Hope thisd is the correct forum.

I have a M700 VS SF in 22-250 that I've been tinkering loads for what seems since the day I bought it. It regularly shoots just about anything under 1"@ 100 yards but I have been able to get down to .4" using W760, 5 shot groups. So I loaded up some stuff and of to the range yesterday. My W760 loads shot lousy! I tried 36.5g of Varget under a CT 55 gr bullet and a CCI BR primer with Remington brass. There was a bit of wind gusting about 5-10 mph. I tried to time it but got lots of horizontal deviation. Anyway the above load gave me some good results. 3500fps and one group that measured .70" with a flyer that opened it up. Negating the flyer the group was an honest to goodness .35". Now the kicker. The flyer was vertical so not wind induced. I notice the next group I shot with a different load had vertical flyers also. Then I noticed that almost every group I shot yestarday had at least one vertical flyer.

How do you eliminate flyers?

Can I get more velocity from the above load? There were no pressure signs and the listed velocity was 3600. Should I try 37g Varget?

What can I expect from the rifle accuracy wise?The rifle is totally stock except for the barrel crown, the gun slipped on a rock pile hunting ground hogs and it had to be recrowned. It's topped with a Vari-X III 6.5-20x40mm. The guy who crowned the barrel adjusted the trigger down to 3/4 lbs, very crisp and it has never failed or misfired. I have about 1k rounds down the bore, never getting hot and never hot loaded. I do have one probelem and that is the ejector button on the bolt face sticks. It seems to get cartrige brass stuck in it. It looks like there is a sharp edge around it and it catches the round. Anything I can do at home to fix it? I'm certainly capable of minor stuff.

TIA

There are plenty guys here more qualified than me to answer your questions, but just a thought about eliminating the flyers. Im not sure what your seating depth has been or how much attention its been given, but that could be what is causing the flyers if they are not very consistent because of the bbls harmonic whip. Fiddleing around with it a bit may draw your groups in a little tighter as well.

I've tried varying the seating depth. I seat the bullets to an overall cartridge length of 2.513". Seems to work. I do measure each round to ensure uniformity. I think the throat might be a bit long but the bullets are just a few .001's off of the lands. The gun has about 1000 rounds through it so maybe it's just sarting to show?

Eventually I'm gonna stick a new barrel on it and have it accurized, etc. Right now I have so many incomplete gun projects going on so I have to put it on the back burner. It is good enough for the groundhog shooting I do which rarely exceeds 400 yards. I'm just trying to squeeze every ounce of accuracy and velocity out of it that I can with out spending money modifying the rifle. I have a Springfield M1 Garand from the CMP that needs a stock so that's my first priority, then the new barrel, maybe.

Kinda grasping at straws but could the ejector button be "sticking" every so often so that the cartridge is canted in the chamber? A rifle that shoots one load like a house on fire one day and not the next kinda points at something loose. get out the locktite and snug everything down. If you take your rifle apart when you clean it, do you get it back together with the same torque (or feel) on the various screws? Another cause of flyers can be an eroded throat. With a disciplined rate of fire, 1000 rounds shouldn't have done too much damage but...... Try some loads with the bullet actually touching the lands. reduce you powder charge somewhat, of course. If this clears your problem, then its an eroded throat. The quick fix is to have the barrel set back a couple of threads. Most any smith that doesn't drool when he talks can do it. If you don't care about the manufactures ledgend on the side of the barrel lining up exactly right, even some that do drool can do it.
Finally, it never hurts to re-address your bench technigue. Maybe try another rifle of known accuracy and see if you still get the flyers.
Good luck.

The unbedded HS stock ain't helping things................

How about bore cleaning? Consider an Outer's Foul Out electroplate cleaner? Use a bore scope, check carefully for erosion, chattermarks? How about the muzzle? Perfect, smooth crown,or chattermarks?

valkyrie,

Several things can cause flyers. A loose scope mount screw, a defective scope, ignition problems and case neck thickness variance to name a few. You can check your brass by setting it aside, load it seperatly and fire it seperatly. If it gives you a flyer under these controlled conditions you have your answer. Now you can either junk it, or get into outside neck turning. If this seems like a lot of work, just measure the case neck thickness. If you have a variation of .002" or more, you have your answer. It's back to junking or turning again.

