How many of you guys are pushing your 22-250s to the upper limits? I'm loading mine with 36gr of IMR4895 behind a 50gr Sierra (3800+ FPS), which is the max. It's shooting nicely, but I'm a bit concerned about barrel life. What should I expect? Should I try to back off a bit and find a slower load that shoots well also? If it's not a big deal or won't make much of a difference, I won't worry about it, but I just wanted your opinions.

I recently rebarreled a 22-250 Remington that had shot more than 4000 rounds of a nearly identical load. I shot the same load except I used H 4895 and had great success with it.

The accuracy held up really well until around 4000 rounds. At that point I switched to a 55 grain Hornady V-Max loaded out pretty far and squeezed a few more good varmint shooting trips out of it.

I think that is reasonable barrel life. If your gun likes that load I would use it. Just be carefull not to overheat the barrel and it will last a long while. My buddy tends to over heat his 22-250 and he seldom gets over 3000 rounds out of a barrel.

R F

My .22-250Rem has a 26" Hart SS heavy barrel. Those little puppies don't come cheap. I try to keep my 50gr. loads at 3700fps, and the 55gr. at 3600fps to prolong barrel life. This also
happens to be the speed at which I get my best accuracy. I'm hoping this one lasts a long time. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

Heat is what eats barrels. You put three rounds of those rounds thru the barrel at rapid fire and the barrel will be too hot to hold. And you can be sure the throat has started to erode. Shoot with some discipline -I wait at least 1 minute between shots even when sage rat shooting- and the barrel will last a much longer time. About every 1000 shots, recheck your seating depth. You'll probably need you seat your bullets out a bit further. Also check your velocity. As the barrel "matures", shall we say, you might need to add a pinch or two of powder to maintain the velocity.


[ 05-18-2003, 03:50: Message edited by: beemanbeme ]