Today I shot my Savage in 22-250 and could not believe what the target was showing me. It was around 10 degrees F. I am loading with Hodgdon 380 38 grains and every one of my shots were low around 3-4 inches. I had a 200 yd zero last fall and today it was no where near that. I am thinking it has to be the powder because my brother in-laws Remington in 22-250 was acting the same as my Savage and we were shooting the same loads. Is this powder really that effected by the temperature? I know in the warmer months I really like the accuracy I get out of it. Maybe I should try some of the IMR 4064 I got and compare. Any ideas. Thanks in Advance

Are you using magnum primers with the H380? All of the loads in the Speer #11 loading manual show this powder being used with the hotter primers. If you're allready using them I'd sure change powders if they vary that much due to low temperatures. Good Luck, Bruce

I have herd that some powders are temperature sensative. Ball powders are know for that to I think they pack so tight. I have used re 15 in summer and winter with good results in 22-250. If your not useing magnum primers that could make the difference in cold weather.

I quit using H380 for that exact reason. When I first developed loads for my 22-250, accuracy was fantastic around 50-60 degrees. When summer rolled around and temps were in the upper 80s and 90s, accuracy fell off quite a bit. Not as much as yours, but then again, I have never shot it in 10 degrees. The magnum primers may work when it's cold, but you may also start to get high pressures when the temp warms up using the same load. Try some of the stick powders that are more temp stable. I'm currently using IMR 4895 and have been quite pleased. I plan to also try some Varget very soon. There are plenty of threads on here that list powders that guys are having success with. Check em out.

I would try varget or tac from ramshot. Both are good for extreme temp changes.

Is your Savage one with a free-floated barrel? Or a synthetic stock? Wooden stocks in contact with the barrel can easily produce that much POI shift with changing weather.

My Savage has a wooden stock. I am thinking it was the Hodgdon 380 powder, it had the same effect on my brohter in-laws Remington and my friends CZ-527 in .223. All of us were shooting together and experienced the same effects with this powder. I am going to load some up for the 22-250's with IMR 4064 and try it again since the weather is still around the 10 degree mark Burrrr. But I like to shoot these guns and the weather can only keep you in so long. Any one have a specific load for 22-250's that they can suggest I try that is more temp stable?

thanks for the resposes!

I just did a little math on this...if the bullets formerly were 1.5" high at 100 yards (200 yard "0")...and are now 3.5" low then (assuming it's from velocity loss) the extra time the bullet is taking to reach 100 yards is .1614 seconds.

Since typically a 3800'/sec bullet reaches 300' in .0789 seconds, a increase in time to allow the bullet to fall additional 5" would be accompanied with a velocity loss of 1248 ft/sec......which is totally unreasonable.

I will predict that you'll have the same problem with other powders.

Would you please run a couple of those H380 loads over a chronograph the next time it reaches 10 deg and report the velocity....I'd be very interested.

I'm betting it's the wooden stock warping and changing the barrel pressure. I've encountered similar problems.

There is only thing that is throwing a wrench in these ideas. That my brother in-law also has a 22-250 same loads and his is a remington 700 with a heavy barrel and had the same indications. Unless you are saying both my Savage and his remington where both warped and both changing POI low the same amount at 200 yds I think that would be unlikely but maybe. So I have not shot since but it is definetly a wonder what is going on.

Were they good groups or was it spraying um all over and low. 3 or 4 inches is alot. Could be the powder but, I doubt it. Usually if you've got some contact that is a problem your groups will walk,but not always. There's some black magic in there somewhere. I'd definitally experiment some. What were you shooting off of? It was 10 degrees. Were the sand bags frozen? I don't want to sound like a smart ass... If the bags were a bit hard that could be one of answers.
There are many good powders out there. RL-15 is my favorite with the 22-250. You can get higher vel. out of some others...the accuracy has been excellent for me.As doubleD said Varget is a good choice also. Try more than 4064.
I'd bet its the wood too Ricochet.
Do your home work while its still cold. If the problem still exists...float the barrel...if that does'nt work...glass bed it... Thats what I'd do anyway. Let us know how it works out. If it were me I would'nt be able to sleep till the job was done Unless I was going to shoot coyotes and it was the only gun I had...Then I'd just sight it in...

You might want to try 35.5 grains of Varget-accurate load in my 22 250-course its just a Browning.

Vapodog is on the right track. Chronograph both cold rounds (exposed to the approx. 10 deg. temp) and rounds warmed to appox. temp when gun(s) was initially sighted in. and that should eliminate one posibility as far as powder is concerned.