Been thinking about a 250 Savage in a bolt gun for this reason..... it has less recoil (good for fast re-acquasition) than a 243/6mm, alot of punch in the breeze and through mesquite and blackbrush. I normally use a 22-250 but every once in a great while IT could do a lttle better in the wind and south Texas brush. Any experienced comments are welcome.

Funny you should ask! I had the sort of the same question today from a friend inquiring about my experience with a 250-3000(250 Savage for those of you in Rio-Linda). My experience with the cartridge is very limited. I am a fan of the quarterbores. 250, 257 Roberts and GOD'S chosen chambering, the 25-06. The 250-3000 could be a great little calling-setup rifle but the factory offerings of this one would limit one's choices. Since it was going to probably be (unless you could find a Ruger 77 factory offering or someone else's) a custom build,I'd opt for the 6x47. Bullet choices are better. Recoil is very neglible and if Palmer and Palmisano hadn't been playing around with that darn little Rusky(220 Russian) case back in the 70's, the 6x47 would still be the winningest case design to hit the BR circuit.............and usefull too!!
Spawned by the glorious 222MAG opened up to 6mm with nothing else done to it, it was the accuracy champ. With a myriad of projectiles from 60 grain Sierra BK's to 87 grain VMax's it would be a "carry varminter" to be reckoned with!! And then they necked the case down to .204!!! What a spectacular varminter!!! GHD PS: I have shot, still shoot and still believe in Mike Wilson's grand case design of 1962-63!! Charlie (GHD

My calling rifle is an M98 Mauser chambered for the .25x2. It is a wildcat that I built by using a .257AI reamer, but put it in 1/4" short. The case is 2.0" trim-to. The barrel is 20" to handle quickly(ever notice that when yotes get close, they are behind you?) and the stock is a thumbhole from Fajen. The scope is a 2-7x Widefield. It works just fine at short range, and as you say, it recoils so little that the second shot, if needed, will be right behind the first. I've doubled with it.
As the range stretches, the 87gr(Sierra, in my case) will reach with aplomb. There's PLENTY of energy left at 400yds.
Like GHD, I'm a real fan of the .25, and while HE already has a .25/06, I'm still trying to fix up a long-barrelled .25 Gibbs.
Do my choices count as answer for your question?
If you can't, or don't wish to, build your own rifle, a 6mm of one taste or another, will do fine.
I hope to see you in the .25 component aisle.
Gene

Gentlemen, thank you for your replies.
GHD, Savage still has a (I believe) a model 112 in a bolt gun with a 22" barrel. I constantly hear and see things written by others as to the negative quality of Savage rifles but I also hear and have seen of more than one that had absolutely no issues and were incredibly accurate. I know a guy who has a Savage in 22-250 who has shot (more than once) a 3/4" group with his at 300 YARDS! I am not really interested in any wildcat round since I feel this and many other factory established cartridges already fit the bill for my needs. Not to mention dies, brass etc. are easier to find.

RAE59-Mea culpa. My intent was NOT to recommend a wildcat, but to say that my experiences were close to what you wanted. I would not think of recommending one. Because I'm addicted to the things is no reason to get someone else afflicted.
When I went to build my rifle, I wanted certain features. I wanted a .250 Savage, but we didn't have the right reamer, but we DID have a .257AI. What we ended up with was basically the same thing. The 87gr comes out of the barrel at 2800-3100fps, and the .250 falls in that range.
My experience is with the thumbhole, and I DO recommend THAT. You could buy a new Remchestage barrelled action, and put a custom stock on, with whatever features you choose.
I've used Savages over the years, a .243 and a 7mm Rem Mag, and think QUITE highly of them.
Have fun,
Gene

There is darn little difference in recoil between the .250 and the .243/.244 cartridges. You might be able to tell the difference if you fired them back-to-back on the same day, but on different days I doubt it. The 6mms have better performance in the wind, and none are any better than the other in brush. (My favorite 6mm varmint bullet is the 55-grain Nosler - at 4050 fps it has less drift and shoots flatter than any .22-250, and it blows varmints apart.)

All that said the .250/3000 is one of my favorites. I've taken deer, fox and chucks with my XP-100, the latter two with 75-grain Hornady bullets - either the HP or V-Max. My velocity is a bit down from a rifle but terminal performance was great.



.

