[ENGLANDER]

Hello from Scotland~

The urge to buy yet another rifle is apon me once again !
And i have been looking at the CZ 550 in .22-250 now let me say im not a fan of the .22-250 i have always found them to be noisy buggers ! And would rather have a .222, but rescently a mate of mine has got a reflex sound moderator for his Ruger and im impressed !

Until recently our police were paranoid about sound moderators on full bore rilfes but after one of our shooting associations demonstrated that they are not as quite as "Hollywood" would have you believe, our police will now allow sound moderators if you shoot around farms at night.

My real question is how versitile are .22-250 's when hand loaded ?

Down loads ? Would be intersted to hear ? Barrel life ? Any facts on .22-250 would be welcome as i have never really taken much interest in this calibre.......................

Regards Englander

P.S www.soundmoderators.co.uk may be of interest

 

[leadbutt]

Can't say I have much use for the 22-250 either,like my 220 swift more,as with any thing else if you handload and taylor your loads to your weapon you can extend the life.I do know a couple who down load their's down to lite 223 fps for shooting around farms and such,they use the 45 and 50 grains bullets when doing so.
I must say thats a stroke of luck that in a place that we all think of as having more regulations on firearms than needed,the idea of allowing a sound supressor is okayed by your Police Force,i have been a cop for around 30 years now and I can tell you it would never happen over here,it reaks of too much "COMMON SENSE"

 

[MikeG]

I have a .22-250 and they are quite useful for certain things. With a 26 inch barrel the noise is not so bad.

They are really varmit guns at heart. Very fast, very flat, very explosive with most bullets. If you want to keep fur or meat it's not really the best gun! Would probably just explode a fox with a typical load. Rabbits.... you'd be lucky to find half of the parts. On the other hand, carcass disposal is simplified.

I have shot one deer with mine, with a 53gr. Barnes X bullet. That is probably the toughest expanding .22 bullet you can find. .22-250s are moderately popular in Texas for deer hunting, our deer are small and most are shot from stands which allows very precise shot placement.

Haven't downloaded one yet - never felt the need. I would guess if you moved to some of the heavier bullets, say 55-63 grains, and didn't run them full blast, it might be more managable as a game rifle. All depends on the size of the game, for an animal much over 100 pounds it doesn't seem like a real good idea to me, personally.

You can use some of the powder that you have, H4895 should work at least with some bullet weights.

A .222 or .223 will burn a lot less powder, for what it's worth. Don't know if there is a meaningful difference in brass price between them all for you.

Hope this helps.

 

[DOUBLEJK]

Englander
I read a while back that you had started casting bullets. I am working up some cast loads for my new Ruger 1-V in 22-250. I am thinking they will make good game loads for small stuff, ie. won't blow em up so bad as the jacketed loads. Besides it's a fun project too. If you are interested I would be glad to share load results with you.

 

[ENGLANDER]

Leadbutt~ We have always been allowed sound moderators for .22 rimfire, but for full bore it was nears impossilbe until recently. Our shooting association demonstrated to police etc the true effect of moderators ,you still know someones fired a rilfe but it doesnt blow your ear drums.

Mike~ In Scotland we are allowed to shoot Roe deer with .22 centre fires unlike England were it is illegal ? But my useage would be purley as a vermin gun so pelt damage and meat loss would not be an issue.

DOUBLEJK~ Thanks for the offer but dipite my use of cast in my .444 i would stick to jacket in something like .22-250, they are cheap and easy to get and would serve my purpose..................

Englander

 

[MikeG]

Don't want the meat, and don't need the fur, shoot them with one of the plastic-tipped 40gr. bullets at about 4,000fps and just try to stop smiling!

 

[quaticman]

I agree with Mike. Hit a groundhog with a 40 grainer and it's as if you used a bazooka.

Quaticman

 

[K Wasserburger]

22-250

As someone that has shot 1000's of rounds of 22-250 and 223 both are great cartridges. The 22-250 would in my opinion be more powerful then what you need there in scottlaand.

I have killed P- dogs at excess of 600 yards with the 55 gr bullet (most accaurate bullet I have found for the 22-250, 52 gr and 69 gr work very well in the 223 also.

I expect you handload perhaps another neat cartridge you may look into for varmits at med range 250 yards or less is the 17 remington. I have both and my father uses both for varmit and preditor control on our Wyoming Ranch and he loves the 17 for its flat shooting and very low recoil and its CHEAP to reload and shoot. He called me last Sunday Am on his Cell phone since we both were working and told me of just killing a rather large Coyote at about 120 yards with my 17 rem. Father and Son both work in the Wyoming oil fields plus my Dad still ranches. The 22-250 is a great long range varmit cartridge its not legal here to use on big game so we happly kill alot of coyotes and other varmits with them.

As someone that has shot the 22-250 and the 17 both for nearly 20 years you may want the 17 its fun too shot period.

Kenny Wasserburger
Wyoming Territory Sharps Shooter

 

[Scott Fox]

22-250

I have 2 22-250's and both are consistently the most accurate rifles that I shoot.

Both like 33gr of H4895 with the 63 gr Sierra SMP. They also shoot well with 34.5 gr of H4895 and 55 gr Hornady bulk Soft Points.
The other load that has worked well for me is 39.0-41.0 gr of H380 with 52 gr Sierra BTHP Match Kings. Just start out with 39.0 gr and work up .2 gr at a time till you find the sweet spot 40.0 gr with A WW LR primer at 2.360 COL shoots .4's or less for 3 shots @200 yds out of my heavy barrel savage.

The 63 gr Sierra SMP has worked quite well for me on deer, between Myself, my daughter and 2 friends it has accounted for over 20 deer and only 2 needed a second shot.

For reduced loads I use Sierra 45 gr SP's designed for the Hornet, I load 13-14 gr of Blue Dot under them for about 2500 fps. Shoots into 1" or less for 5 shots at 100 yds. 9.0 gr IMR 700X with and 55 gr Soft Point also works well

It has been my experience that the 22-250 is not real picky about powders or primers. I have had good luck with the following powders, (shown in order of preference)
H4895, H380, AA2520, RL15, H414/WW760 (-same powder-)Benchmark, TAC, Varget, IMR4064, IMR 4320, H4831SC. Generally I use CCI BR2's for stick powders and WW LR primers for ball powders.

and for reduced loads Blue Dot, IMR 700X with any primer