Talk to me about the .22-250 ?

[Waitone]

I'm scouting the purchase of a rifle. I note with interest that members of my gun club like to use the .22-250 at 300 yards to plink golf balls.

How is it used?

Any idea of its historical development?

Is it a hunting round or mostly plinking?

Reason I'm asking is traditionally I'm a larger bore advocate.

Thanks for your informed speculation.

 

[litman252]

well, it's good for praire dogs and coyotes, shoots flat and is available in lots of makes.???? I know, you knew that already.
2 of my uncles have rugers shooting under 1 inch easily.
Tony

 

[P95Carry]

Guy at one club has one - Ruger 77 IIRC .. and it is incredibly accurate .. probably great for varmints.

I already have a .243 so - not attracted to this but I am sure it is one enjoyable cal.

 

[dakotasin]

22-250 is a great cartridge. based on the 250-3000 savage.

the 22-250 gets great velocity, is very accurate, very easy to load for, and is a good compromise between barrel life and velocity. the rifle is also a joy to shoot.

i am the last person to reccomend a 22 on deer, but many people have used it w/ great succes on deer. it is a great prairie dog cartridge, though, and will also work well on antelope in appropriate hands (using appropriate bullets).

mine is a rem 700 bdl, and has many hits on distant critters under its belt.

i believe the 22-250 was initially designed as a hunting round, but fell into heavy favor among varminters... i guess i class mine as a plinker because i wouldn't do any big game hunting w/ it, though it has hunted much (coyotes, rabbits, skunks, prairie dogs, etc).

 

[Vern Humphrey]

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I'm scouting the purchase of a rifle. I note with interest that members of my gun club like to use the .22-250 at 300 yards to plink golf balls.

How is it used?
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The .22-250 is a dedicated varmit round, most often used in the Western United States to hunt prarie dogs, coyotes, and similar game.

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Any idea of its historical development?

It was developed before WWII, the hey-day of varmit shooting, sparked by the original development of the first true varmit cartridge, the .22 Hornet in the '20s (adopted by Winchester in the '30s.) Not long afterwards, there was a "wildcat" (not factory adopted) cartridge called the "Wotkins Original Swift" which became famous for breaking the 4,000 fps barrier.

The Swift (later also adopted as a factory cartridge) was loved and hated -- loved for it's long reach, hated for the way it burned out barrels and over-drove bullets (some bullets would come apart in the ait.)

The .250-3000 Savage was necked down to .22 caliber by other wildcatters, and soon became quite popular -- almost as powerful as the Swift, but kinder on barrels and bullets. It is probably the second most popular varmit cartridge in the world today, behind only the .223 Remington.

Not long after the .22 Hornet -- the

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Is it a hunting round or mostly plinking?
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Definitely a serious varmit hunter's round.

 

[Cortland]

Paraphrased from Cartridges of the World: "The .22-250 was adopted in 1965 in the Remington 700. It's not a factory design; it had been around for many years prior as a wildcat. Apparently it's based on the 250-3000 Savage necked down to 22: hence the 22 and the 250. The wildcat .22-250 may have been created as early as 1915, with the current design having been finalized in 1937. It is the most popular long range 22, effective out to 400 yards or more. It has a reputation for outstanding accuracy, and has been used with some success in benchrest shooting."

As with most high powered 22s, it's not really suitable for deer or other medium game. It's not a benchrest caliber either, so I guess that makes it a varmint cartridge. Velocities range from 3500-4000 fps depending on bullet weight, so barrel life (I'm told) does become an issue with max loads.

I've got a Remington 700 VLS in .22-250 which I recently put a Nikon 6.5-20x44 Monarch scope on. Haven't shot it yet, though

 

[Mr Jody Hudson]

Nice 700 yard gun IF you can do it!

My neighbor consistently has been making ground hog kills at 700-750 yards; the distance from his silo to the edge of the woods where the whistle-pigs infest his farm.

He practices on soda cans at that distance and I've NEVER seen him miss one in 30 years! Beware the man with one gun! He uses the gun ONLY for varmints on his farm.

I was with him one day, about 20 years ago, when he called a head shot on a ground hog that I could not even see, with my binoculars! He uses a peep sight and we got into the truck and drove over to see the headless ground hog, freshly shot.

Not only does he have super-human eyes but he has the ability to shoot that gun like no one I've ever seen. Back in the late '60s he competed in ultra-long-range competitions around the country and was always upset for weeks if he didn't win by several points!