The SAVAGE products as they are today take backseat to no one for out of the box, mass produced rifles!! That's from a gunshop owner(myself until 1/10) a shooter and a reloader and rifle builder. SAVAGE does a few things right!! They send you a rifle(Stevens 200 to the F-Class) with free floated barrels, pillar bedding already done and BUTTON RIFLED BARRELS!! Everybody else send you a rifle with "the hell beat out of a piece of metal, hammer forged barrels" with un-fffloated stocks, no pillars or bedding unless you opt for the "premier lines" which may be implanted in an H-S precision stock or B&C wantabe stock with pillars or aluminum block. Bottom line is SAVAGE offers shooters more bang for the buck than anybody else!! I don't give a FRA(fat rat's ass) if it's "prettier" than the others or "lighter than the others" if it PERFORMS!! And SAVAGE RIFLES PERFORM!! Do they have any competitors for accuracy? YES! The TIKKA's and SAKOS!! Other than that, it's just buying a name!! I shoot a lot of Remingtons!! I've worked on them a lot also!! They will shoot but not like the SAVAGE out of the box accuracy I have seen!! GHD

I've used a 257 Roberts, and the same rifle rebarreled and AI'd to shoot a few 'yotes. It works well. Bullet selection in the .257 bore is less plentiful than .223 or .243, but unless you're saving pelts (I don't anymore), it's not hard to find a bullet that shoots well. I've used both the 75 vmax, and the 85 ballistic tip, as well as the 100 gr ballistic tip on 'yotes. The 100 gr bt is a nice compromise deer/'yote bullet, if your after one bullet to do both.

My current 'yote rifle is a plain vanilla Savage Stevens 200 in .223. I've only stoned the burrs off the trigger (which was terrible out of the box) and mounted a scope on it. No other work was done. I didn't really find a factory load that it liked, but I only tried a few different boxes out of curiosity. It loves my handloaded 50 gr vmax though:




I beat the crap out of this rifle, and hardly ever take it to the range, it's just a "working rifle". But that was 5 shots at 100 yards from a cold clean barrel. That's measured outside to outside at .6", which I think is pretty good for a "cheap" rifle.

My 250/3000 is a Savage 10 with a set back re-chambered 25/06 barrel. I have taken several deer with it . It loves any 100gr bullet that I want to feed it. I did some load development using 75gr V-Max,WOW!!!
I don't use this rifle for varmints,instead I use a 250AI.
IMHO you will be well served with a 250/300 for yotes out to 250yds.
GOOD LUCK and GOOD SHOOTING!!!

The 250 is a caliber I have never considered owning but it sounds like it has a good following. I'm just now getting warmed up with my .257R as it is my first quarter bore.

Charlie,
Not to nit pic but I beleive that was Mike Walker who also designed the .222 and .221 Fireball. Take care.

Stepchild

quote:

Originally posted by TX Nimrod:
There is darn little difference in recoil between the .250 and the .243/.244 cartridges. You might be able to tell the difference if you fired them back-to-back on the same day, but on different days I doubt it. The 6mms have better performance in the wind, and none are any better than the other in brush. (My favorite 6mm varmint bullet is the 55-grain Nosler - at 4050 fps it has less drift and shoots flatter than any .22-250, and it blows varmints apart.)



.

I don't have any experience with the .250 other than seeing a buddy of mine use it while hunting mule deer with success.

I agree with the above post on the .243 with those 55 grainers in the NBT. I've used my Remmy in .243 successfully with them and have started to experiment with some 70 grainers for the really long shots on windy days in the varmint field.

The performance of the 55 grainer at/over 4000fps is awesome and tremendously impressive on varmints of all kinds. I've used those same 55 grainers to take a couple of smaller mule deer at ranges in the 250-350 range and the results were immediate. The .243 could be a caliber with a lot of flexibility in bullets and loads than perhaps some other calibers, if that is a concern for you. Good luck.

I built a 22-284 several years ago. It rocks, and you are just a rechamber and a $25 bolthead from a 12 BVSS Savage in 223 that comes with a 1:9" twist, 26" long heavy fluted barrel in a nice varmint stock. It should shoot under 3/8" five shot groups at a hundred with nothing but a little bedding and tuning the accu-trigger. And, about an inch at 300.

Rich

My .250-3K is a Steven's mod. 200 with a .250-3K Varmint long throated 10 twist Shaw barrel replaceing the .243 barrel.Nice cartridge , nice repeatability but AS A VARMINT RIG it won't do anything a .243 won't do. As a bean field modest range deer rifle it might eek out the.243. Maybe. I really like it ,what ever, roger

I got on the quarter bore late (25wssm) but love em for crows thru whitetails. I was looking for a .257 bob or 25-06 when I stumbled across the wizzum. Ive only shot a 250-3000 once , was impressed and the long time owner loved his gun , He was an accomplished Indian ( slow walk) deer hunter,

I had a Mauser 98 in 250-3000. The barrel was a 24" heavy sporter.

