Bought a chronograph recently, and just tested my .22-250 loads, shooting Barnes 55 grain TSX from 35 grains of AR 2208. I've shot about 120 rounds of this load since the new barrel was fitted. The previous barrel "only" lasted 10,000+ rounds in thirty years. It's a Sako rifle a varmint barrel. Anyway, my book says that 34 grains is the starting load and 36.5 grains is the maximum. I haven't experimented, other than just being happy with how that one load shoots - then going hunting. The load has accounted for quite a number of buffalo and pigs, plus cattle and smaller delicacies. I have about seventy rounds left. This load gives me 3741 fps and the primers are slightly flattened and the bolt just a tad tight - needs a bump sometimes. What do you think? Dangerous? Or okay? Okay to use my existing stash and then back-off? Thanks in advance.

To me it means a pressure sign. just on the edge of max/ I had a Mauser in 243 kept shooting hot loads and set the locking lugs back.
Double check your load take one apart and see if the powder is at the right weight. Check it on a good scale. weigh the bullets. when there hot a couple tenth of a grain can make a difference.
one more thing are you jamin the bullets into the lands

I'd say you're just OVER the maximum for your rifle.
Any time the bolt need encouragement to open, It's too hot.
Zeke

Sticky bolt is a clue to pressure, since you shot 120 plus rounds and no problem, what can anyone say! If it were me Id cut 2 grs. and feel better..10.000 rounds at that velocity is very unusual indeed!

Sorry, Ray. I miscommunicated. We used factory varmint ammunition to wear-out the first barrel. Since the new barrel, I've handloaded those hot loads, and used 120 or so.

I will definitely back down to a safer level next time I load.

My question is whether or not I need to pull my existing loads, or just use them up.

Stiff bolt lift indicates that you are in the order of 1.5 gns over maximum. .22/250 stretches cases badly so you'll be full length sizing and trimming very regularly if you continue with that load.

I'd pull the bullets and return the powder to the can, or at least back-off 1gr and see what that is like.

If you do decide to use the remainder don't let the cartridges sit in the summer sun. It'll be winter down there shortly. use them up in July and Aug. after you pull them out of a cooler. Don't rapid fire.I kid you not. roger

Save yourself some chatter, if you have shot 120 rounds your probably OK, but try this, reload some of the ones you have shot and see it the primers are still snug, see how much they streatched in length before you shoot them as max loads streatch cases anyway, so do mid loads for that matter.

Sticky bolts are tricky as any bolt may or may not be be stiff upon firing, its a matter of what one calls sticky also, resistence isn't necessairl sticky, Do you have ejector marks on the case head, have you measured the cases for expansion? Do a little investigation..If you have a sticky bolt, extractor marks, expanded cases beyond .0005 your beyond max, and need to cut back a grain or two, if you have lose primers you need to back off..but if you have shot 120 rounds without incident, then Im saying your borderline safe to finish them off as surely you would have blown a primer, at least a smeared sho nuff flat primer, gotten a blackline leak around a primer, blown a case in half, got a gas spew making curly q's of smoke in your forehead, or whatever with all those warm to hot rounds, and that should have happened if your over the top too much..The velocity is way up there but shouldn't be at a grain below book max. Probably a chronograph hiccup..Due to frivoulas lawsuits most reloading books are 2 or 3 grs. below max as a matter of fact and for various other reasons..

I have given you the facts to answer your question, BUT its never wrong and good advise to pull bullets and cut back a couple of grains, when your concerned if for no other reason. If you think your confused, think about how confused I am in this post separating fact from fiction to give you a factual answer..

Have you shot any animals with the 55gr tsx yet?

I am going to load some 50gr TTSX in my Cooper .223rem for my nephew to shoot a hog with.

Thank you, Ray! Loved that answer!

Yes, plenty of animals have died from these quick-moving TSXs...

Seven buffalo
One scrub cow
Eight pigs
And assorted other items of food for my Aboriginal friends.

I find this bullet to be the least effective on the pigs because it melts through. They still go down, but they carry a few shots.

The absolute top end gains in velocity are more effort than there worth in my experience...

quote:

The absolute top end gains in velocity are more effort than there worth in my experience...

They are usually not as accurate either. Sticky bolt back off.

Slider,
By means of explanation to your question,maybe with some its too much trouble and that's fine, but with others such as myself I want to know exactly where top end is on every one of my rifles, so I work up those loads as a guide, not to mention its an exercise in knowledge and its entertaining. Ive found every rifle is an individual and loading books are nothing more than a general starting place as they vari as much as 2 or 3 grs in max from book to book, and change with every bullet..I also know that using the same exact load in many guns can vari as much as 0 to 150 FPS basd on barrel make mostly but fit, grove cut, barrel length and a variation in powder and primers can change the equasion..That is also one reason reloading books today have become so underloaded, that and frivolous law suits in the USA.

