quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
The 22-250 and also the .220 swift have been used successfully for years to hunt deer and I know folks that believe it's the best thing ever invented to hunt them with. I've done the trick with a short barreled .222 and was very successful using 55 grain soft points.

While I personally use the 6.5 X 55 and up to the .30-06 I can say that anyone that wants to hunt with the .22-250 is welcome to hunt with me.

I think with the advent of the 55-60 grain .243 bullets offered by leading bullet manufacturers the .243-6MM calibers will duplicate the performance of the 22-250 and as a double will handle the more poipular deer rifle bullets in 100 grains. If I had a 22-250 is one thing.....if I was buying a rifle I'd certainly be looking to the .243 and handloading the 55 grain BTs for varmints and 100 grainers for deer.

To your question...is the 22-250 adequate for deer?...Yes...time proven.....it works.

Vapodog,
May I accept that as an invitation?(grin)
Stepchild

Holzgauge: I will have to take some exceptions with your latest posting.
You see I have Hunted much more than my share of medium size Big Game with Rifles in the calibers you mention (like 243's, 6mm's, 240 Weatherby, 257 Roberts, 25/06 and 260 Remington) and the 22 Centerfires kill just as quickly (often times in their tracks!) when proper bullet placement has been correctly achieved!
At this point I need to interject that the game I shoot at "presents" a perfect shot to me OR I don't take the shot.
A bad shot with a 260 is just as bad a situation as a bad shot with a 22-250!
Now if you mean a "bad shot" (badly placed bullet) enters a game animal in a less than immediately lethal area of the games anatomy and a kill is still obtained relatively quickly - then one has to go higher on the Rilfe power spectrum than 243's and 257's! To see 100 yard lethality from this type "bad shot" placement (that you may be referring to) one needs the 300 Magnums (and up!). They sometimes kill medium size game somewhat quickly even when the bullet has been poorly placed. These animals often times travel greater distances before dying than when shot in a lethal spot (heart/lungs) with a 223 or 22-250 though!
I did miss out on shots a couple of dandy (trophy!) Mule Deer last fall because I could not get a steady sight picture on the heart/lung areas of those two Mulies! I let them escape without firing a shot. I know where they live and I will be back next year.
Having said that I don't think that obtaining or waiting for a "perfect shot" to present itself has hindered my enjoyment of Hunting medium size game. Nor has it affected my yearly success rate much either. After passing on shooting at those two smart (and quick) Mule Deer Bucks last year, I did get a shot at and cleanly harvested a real dandy Mule Deer. Its at the Taxidermist Shop now.
I have Hunted thickets in both eastern and western Washington as well as willow choked bottoms in Montana and Wyoming and I am aware of the hinderances that cover can bring to aiming and sight pictures and such. I appreciate where you are coming from.
But I just don't ever recall loosing a heart/lung shot head of game even when in heavy cover!
My friend Ron shot a dandy Whitetail in a wheat stubble field last year with his Varmint Rifle. As it turned out he thought the Buck had ran off with some others in that herd and after searching the area he gave up and came and found me to help him follow the blood trail if we could find it! There was no blood trail because when we got back to the scene we found the Buck. It had died in its tracks where it was shot! It had fallen in some stubble that was on a "hog back" and the dead Deer's carcass was impossible to see from where he shot it at.
As we drove in we saw the now two hour old dead Deer "stretched out" and laid flat in the stubble from half mile away. That Buck is at the taxidermist also.
Shot placement and game retrieval are very important (as well as being interconnected) parts of our enjoyment of Hunting medium size big game!
Wounding game with poor shot selection and placement should be avoided if at all possible! That detracts from our sport.
But poor shot selection and placement in my observations is not much different between 22 centerfires and 24, 25 and 26 caliber centerfires. The results are wounded and slow dying game, and on those thankfully very rare occassions, lost game.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

If you place the shot well you'll kill them with a .22, but if they run very far in thick cover it certain can make it unnecessarily miserable to retrieve them. You can talk all day about shot placement but the truth is more gun does give you more margin for error up to the point where the recoil interfers with the accuracy.

Sorry, I got interrupted. I'm not saying shot placement doesn't matter most. It does. For example I only hunted one full and two half days this year and killed three deer, one 125 yrd head shot, one 30 yrd. head shot and one 30 yard heart shot. None of the animals went more than half their body length after I shot. That bang flop is my favorite measure of success. My experience tells me that hunting you just don't have the control you do on the rifle range. A sudden unanticipated movement by a broadside deer could change a perfect heart shot with a 22-250 into a one lung half mile run, or two mile stager through the green thorn, marsh or swamp. A miserable experience for the hunter and torture for the deer. Slow death also hurts the quality of the venison. All other things being equal with something like a .270, 7mm 08, 6.5x55 or even 243 the wound path is larger and the animal won't go so far. In the last 40 years I've spent a few days recovering deer that ran a long way and I'd much rather be hunting deer than drops of blood.

Have you tried the Barnes 53gr TSX in the 22-250 for hunting?

Varmint Guy---Can you tell us about an animal that was hit with a badly placed shot from a .300 magnum but was still cleanly harvested? You mentioned passing on a couple of shots---didnt say what rifle you were carrying---but if not a magnum,would you have gone ahead and taken the poor shot with a magnum planning on it compensating?

