What would make a bullet tumble in flight? I have a 22-250 cal. Savage 110 and Iam loading it with Hornady 50 gr. V-Max with 34.5 grs. of Varget powder and CCI LR primers.Ever oncein awhile a round will hit the target sideways. This is at 100 yrds.Has anybody got any ideas?

I had the same problem with the 55gr V-MAX in my 22-250AI. The twist was 1/10. 50gr ballistic tips and 55gr blitz kings gave me no such problems.

Wish I hadn't bought a bulk pack of the V-MAXs...

Ben

For my 22-250, 34.5 gr of Varget and 55 gr bullets is very inaccurate. Bullets fly all over the target. But, at 36.5 gr I get great accuracy, like 3/8" groups for 3 shots at 100 yds.
Don

The vmax bullets are in the range of 10% longer than a normal bullet. The 50 is about the same length as a 60 basic bullet. I believe the savage has a 1 in 12. The longer bullets are not stabilizing at these slower loads. Jack the velocity up to max if this still doesn't work go to a shorter bullet or faster twist.

First check your twist. Some rifles were made with a 14 twist, which would explain the tumbling, perhaps.

Increased speed helps a little, but not as much as going to a shorter bullet. HTH, Dutch.

It's the "every once in awhile" that bothers me.

I've seen key-holing with damaged barrels more than anything else. Once I had a nice Sako in .222 that key-holed. Figured someone caught the barrel in a door jam, so I cut 2" off and had it recrowned. It turned it back into a tack driver. I'd start by checking the end of the barrel & crown.

I don't think it's your bullet components.

Thanks Bigdog2 The rifle is less than one years old and I bought it new.I am going to increase my load to just below the max 36.0 to 36.5 and see what happends Jerry

I would say that your barrel twist rate is right at the boundary of being too slow to stabilize your bullet reliably. If you were to step up to the 60 gr v-max, I would bet that every bullet would tumble.


How does the rifle shoot with conventional spitzer bullet designs in the weight range of 50 to 55 gr?

I have a Savage 112 in 22-250 that shoots 60 gr Hornady spitzers inside MOA with every powder I have tried. But when I switched to the 60 gr poly tip Hornady, I saw keyholes in the target. There is a good chance that the same thing is happening with your rifle.