My working loads are sometimes 2 or 3 grs less than top end loads, but in more than a few cases my very best accuracy comes with the max loads.

It up to the individual and I don't quote loads on the internet as a rule.

BenKK, my freshly barreled 22/250 runs a 55 grain Sierra over the chronograph at 3880-3885 ft/sec using H4895 without any over pressure signs at all. I have loaded for 3 other 22/250s and have used this powder and bullet weight in all of them and all were within .2 grains of powder but the others didn't run over 3600 or so. I don't know what powder this is using the Australian designation. You seem to be running into high pressure at a very conservative charge weight. Are you seating those Barnes far enough away from the lands? I have never shot monos but from what I have read they need to jump .040-.050". Would a Barnes seated close to the rifling cause a pressure issue without any other contributing factor? I dunno

the all copper bullet will run at a higher pressure than a cup and core one will.

Forgot about this thread and stumbled across it...

Back in January I was shooting some targets with my son, and the bolt jammed soldid - had to use a rubber mallet to open it.

So my curiosity became annoyance and worry, and I found a good gunsmith in Darwin. He found the chamber was cut in a rough-as-guts way, and it had excessive headspace. He fixed that, and the problem is solved. Made meat the other day.

Truly interested in where you shot the buffalo as to what part of the body, not Australia!

Having seen the 22-250 used on elk, and having used it on deer and antelope and even a few plainsgame, it always been a awesome killer, that said I have seen the 222 and 223 blow up on the shoulder bone of deer on several occasions an suspect it may have been the cup and core bullets back then..A monolithic has changed the world of hunting for sure, but how much...Interested in penetration of those bullet on animals as big as buffalo..That said I did kill a big cross bred cow with a 223 and a 60 gr. Hornady with a heart shot behind the shoulder and recovered a perfectly expanded bullet...The circumstances of your buffalo kills would be appreciated by all Im sure, might even stir up a bucket of worms, but what the hell, its informative..

Not all copper bullets raise pressure. GSC drive band bullets run under 1000psi engraving pressure while the average cup and core bullet runs about 3500psi and the average grooved or smooth all copper bullet wil vary from 3000psi to 9000psi.

G’day Ray, sure thing, I’ll try to remember...

Seventeen years ago we had no clue about buffalo, big rifles or suitable bullets. My Dad managed to heart-shoot a huge old bull with a Ballistic Silvertip. The bull sank down within seconds and Dad brained it from close range. But we believed that bullet should have or could have easily come apart.

Many years went by, and the little old farm rifle was sent up to me. By that stage I knew about Barnes TSX and decided to try them.

It turned out that Dad came up for a visit. It was Easter Sunday and the guys came around and asked for help to retrieve a bogged vehicle. We grabbed the little rifle just in case we saw a pig. Well, we got the vehicle out of the swamp, and they asked for a killer. So we found a mob of buffalo and Dad stalked / hobbled into the bush after them. One mature cow paused and looked back and was sent crashing down with a little TSX just a bit low. As I recall it was a knock-out and she required an extra through the brain.

We continued driving after cutting the meat up. On evening we spied a grand bull and he aggressively walked towards us. I reached for my camera and commenced taking photographs. We were outside the vehicles admiring this bull, but he kept coming and the Traditional Owner said to shoot it. The head was held high and the brain shot failed, not even a knock-out. After that it was a matter of half-a-dozen or so quick chest shots through long grass - not ideal. The combination of adrenaline and long grass worked against us, but after a hectic couple of minutes, during which I was quite worried for my Dad, the job was done.

A few weeks after that I brought down a big bull with a pair of heart / lung shots and no fuss. I had a suitable back-up rifle with me but it wasn’t needed and stayed silent. I did put several TSXs into his brain as I approached just to be safe.

I think the next buffalo to get shot with this little combination was a young bull with a broken leg who was also torn-up by dingoes. I think my Traditional Owner friend brained him and then put an insurance shot in. Can’t recall much more about that.

Some time later we needed meat and shot a young bull - say three years old - out the car window at about forty metres. He dropped and we drove up to process him. I was getting the knives ready when he suddenly gave us a scare and my brother put another into his brain before he could properly launch at me.

The next was simply a 200m double lung shot with an entry and exit hole on a youngster the size of a big pig, for meat. He went down as neat as you like.

