BLR 22-250

03 May 2003, 09:01

David Atherton

BLR 22-250

I am new to this forum. Having watched it for awhile, I have not seen this gun discussed. I currently hunt my prairie dogs with a Savage 12BVSS in this caliber. I love the gun, but it weighs with its scope around 12# and is too heavy for carrying around the farm. I like my 30-06 BLR. It is accurate and works well with my reloads. I shoot a 55 grain Hornady Spire point out of my Savage. Loading with 34.5 gr. of Varget, I am hoping my barrel has a long life. I am afraid if I get a lever action with a 22-250 and only a 20 in. barrel, I may see inferior performance or heat up the barrel and limit its useful life. How many rounds would a 22-250 barrel be good for? The gun would be for plinking and predator control. I realize I may need to full length resize my cases. I have never had to do this with my 30-06. Neck sizing seems to work just fine. Any advice or experience would be appreciated. Thanks

David

05 May 2003, 04:13

<re5513>

quote:
Originally posted by David Atherton:
I am afraid if I get a lever action with a 22-250 and only a 20 in. barrel, I may see inferior performance or heat up the barrel and limit its useful life. How many rounds would a 22-250 barrel be good for? The gun would be for plinking and predator control. I realize I may need to full length resize my cases. I have never had to do this with my 30-06. Neck sizing seems to work just fine. Any advice or experience would be appreciated. Thanks

David

David,

Your thoughts are pretty much right on target. A BLR in .22-250 for varminting seems to me to be a bit of an oxymoron. While accurate for a lever rifle, the BLR still does not approach the level of accuracy associated with heavy barreled bolt guns. Likewise, with a 20" tube, the added case capacity of the .22-250 is of little advantage over say a more efficient .223 chambering. Still, guns are guns, and you might find one that works. I really hate the new BLR lightings though. That alloy receiver is a different animal compared to the original steel receiver in the BLR or the BLR-81. That's my personal preference though, many like the lighter rifle, especially in a long action. If it were me I'd look for a Remington Varmint Synthetic with a 20" barrel. There are a few of these running around. They'll be lighter than your Savage and more accurate than the BLR. BTW, the BLR has a locking bolt design and thus neck sizing is just fine. Honestly though, with good benchrest quality dies (Forster for example), FL resizing works just fine too IF you spend the time to adjust the die to your specific chamber (a bit tedious). Eventually with NK sizing you'll find that your cases start to chamber tightly and you'll need to eventually FL size them anyway. If you FL size corretly at the start, the brass should last just as long.

re5513

09 May 2003, 10:06

redial

That'd make a dandy light walking rig or a nice truck gun for varmints of opportunity. Not the best choice for more conventional .22-250 applications, but it's more a matter of matching the tool and the task, IMO.

I'd be at least moderately interested in it if it's available.

Redial

09 May 2003, 12:52

sdgunslinger

I know a couple of fellows that have BLR 22/250 s and they love them . I helped my neighbor sight-in his once , and believe me , it was no slouch in the accuracy department ; it shot just as well as a very accurate bolt gun .

The 250 BLR would make a very good predator/utility farm rifle.........