My .22-250 is a Rem. M-700 VLS. With the same varget load your using except with a Nosler 55 grain Ballistic Tip bullet, the average sized group of five five shot groups is .174". That is good enough to make me smile. You may want too fine tune your load. Go to 35.5 grains and load three rounds in half grain steps to 37.0 grains to find out which load gives you the best group. Good luck.

[ 06-01-2003, 08:00: Message edited by: BigBob ]

Big Bob

from what I gather the CT is a Nosler BT with a "Lubalox" coating. So Something is differnet with my rifle. I'll try what you say. Like I said I'm looking at reducing .70" 5 shot groups down to whatever the rifle is really capable of!

Valkrie, I'm having the same problem with a Rem 700 in 22-250, only mine shoots over an inch. check out the link below and you can see some of the solutions the guys can up with on that forum. I also have some pics of targets there and you can see the lousy groups I'm getting. After clicking the link go to the reloading forum. Then scroll down to topic 22-250 Turkeyshooter.
http://www.huntingclub.com/bb_default.asp?ActiveLi nk=Bulletin_board&bb_path=ultimate.cgi?action=intro||category=

[ 06-01-2003, 15:45: Message edited by: Turkeyshooter ]

Bigbob, I just re-read your post and you're making me sick . My 22-250 is also a Rem 700 VLS and as stated above it groups over an inch. Wanna trade

As for the sticking ejector,
1. drift out the small pin that holds it in the bolt. CAUTION! It's under spring tension & will escape to parts unknown! Be sure & get the spring out of the hole. If the spring should be bent (unlikely), replace it.
2. Put the ejector button in a drill, and spin it. Polish it to mirror finish with something like rubbing/polishing compound, or Flitz. Do both ends.
3. Polish the hole in the bolt with a tuft of 0000 steel wool on the end of a small rod, maybe a matchstick, or toothpick, in a drill. Be careful here, you don't want to break it off, or leave anything in the hole! It's a blind hole!
3. If you have access to a Dremel tool, polish the very crown of the hole (you want to microscopically chamfer it) with a Cratex buff.
4. Blow everything out with compressed air, to be sure it is CLEAN!
5. Lube everything up with a light SYNTHETIC lube, or dry lube, like graphite - Not WD-40, or something that will eventually gum up - then reassemble.
That should take care of your sticking extractor forever. Good Luck,,,,,,,,,,Bug.

Valkyrie, try those 55 grain Nosler pills with 35.5 grains of IMR 4895, should push it around 3636 fps for velocity. I always got consistence 1/2 inch or less grouping on my 250's with it, also work you up a load with H380 and try it. Nosler 55-grain solid Base always seems to like a medium to hot load. Also the father out you seat the bullet, the higher the impact point. Some like to engage the lands, but I found in 32 years of reloading for 22-250's seating depth wasn't a big bugger for them. Facts are I always back off a little and give it a little freebore.

Turkeyshooter,

Take two asprins and call me in the A.M.
About all I've done to the rifle is too glass bed the action and the chamber area of the barrel. Adjusted trigger to 3/4 of a pound. Use a Leupold 6.5x-20x scope and did a lot of testing. Head stamp on cases says .243 Win. Have culled by weight after converting to .22-250, trim length too match length of chamber minus .005". Uniformed primer pockets, deburred flash holes and turned the outside of the case necks. Trested seating depth and had best accuracy with the bullet just touching the lands. Try it and your .22-250 should shoot about the way mine does. Good luck.

Val,

My 2 cents worth is:

If that was happening to me, I would either chalk it up to trigger pull or jerking if everything turns out to be tight.

The second thing is the lub put on that CT bullet.

Clean the barrel real well and then try regular Nosler Ballistic Tips.

In my 3 22/250s, I have not become a big fan of Varget in anyone of my rifles.

I have had more consistency and accuracy using RL 15, RL 7 IMR 4064 or H414, or H380 with the 55 grainers. IMR 4895 or 4198 in a pinch or if I am feeling different at the loadiing bench before a trip out to the range.

My first thing about trigger jerking is because I am real guilty of that at times.

A way I learned to beat it is to use my middle finger and try to see how that effects the groups.
If you try and jerk a trigger on purpose with your index finger and then try it with your middle finger, you will notice that your middle finger is not as strong or flexible as your index, so therefore it is harder to Jerk the trigger. Told a few other people having the same problem at the range and same results as mine, groups tightened right up.