The good guns, with this round are notoriously accurate.

 

[Smoke]

.22-250 is quite possibly my favorite round.....or is it because my favorite gun is chambered in .22-250? (hmmmm.....chicken....egg?)


Very high velocity, flat shootinig round. Very light recoil. Very accurate. Very consistant.

Great varmint round, I use it on deer also, but we have very small deer here. I have also used it on small feral hogs with great success.

It is a great round to handload. It is a tad expensive for a plinking gun if you buy commercial ammo (.223 might be better)

True story:

I installed a new scope on my .22-250 (Kimber 84M) and was sighting it in.

I had it down and was shooting 5 shot strings to fine tune. a grasshopper landed on my target. I put the crosshairs on him and vaporized him. Minute of Grasshoppers at 125yrds. What more could you ask a gun to do?

Smoke

 

[cratz2]

I've owned a couple of them... I think the best 100 yard group I've ever fired (or close to it) was from a Savage in .22-250.

The more I learned about different cartridges, the more I believe that for most of my intended purposes, a .243 with light bullets will do just about everything a .22-250 will do. Both go way, way out there and have cumulatively more recoil than the 223... that is to say, fire off 5 rounds and there doesn't seem to be much difference between the .22-250 and the .223 but if you shoot off a couple hundred rounds in the afternoon, it becomes pretty apparant that there is a bit more recoil going on.

 

[Art Eatman]

A bit more of the history: Various wildcatters meddled with the .250-3000 necked down to .22. In the middle 1930s a gunsmith/varminter in Nebraska, Jerry (Gerry?) Gebby, copyrighted the name "Varminter" for his .22-250. He made and sold barrels for it. The Varminter pretty much became the standard .22-250, in those years.

In 1950, my uncle (also a gunsmith) had a Gebby-barreled Varminter, which he built on a Mauser 98 action. He used a Weaver K-10. He regularly got five-shot 1/2 MOA groups.

I believe Remington did some minor tweaking with case dimensions when they came out with their version of the .22-250, but I don't think it's enough to matter if you have .250-3000 brass and want to neck down for your own reloads...

Art

 

[QuarterBoreGunner]

Wellllllllllllll...I'm a little late to the party- not much I can add that hasn't been said.

Count me in the 'love it' camp. I have three; Tikka M595, Weatherby SVM and an older Winchester 70. The Winnie wears iron sights so it's a little outclassed by the Tikka and Weatherby which have Leupold long range 20+ glass on them.

Fast? Oh my yes. But be prepared to scope your bores for throat erosion every 500 rounds or so.

Accurate? Indeedy it is. Very flat out to 400yds, but the wind plays heck after awhile; that little 52grn pill doesn't buck the wind well.

I'd suggest a longer barrel (24" - 26") to get the most out of the potential velocity. Get good glass. I've had the best luck with Black Hills 52grn moly and the Hornady 50grn V-max.

 

[Brian Williams]

I had a Win Coyote in 22-250 and while it was a great round and great gun it did not fit in Lancaster county G-hog shootin'. It was quite loud and I got some complaints, so I sold it and I have been bitten by a S&W bug, but I am looking for a nice single shot 22 hornet or a 218 bee. But I am settling on my Marlin 1894c with some light loaded 357's.

22-250 is a great cartridge and very accurate. If I was going P-dog hunting I would get me a 22-250.

 

[Houndawg]

I don't own one and have never shot one, but an old shooter I used to work with told me a .22-250 could be loaded to .220 Swift velocities.

 

[Jim K]

The .22-250 was never intended to be anything but a "varmint" cartridge for ground hogs, prairie dogs and other similar small game.

It was originally designed by Grosvenor Wotkyns, and sometimes was called the Wotkyns Original Swift (WOS). Gebby, Donaldson and others developed it and more or less standardized it, though it remained a wildcat until Remington chambered is Model 700 for the cartridge. Although Remington's factory cartridge is not exactly the same as the most common wildcat version, most wildcat loads will chamber in the Remington rifle.

The main advantage over the Swift was the latter's reputation for excessive erosion and for disappearing bullets (they actually blew apart from the centrifugal force). The Swift, though, got its speed by using 45 grain bullets, while the standard bullet in the .22-250 is 55 grain, making it slower but easier on the rifle.

Go to

http://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/22250.html

for a lot more info.

Jim