Just read with interest Seafire's Blue Dot Range Report for the 22-250. Has anyone ever loaded a 22 caliber centerfire round to be subsonic, 1000 fps. If so, what was your formula and what kind of results did you get?

Just a thought,

Art

welcome art, whats the point ?
its like trying to throttle down a top fuel racer.
The 22/250 is a race horse 4000f/s is not uncommon

only reason i can think of is keep a 223 heavy bullet subsonic for a silencer

Some muppet of a writer in the UK wrote a whole two page spread on down loading the 223 to sub-sonic velocities for use with a silencer - which are legal over here. Talk about a complete exercise in futility.

Just by a box of sub-sonic ammo for the .22lr. Job accomplished. Or am I missing something important??

Thanks guys.

No particular reason other then curiousity. I've pushed 40, 50 and 60 grain bullets to their upper limits, I just thought it would be interesting to test their accuracy at the low end.

Art

quote:

whats the point ?

We are reloaders, we'll beat it to death just to prove it can be done, that's why.

Just adds more flavor to the hobby.

art, the slowest thing I can find is 7.7grs of red dot. 55gr gr cast bullet. 1700f/s

your on the right track with fast powder try clays for sub sonic 223 best results from 5.7x28 because of small case

I ran the experiment some time ago for someone on this forum. 3 gr. of Blue Dot produced velocities between 700 to 900 fps. Only one bullet out of three struck the target and it key holed.roger

Roger,

I bet the bullet keyholed and the others missed the target because of their bullet weight.. I be they were 55 grainers or so...

The velocity didn't give the bullets enough rpms to stabilize with the one in 14 twist...
for subsonic stabilization, one really needs a 1 in 16 twist like a 22 Rimfire has...

Smaller grained bullets like the 40s or 35 grainers would probably stabilize with the one in 12 or 1 in 14...

I used some 37 grain HP Calhoon's which stabilized and were fairly accurate at 50 yds with both the 223 and the 22.250....

Of course I could be wrong.. it wouldn't be the first time seafire got things 'backasswards'.... how ever, I am good enough to admit it, and that is why I do a lot of experimenting... kinda real world proves or disproves it...

I see applications for 223's and 22.250s to be shot at rimfire speeds sometimes.. in the normal course of just target shooting or sage rat shooting....more accurate than some rimfires, and you can use the bullets you want...

with 55 grain FMJs, it can be cheaper to shoot than a 22 mag, and more accurate.. I can see a lot of application in that...

In a heavy barreled varmint rifle, it really takes a long time to heat up the barrel and not long for it to cool down....
and can be just fine when the distances of the major part of your shooter is within 100 yds...

just be prudent on your loading technics.. seat each bullet after charging a case, before going on to the next one...

cheers
seafire

You'll need to stick with the lighter bullets, as they heavier ones tumble. When I had a 218 mashburn contender pistol I loaded in both directions, max and min.

For subsonic loading you'll need to stick to the faster powders and use a dab of dacron or cotton over the powder if you want consistant velocities.

It's certainly a good learning experience. You'll probably come to the conclusion most of us do that it's a more time consuming and expensive way to get 22rf performance. You also might find it's very tough to get peak accuracy. The main difficulty is you need to have exactly the same powder charges and filler weight, and assemble the powder/filler consistantly. With such small charges, a tenth of a grain makes a difference. You're looking at charges that are 1/3 of that of a hornet, and the hornet is already criticle of charge weights.

Thanks for all the feedback. Think I will try the Blue Dot or Unique with a 40 gr bullet.

Art

quote:

Originally posted by ArtD:
Thanks for all the feedback. Think I will try the Blue Dot or Unique with a 40 gr bullet.

Art

Please post your findings. roger

i have loaded slower loads for 22-250,240wby,308 win,30-06 and 30-30 use cast loads from lyman book and using jacketed bullets instead of cast. was always a good way for me to get new shooters started.

In a 223 i have used 2.6 grains Vihtavuori N340 and a Lyman 45 RN GC bullet.

Rifle Remington 223 LTR with a 1:9 twist and Hausken silencer.

Very quiet and fairly accurate.

PS. 2.8 grains N340 went BANG.

Usefulness is in the eyes of the beholder! I used to load 22-250 cases with a CCI 250 primer,.7 gr of Bullseye and stuff a .22 cal pellet in the neck and shoot those #$$%^&*&^% noisy Myna birds off the roof. No noise and no Mynas either [after awhile that is].

Aloha, Mark

Mark, those 22 pellet loads are pretty amazing.

I loaded up ~1/2 gr of unique under a dab of tp and an inverted benjaming pellet for the kids to shoot their 223 int the garage. The report isn't much more than a clack. I figured a 1/4" sheet of ply would be a suitable backstop, but I was wrong, it blew clean through it and put several dings in the garage door.

Fortunately I insulated the door just after that indident so mom is none the wiser as to what the boys were up to

I think we'll be better off sticking to airsoft guns in the garage, but man those plastic bb's are everywhere

I use 'rimfire' loads in my 221 Fireball, 204 Ruger, 223 and 222 Rem Mag. I no longer even own a rimfire, as I can do all I need the the downloaded centrefires.