The last one was a botched brain shot by my Traditional Owner friend on a young bull. The bull turned and ran, but made the mistake of pausing to look back, whereupon my friend made a frontal neck shot that dropped him instantly.

I won’t be trying any more brain shots. The chest shots work better.

Just made some more meat on a two-year old buffalo with a single 55 grain TSX through the heart at 80m, side-on. Little bull made 30m before crashing. Neat little X-shape exit on offside. So that’s just under two feet it zipped through.

Some very happy people and puppies!

I remember how great it felt to get permission to take this rifle out by myself when I was thirteen, to try to find a rabbit for the cat.

BenKK,
Interesting stuff..I have used the hivel 22s on deer and antelope extensively on culling and on one rabid horse, and know of a lady that kills her elk every year with a 22-250 out the kitchen door on her haystack..

I shot a huge Charlois bull that was in the thick stuff and turned my horse over on me and was just meaner than hell..We set up on the water tank the following morning and he came into water and I shot him behind the ear with my .270, I jumped out of the truck and ran to cut his throat, about 5 ft from him be lurched to his feet, eyes big as baseballs and red as blood, blowing bloody snot every where and gave me an ugly look, I did an about face and headed for the pickup with him blowing snot in my back pocket and jumped to the top of the cab, he hit the truck smashing the door then the fender and Im hanging on for dear life, Ben Love my neighboring rancher from Marathon stuck his M1 carbine out the window and I could hear those bullet whining off the bulls head, He finally handed me my .270 and I killed the bull...It was hot by then and we got him gutted and were bloody from head to toe. We only had pocket knives and a hatchet..got him in the pickup with the winch and the front wheels were near off the ground and had hell steering it...I hauled 100 plus miles to Alpine, tex at 20 miles an hour trying to stay on the highway, stopping as cars got close!! headed for the meat packer in Alpine to butcher. An inspector said he was going to condem that nasty thing! I chased him to his pickup and he roared off..His boss called the packer and the packer told his boss the guy was out of line the meat was only for personal use, not sale..I did hit his window and broke a finger, and didn't have to pay for that..Got the meat back later and split it with Ben..Couldn't even eat the damn hamburger, the Mexican vaqueros said it was not good, the damn dogs wouldnit eat it , so dumped it in the dump at the ranch and it turned to jerky, not even the buzzards would eat it...Ben called and said he dumped his half..

All in all it was on interesting day in the life and times of Ray Atkinson!

Hope all of ya are intertained, if not I apoligise..

quote:

Originally posted by 16Bore:
The absolute top end gains in velocity are more effort than there worth in my experience...

Fully concur.....if it were me, I'd pull the bullets, reduce the load two grains and re-install the bullets.....good thing to do on a rainy day.

Ray, you painted quite a picture with that story!

Vapodog, a good gunsmith solved the problem.

quote:

Originally posted by BenKK:
Ray, you painted quite a picture with that story!

Vapodog, a good gunsmith solved the problem.

Great.....may I inquire what the problem was?

No worries, basically when the new barrel was installed the reamer used was rough-as-guts, and guess-work instead of proper gauges was used.

Ray: That was a dandy!

I had a run in with a big ole charlais bull myself. Dad had him, I'd never been around the bull and didn't know he was mean etc.

Wife and I drove up and he was driving the herd from a small pasture, white bull stood around 6'4" at the whithers. Head like a moose for size. Dad told me: "see if you can make that bull come out of there".

He was out in the middle of a nasty tangle of brush. Limbs 4-6" dia mid thigh high and laying crossways. He wouldn't budge with hollering and a thrown stick.

WTH! Waded in after him, face on about 6'. Limb almost at my crotch. No way I could have dodged. Bull lowered his head and growled at me. No clue why I reacted as I did. Yanked my cap off and slammed it between his eye's hard enough my wife heard the pop from 50 yards.

Bull reared up and took off after the herd, passed them up on the trot and went right to the corral. Gate was closed.

When Dad and I got there and opened it he told me: "watch that white bull, he'll take you!".

He was shocked when I told him what happened. Guess it's the size of your bluff that counts.

The next week that bull dressed out 1830#.

George

George,
Funny story, domestic bulls are as dangerous as Cape Buffalo..I know a number of fellows who have been injured or killed by them...You certainly did the right thing, I have hammered cows and steers with a stick or whatever that were intent on eating me..Its just their nature and the size of their brain..I sure that most cases running is a good way to get tossed, standing ground always seem to work best, well maybe not always! I have had a lot of snot blown in my back pocket as I cleared the corral fence!