Anyone have any good loads for a 22-250? Probably be shooting mostly paper, coyotes, and crows. Need one load that can do it all. Thinking about Varget or Reloader 15 with 50 gr moly V-max and CCI 200 primer.

Hello Justin
I have VihtaVuori 140 38grain and use 40grains V-max bullet.
And VV 140 35,5grain and use 55grains V-max

I use serria 52gr hpmatch in all my 224s I found that they work just great. I push them at just over 3500 with wc844 in my 22 250.

I have been using Rem 55g HPPL, and 52g Hornady HPBT Match with 36g of Varget, Win primer and Rem brass. I also had some very good groups with 34.1g of IMR4064 and the 52g bullet.

Justin, you are on the right track. Just go ahead and try a few loads.

The V-Max bullets have proven to be very accurate in all my .224 caliber rifles. The 50 grain version has proven to be accurate for several friends as well. I personally use 40, 50, and 55 grain versions.

In regard to powders, you are also on the right track. Varget is a very good choice, though you might also want to try H 4895. I have never tried RL 15, but am hearing of some other local shooters who claim it works well.

In regard to primers, by all means, try the CCI 200. However, if you just cannot get that last bit of accuracy you want, try switching primers. I have had very good luck with Fed 210M and WLR primers in the 22-250 Remington.

Have fun, R F

Thanks for all the help....

Question for p dog shooter....how do those Sierra 52gr Match bullets perform on prairie dogs and/or groundhogs? A friend here swears by them but I have never used them except for paper punching. They are the most accurate bullet I've found in my 14" .223 Contender.

My 22-250 with a 1 in 12" twistrate likes REL-15 powder and the 60 grain FBHP bullet.

i put 4 shots inside a nickel last week with the old standby of 38 grains of H-380 behind a 55 grain v max. Ruger M77 with regular 22 inch barrell.

I think I am going to try some 50gr V-Max over H4895 when the weather improves a little. Thanks for all of the loads, if H4895 doesn't work out, then I am going to try some H380

clerkofkirk I have helped many of p dogs join the red mist club. They are all I use in my 224 varmit rifles. I find that they work just great.

p dog shooter: I quit using the wonderfully accurate Sierra 52 grain bullet for Varminting many years ago. It just ricocheted to often! I have seen these bullets go directly through both Prairie Dogs and Rock Chucks and "whine" off into the distance and I have seen them striking the ground again far in the distance past the initial ground strike! I just checked my latest Sierra manual and they (on pages 74 and 81 of Volume 4 go out of their way to not mention using this bullet while Varminting! I know several of my friends have had similar experiences and opinions of them! They will kill Varmints and they are wonderfully accurate BUT I reccommend not using them for most Varminting. Now I will qualify this opinion by saying I have not used the 52's in at least 10 years and things may have changed. But I recently spoke with a Varminting buddy and he states they are still prone to ricochet! Safety first is my motto. I will never forget the day a dairy rancher in Idaho took me and my buddy out to his corral and showed us an adult cow with a bullet wound in her flank! He was waiting for the slaughter truck to come and put her down and take her away. We had not Hunted on or near his place and I was so thankful for that! He wanted us to Hunt his Varmints but to be sure and use all cautions. We came back by several days later to visit and he had recovered from his dairy cow a slightly bent 22 caliber HP/BT bullet. I am certain in my own mind it was a Sierra but he wanted to keep the bullet to show other Varminters as a caution to them about safe back ground and ricochet worries! I did not get to do a comparison as he would not let m take the bullet home with me. I could see using the 52 Sierras maybe to Hunt Coyotes or low volume shooting of Varmints in hilly country but to use them for high volume Colony Varmint shooting in flat country - well I strongly caution their use. No flame or attack intended I just have had these experiences and choose instead the wonderfully accurate 55 grain Sierra Blitz bullets in my 22-250's and in both my Swifts. My Remington 40XB in 22-250 has shot many 5 shot groups under .300" at 100 yards using this bullet (#1345). And this bullet kills every type of Varmint emphatically! I have had much better experiences with all other brands of 52 grain match bullets on Varmints in regards to ricochets! As have many of my Varminting buddies. p dog shooter please let me know if the recent Sierra 52's are more frangible than ten years ago. Good luck with whichever bullet you choose!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VarmintGuy, I just bought some 55 gr BlitzKings for my 22-250. Haven't tried them yet, but my question is:

Being a thin jacketed round, do I have to worry about the round breaking up at the 3700+fps range? I will be reloading them, and want to know what my limit is. Probably a non-issue, but just want to double check.

Although every gun is an individual, I'm surprised at how many .22-250's do exceedingly well with 35.5 grains if H4895 (IMR does well also). This is my standby load, and is a favorite with a number of other .22-250 shooters. Frankly, it's hard to beat the regular Sierra lead tipped bullet for accuracy, economy, and "varmintworthiness".

But many, many combinations work well in this one-time wildcat that is now some 70-odd years old.

Justin B

55g. V-Max, 35.5gr. Varget, CCI200 primer.

Proven accurate to 500 yards, of course I'm using a SAVAGE!

I just had to say that for all the Savage haters.
I personally like them all.

Rup

jethro,

I've been able to push frangible bullets WAY past their intended speeds without them disintegrating by mollying them. Not to start a moly/no moly pissing match, and I can only speculate as to why it works, but it seems to.

It could be attributable to reduced friction heating of the bullet or to reducing jacket scarring by rough barrels, or Elvis or aliens or how the planets align over the Bermuda Triangle. I dunno. Works for me though.

Redial

Speaking of which, does anyone put out load data for moly bullets? With the differences in generated pressures and speeds between moly and non-moly, you would think they would test these as well. Maybe they have, I just haven't seen anything.