I have killed piles of deer with various 22 centerfires while on herd reduction hunts as we are required to use ONLY .22 centerfires. Many of the reductions are in parks and such and are done at night. They will kill any deer just as dead as any .550 Megawhapenboomer PROVIDED proper shot placement with a proper bullet. The margin for error is smaller with the smaller bullets. As a trained sharpshooter, I have no problems with this. One must know the load, the gun, and the trajectory of the bullet. I have used various Barnes X, the 55 gr. Trophy bonded bear claw, the 64 gr win PP and the 60 gr Nosler part without any problems.

If it is legal in your area, then there is no problem with using them.

Carpertman: I did not say "cleanly harvested" with bad shot placement! I said killed relatively quickly - "died in 100 yards". Yeah these are the ham shot or gut shot (liver) and slower bleeding out and shock kills.
The big Magnums on occassion will kill animals with poor shot placement - shot placement that if made with a 22-250 would certainly have led to long tracking jobs or lost game or game that suffered extensively. This is a fact - a sad fact but true.
I normally Hunt Mule Deer with one of my 270 Winchesters, a 280 Remington, 25/06 and like that. I have killed many more Antelope and Mule Deer with my 240 Weatherby than I have with the 300 Winchester Magnum or the 7mm Remington Magnum.
Negative on the bad shot opportunities - I pass on them.
More later
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Countless thousands of deer have been shot here in New Zealand by Government Deer Cullers with the 222 Rem. It's popularity was due in the main to three factors; the light rifles chambered for it, it's accuracy and the ease of carrying a hand full of ammunition.
The Cullers are no more and the popularity of the 222 has deminished as a deer round.
Many Cullers turned to the 243 with it's heavier bullet and longer range, they saw the 243 as the perfect round for the profesional. I agree with that. A man who shoots full time and knows his rifle and it's capabilities will find the 243 a good round for despatching deer up to the size of Reds.
For the sportsman, no matter how good a shot he is on the range, if he only gets out a few times a year then, in my view, he would be better armed, with a 6.5 calibre rifle.

There are and allways will be blokes who can take deer with the 22 centre fires.
As a reliable, get that deer round, the 222 no longer apeals to me, as a small game round it's first class. For deer I use a 6.5 or a 7mm.
Way back when, I met a fellow, Harry Rose, who is well known in Britain for his ideas on forest design. He designed forests with amongst other things glades and acces for stalkers to deer feeding grounds. His favourite round for shooting Roe deer, which I understand is the same as the American Whitetale, a 22-250. Game management was his job. He had been a game keeper as had had his father and grand father. Forests and game were, as it were, in his blood.
Proffesional Cullers and Game Keepers aside I think most of us are better served by a round which fires something fatter, heavier and at a lower velocity.

Ok guys thats what I think and do. Others think and do other things but hey....

To address the question, I would not recommend a 22-250 without knowing a lot more about the fellow who might use it. As a general recommendation, in an Encore for shooting deer, the 260 Rem.
Bye yall

My first deer gun when I was growing up was a 222 Remington. Its still home with my brother in NC.

I think that the whole 22-250 as a deer cartridge come down to a couple of things:

1. The skill of the shooter.
2. A shooter who can and will pass on shots that require the bullet to penetrate several inches of hide, flesh, bones, and internal organs to reach the heart, lungs, or CNS.
3. A proper .224" bullet

If all 3 criteria are met, then the 22-250 will kill deer as quickly as any other cartridge. I can't think of any deer than I've shot with a 22-250 that didn't die within 10 yards of where they were when hit with either a 60 grain Partition or a 64 grain PowerPoint.

Jeff

My friend will meet all three requirements. Oh, and he has decided to get the barrel.

He's a very good shot, and doesn't get in a hurry. He's a really ethical hunter. He won't take a shot unless it ensures a kill. The bullet part is also covered, since I'll be loading for him. I was thinking NP or TSX.

Does anyone have a poblem with 53 TSX stabalize in the 1:14 Twist barel.......this is the bullet I would like to shoot to avoid pelt damage.

I've shot them in a couple of 14's and they shot fantasticly!

Mark D

quote:

Does anyone have a poblem with 53 TSX stabalize in the 1:14 Twist barel.......this is the bullet I would like to shoot to avoid pelt damage.

Please post back sometime your results on pelt damage. Unfortunatly the bullet that I use for minimal pelt damage HAS BEEN DISCONINUED!!! THANKS SPEER! The speer 50g MHP or (moly coated hollow point) was a very accurate very fur friendly bullet in my 22-250 even at top velocities. But like I stated in another post all the bullet companies are tripping over themselves to create these "My bullets blew that varmint into 1501 pieces which is 50 pieces more than your bullet did!" Bullets. So if your sucessful with the barnes please let us know.

As for pelt damage they were very kind to the pelts.

Usual caviate, avoid the shoulder/spine and breast bone and you'll not have issues.

Mark D

Thanks Mark, I mainly will be using them on Wolf and Lynx. I think I will need a heavier bullet construction than the normal varmint bullet like the Speer HP. The 53 TSX is what I will start my 22-250 loads with, and trying to decide on what powder...RL15, Varget, H414 and H380. I have on my Brass and primers ready WW brass and 210M and BR2 primers.

Jeff-If I remember right I used the 53 TX and 34 or 35 of Varget and it worked like a champ!

I also used BR2's and a W-W case

Make it your best day!

Mark D