It was far more 'civilized' to shoot than a .243 as there was a lot less muzzle blast.

With 100 grain projectiles it made a fine small/med hunting round but I kept my shots to a 200 yard max..

(I will now take a bottle of Rum up to my shed and rue the day I sold it.)

Savage will make you a 250-3000, just call their custom shop and they will put it in any platform you want. I think the 250-300 in the classic and possibly other models. Any reamer they have they will build any gun they sell with it.

It.s been a couple of years now since I got a new Savage model 16 in 250 Savage just for the coyotes around here. With it and a 75 gr.V-max at 3280fps I'm good out to 300yds.
and with a solid hit they end up with quite the hole.But i'm not shooting for fur anyway so it doesn't matter.

I have a ruger model 77 in 250 sav and it will get the job done like you want it to do.

I am quite familiar with 243 Win. and 6mm. and have no illusions that they are not more powerful than a 250 Savage. But they also have more recoil which will move the scope/rifle off target further which slows down the target re-acqusition process when using a lighter rifle. Another beauty of having the 250-3000 Savage and a 22-250 is one can neck up the 22 brass to .257 without alot of work should brass ever become a issue.

Personally, I see alot of versatility with a 250 Savage.

Some years ago a father and son asked me to take them pronghorn hunting. Both used Savage 99 250-3000 rifles. They told me that they used the rifles for a lot of yote hunting where they lived in eastern part of Nebraska. I got them within 200 yards,two shots, two dead pronghorn. I dont recall what bullet they were using or the scopes they had on their rifles. Over the years I have looked for a used 250-3000 99 Savage but I have never found one. Could be that the hunters that have them dont trade them in because they work well for varmints and small big game.

Been pondering the 22-250 to 250 Savage question myself. Have a beautiful Sako AII Deluxe in 22-250 that wants to become a 250 Savage.

quote:

Originally posted by Dr. Lou:
Been pondering the 22-250 to 250 Savage question myself. Have a beautiful Sako AII Deluxe in 22-250 that wants to become a 250 Savage.

Dr. Lou, I would never be without a 22-250. My thoughts were to add a 250 Savage for those windy days or just to have, to change it up a bit and have the added capabilty to nail a deer (side shot) if needed. Yes, before everyone jumps on me, I know a 22-250 will kill deer at moderate ranges and with the right bullet, but I prefer the fast opeing bullets for yotes with my 22-250s.

I bought a Classic in 250-3000 when they came out. Used it for a year and then had it re-chambered to 25-284. Consider it a thinking man's 25-06.

Rich
DRSS

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
I bought a Classic in 250-3000 when they came out. Used it for a year and then had it re-chambered to 25-284. Consider it a thinking man's 25-06.

Rich
DRSS

I bought a Rem 700 Classic in 250-3000 and did not rechamber it to 25-284...

when loaded to the same pressure and with similar bullets to the .243/ 6mm,(75 v. 70 ),you probly will never notice a diff. except as to EXTREME accuracy,,unless someone is making match slugs for the .250,( my favorite deer & down cartridge ),,,and most shooters who use the 243/6mm and the .250 say the latter is nicer too shoot,,,everything being equal.

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
I bought a Classic in 250-3000 when they came out. Used it for a year and then had it re-chambered to 25-284. Consider it a thinking man's 25-06.

Rich
DRSS

what the hell would he be thinkin'?

I have used a plain jane, pre-accutrigger, Savage Model 11 22-250 shooting 55 gr. Sierra #1365 SBT's for years for predator hunting. I put a Rifle Basix trigger on it. I have also started using a .223 AR the past few years.

Bob

Rae59, Get a Tikka T3 SSLite in .243 and use my load: 37gr IMR4064, 87Vmax, 3050fps and will smack and lob just about anything it hits while having very little felt recoil. Mine shoots 1/2" 100yd groups, as well. I have a VariX2 in 4-12X that doesn't usually black out under recoil, just be sure to mount it as far forward as you can and still see through it. My son and I got on a milling machine and made a "double Weaver" base out of aircraft aluminum so a 200 lumen LED flashlight can be mounted to the scope tube for nightime coyote work.