebarreled heavy barrel with tight chamber makes 7/16" groups to 100 yards. The bullet with this very accurate warminter cartridge is Speer Spitzer 45gr. The speed is 4020 fps

 

[JFettig]

to shoot a 70-80 gr bullet at 22-250 velocities you could just get a 243winchester.

Two words: Ballistic Coefficient.

 

[Beagle-zebub]

How do these big .224 bullets compare in BC and whatnot against 130+gr. .243 bullets?

 

[ziggy222]

i guess what meant to say is that if you use a heavy enough bullet in a 22-250 you take away its best advantage-velocity.without its hyper velocity you may as well be shooting a 223.if you want a 70 grain bullet to go at 22-250 velocities you will have to go with a bigger cartridge such as 243 winchester.even with a bigger cartridge you will not get full hyper velocity though with a 70-80 grain bullet.i have a 22-250 and it shoots like a laser at 300 yds but its no super long range sniper round.on a windy day i've had 52 gr bullets drift 2 inches off course.using a heavier bullet slows it down and the wind will blow it off course just as much cause of its deduced speed.if you have a sierra reloading manuel.look in the back and it tells you how much bullets get blow off course on the way to the target with different bullet weights at different velocities.it shows how a faster one gets less wind drift and a heavier one gets less wind drift,but in a 22-250 you can't do both

 

[gvnwst]

They would deform or come apart.

try 90gr berger VLD bullets, they are tougher.

How do these big .224 bullets compare in BC and whatnot against 130+gr. .243 bullets?

i hope you ment 100+gr ones, the heaviest .243 bullet is 115gr. the berger 90gr VLD (.224") has a bc of .517. the 115gr DTAC .243" bullet has a bc of .595.

 

[JFettig]

gvnwst, how fast can you push a ~.5 BC .243 bullet? Will it be supersonic at 1000yds? I ran the berger 80gr at 3400fps in sierra program and it was still at 1300+fps.

Jon

 

[gnut]

.5bc speeds

Jfettig,
243 win 105 berger at 3000fps
6mmAI 105 berger at 3200fps
6-284 105 berger at 3360fps
6-06AI 105 berger at 3462fps

that bullet as listed on berger's website is .556bc
Gnut

 

[gvnwst]

rule of thumb, if i can remember right, .5+bc bullet must be going at least 2,600fps to reach 1,000yd supersonic.

so, pushing a .556 bullet at 3000 (.243 win) would get you there with room to spare. I can't acess my ballistics calculator right now, so i can't give you the exact veocity it would be going at this range.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Well, Savage offers it's "Long Range Precision Varminter, Single Shot" in .22-250 with a 1 in 9 twist, which should handle up to 68-70 grainers, maybe even heavier (or up to around 55-60 in the all-coppers). Beyond that, you're looking at paying for custom. It'd be an interesting project though. Your barrel life would probably take a beating with 1 in 7 or faster with hot loads.

As a practical matter, it would make a lot more sense to go with a 6mm round for long range - 6mm BR, 6XCR, .243 Win, 6mm Rem, etc.

 

[MinnMooney]

If all you wanted to shoot is 70-90gr bullets, 1:10 will stabilize the 70-75grainers and 1:8 to 1:7 is great for the 80s but to stabilize a 90 grain Sierra MatchKing in a .22-250 you'll need the 1:6.5 twist.

Note : You can still shoot the lighter 55-69 grain bullets in the extremely fast twist barrels but sometimes accuracy gets worse. You could try to shoot varmint bullets (40-55gr) thru a rapid-twister like a 1:7 but you may not like the results.