Jethro: I have not tried the 55 grain Blitzkings in any of my Rifles as yet. I am having such good luck (accuracy and lethality wise) with the plain 55 grain Blitz bullets I have just not been motivated to change. The new Rifles I have obtained since the Sierra Blitzkings came out have not tried them with theseRifles. I got a huge deal on a huge batch of Nosler 55 grain Ballistic Tips and I "made" them work for these new Rifles! I have several friends who do shoot the BlitzKings out of their 22-250 and 220 Swift Varminters - no complaints from them regarding premature eruption.
According to my Oehler chronograph one of my 22-250's is shooting the 55 gr. Blitz at 3,679 FPS and the other is poking aong at 3,520 FPS. But it is especially accurate at that speed. My Swifts shoot the 55 gr. Blitz bullets at 3,796 FPS and 3,589 FPS (I am a notorious non-hotrodder!). No blowups in midair with any of these. I do not know how well the Blitzkings hold up under top speed flight conditions? My latest Sierra manual does not show the Blitzkings at all so I can not even see for you what speed Sierra reccommmends with them! I am interested in buying the new Sierra Manual that is due out this month though!
I use Moly in many of my Varminters and am changing the others over to Moly as their suplies of bullets run out and as I have time to redial them in with the Moly. I think Moly is worth it and folks I trust think the Moly helps those expensive barrels last longer! Aaahhh and while we are on the subject of switching to Moly after shooting non Moly bullets in a particular Rifle - (I have done this about 10 times now) and none of the Rifles shot worse with the Moly! I am a notorious piker when it comes to just shooting Rifles at the range for anything but load devlopment and then for sight veriification. So from a small amount of reshooting of formerly non Moly Rifles I think they shoot slightly better with the moly. And by slightly in my experience I mean less than 1/10th inch better groups. This could be the more provable fact that the barrels have just been shot more and are now "really broken in". Another reason I use Moly is ease of cleaning out in Varmint Hunting situations. It is a pain but I use it a lot. Of course I also fell for the liquid product called "Friction Block"! Someone once said theres a sucker born every minute! Maybe that applies to me?
Jethro I wish I could be more specific to your questions other than my second hand experinces and I give credibility to them.
Good luck!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

My favorite question because I have had very satisfying results with a Hart barreled 22-250, 1/12 twist, with 55 grain VMAX molycoated. Using the load right off the Varget container of 36.5 grains, the velocity chronos from my gun at 3670 fps. I am a great fan of the VMAX bullets and use moly only because the accuracy does not start to go away until something like 225 rounds. Then, the barrel cleaning is so quick and easy!

Varmintguy,

I hit the range on Sat with the 22-250. I loaded the 55gr Blitzkings (non-moly) with 34.0, 35.0 and 36.0 grains of 4320. This was primarily a sight in visit, but it was evident the 35.0 gr load shot the best. 34 opened up considerably, while the 36 load just started to. I need to fine tune around the 35.0 load and also play with the OAL, but the 35s were producing groups of about 0.5"-0.6" at 100yds. Not bad for a first visit, but really didn't get to shoot enough say it's "consistent". Next visit is Friday...

I'm partial to a moly 50gr V-Max and Re-15 in both the 22-250 and 22-250Ackley(as well as the Swift)..................

I believe Varmint Guy's right about the 52 gr. Sierra Match's performance on varmints. I, and a friend, used this bullet several years on coyotes. It always exited, though not violently--22-250's. Of course, it's designed for paper, not varmints. Had an article published in Varmint Hunter #28--10/98 called, "Prairie Dog Shooters I Have Known". The last friend I talked about in the article liked Hornady's 52 Hornady Match, and it worked wonderfully for him, and me too. The smallest group I ever saw shot from a varmint rifle was <.100 using the Speer 50 gr. TNT--.223 Rem.

Stonecreek - Are you by any chance a member of the ARC?

The only buillet i would use in the 22-250 is the Nosler B.T, 40grs. It shoots in every rifle i have tryed (about 15). It is deadly on all varmits, I have shot about 400coyotes with this bullet out of 22-250s, and almost never get an exit. Push them as fast as you safley can and have somme fun.

Does anyone on the forum know exactly what bullet is used in the Winchester USA 22-250 40 round varmint pack? As the box indicates, it is a 45 gr. JHP, and in my experience, it has the best exploding factor on prairie dogs, etc...I would like to reload using this bullet. Any feedback and input would be great.

I would start with 4895. It has always been a good performer in the 22-250. However, if I was going to do high volume reloading - like for a prairie dog shoot I would probably opt for a ball powder -- maybe H380.

As to bullets, I would start with the 50 gr. balistic tip if I wanted a bullet for both varmit hunting and paper punching. They are a little pricey but my experience has been they will out shoot most other "non-premium" bullets with the exception of Match-Kings. They are explosive enough for prairie dogs but still kill coyotes cleanly and I've seldom seen them ricochet.

[ 03-26-2003, 05:08: Message edited by: Mike M ]

clerkofkirk, As has been stated in a couple other posts, the Sierra Match bullets are extremely accurate but not much destruction on the terminal end!! I learned this years ago using 22-250, 243, 6x47 and the holy grail of varmint misting...25-06!! Too many pass thru's!! NO SHOCK FACTOR! I rate bullet makers like this. Speer...decent accuracy and sufficient "shock and awe" factor. Sierra...Accuracy, Accuracy. Hornady...BLOOD AND GUTS and a..hole to earbone explosiveness!! Nosler 40BT ...Accurrate and deadly with reduced exits but severe shock! If you want to see a "red mist show" use the Hornadys!!! GHD

Wow. Is H380 no longer king of the hill for the 22-250 or what? Only one half hearted vote? Are the other powders, especially Varget, that much better?