i'm currently thinking of a new gun barrel for my encore. i have a 16 1/4" mgm barrel in 20 vartarg, but i would like something a little better. tc encore in 27" mgm barrel in a 22-250 ackley improved, with a rifle twist of 1 in 8" or 9". bullets should be 60-75gr. groundhogs, cotoyes, and foxes will be on the menu from 250-400 yards, 20 vartarg gets out to 250yds. the 22-250ai will be better than the 220 swift because of brass and dies. is this all right? i'm disabled from a stroke, so excuse me if i messed something up

I shoot a fast twist 22.250 out to 1,000 yards in F class on calm days. For 400 yard shooting I don't think that your going to see much performance difference.

As far as brass life goes, if your dies are set correctly for your chamber, the standard 22.250 chamber is no worse than any other cartridge.

to short a barrel for that round. 22/250 ai is a great long range round with perhaps a better case life than a swift, but is essentially a swift. with large amounts of slow burning powder a short barrel will have much velocity loss negating the advantage of the powder capacity

No problem getting brass or dies for a Swift in Australia so should be a piece of cake in the U.S.A.No fireforming required either. Easier to get the .22/250AI to feed in a bolt gun and to fit in a magazine box when using VLD pills. No such problems with a single shot.

About case life on the .22-250. It's poor. The AI version is reputed to be better, but case streching, fequent trimming and short life have been common to all six of the barrels I have had the standard Chambered in. Thats with the use of Redding competition case holders and pushing the sholder back a max of two thousands. That said, I love the round and will continue to shoot about a thousand rounds a year, it just flat works.

I have exactly had the opposite experience with the .22-250. Hundreds of others have the same experience as I have. I do not overload the cartridge, keeping at or one grain below most max loads, and case life is as good as any other high pressure case.

I wonder why anyone would think a 27" barrel is too short; an example of poor reading skills I guess. The AI would be a fine choice IMO.


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With that length barrel and twist, the 250-3000 AI ,250-3000 or 220 swift won't make a bit of difference with the heavy bullets out to 600 plus yards. roger