Two hunting partners and myself decided today that a mid-summer prarie dogging trip to SD, MT, or some place will happen this summer. Probably early August, we'll see. Anyway, one of the rifles I plan on taking is a custom built m700 22-250. This gun will shoot any decent factory ammo to about .5 MOA and sometimes much less. I began shooting 45gr Winchester white box CPX1 just to obtain brass and begin reloading, but found them to shoot well below a half inch!!! Admittedly, I just got lazy and had to dang much fun shooting it with factory ammo. Presently, it is the only gun I own that I don't reload for.

Soooooooo, now I'm all set up to start reloading [finally] for this rifle. I expect this gun will be my primary long range pdog rifle so I not only want accuracy, but I want to optimize it's SPLAT FACTOR. Any bullet suggestions? Heavy or light weights? I'm working with a heavy varmint 26" 1-14 twist barrel.

Thanx

Waldog: Im on my second barrel in a savage 22-250
It likes 41grs. of h-414, speer 52 hpbt or flat base, cci BR-2 primers @3700fps. it shoot well under .5"@100yds. these are chronograph out of a 26' 1:14 HB.. I have two trips to South Dakota and had a good time shooting at the dogs.
Dave

I have tried them all and keep coming back to Hornady 50 grain spsx's. Remington brass, CCI-250 primer and 42 grains of H-380 makes it all go 3850 in my 24" Ruger varminter. 1/4 groups are the norm for this trigger job only rifle. Start out at 38 grains and work your way up. This may not look like much of a bullet but if your looking for lots of "pink mist" and "bako bits" this is the one.

You have to have a smooth bore or these will come apart in flight if pushed to hard. It's never happened to me but my buddy who never used to clean his gun started having this problem after about 1000 rounds down an uncleaned barrel.

H380 and H414 are both great powders and meter very well. But the days here in Mt in Aug can get very hot, be careful not to use max loads or let your ammo get hot as it will raise preasures alot.

I use both of those powders but on those hot days I use H4895, 34-35 gr will work well in most 22-250's with a 55 gr bullet. This load gives good velocity but is a very temp stable powder and woun't give you any surprises on a hot day.

I use the Hornady 75 grain amax. I use it regular out to 500 yards. You could try it, but it may or may not work in a 1-14 twist barrel.

I shoot it in a 1-9 barrel.

Pecos

If you are getting excellent accuracy from those Winchester USA loads, then why not stick with them? Price isn't really a factor here. I have used Nosler Ballistic tips and Barnes X and the splat factor is about the same as those USA's. Also, how much do you plan to pay to hunt when you come to SD to hunt here? Just curious.

Waldog
For maximum splat factor try the 50gr. V-Max with a max load of H-380, or Varget, Varget is a tempature stable powder if you will be shooting in hot weather. Roy

Whenever i load a varmint rig for pr. dogs, i always use the cheapest bullet that shoots well. Although i've never gotten them to shoot good for me, i know guys that have used the 55 gr bulk bullets from some of the catalogs out there--Midway, etc. In fact, Wideners has some 55+62 gr SPBT's for $32-33/500 that came from some Russian arsenal. But if you don't get a chance to shoot a lot of pr. dogs and u want to go long, then try the highest B.C. bullet available (the 55 gr. Sierra Blitzking) then work down from there.

Waldog: I have two 22-250's and prefer to use the highly accurate, very explosive and very economical (cheap!) Sierra 55 gr. Blitz bullets (#1345)! These bullets really "whopp" the Prairie Dogs! And you can run them as fast as you want with no fear of disintegration from a 22-250. Good luck and have fun this summer!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Why not get better use of the distance the 250 will shoot and use a 55g? 45's and 50's are for in close or saving the pelt and are a not the right choice for 200+ shooting IMO. I moved up to 60g bullets and have never had any lighter bullets do the amout of damage these 60's do.

What if you changed primer types when using ball powders like H-380 on a hot day. On a hot day use regular large rifle primers and on cooler days use a mag large rifle primer.

I have never strayed from my cci-250 primer with H-380 but as long as you�re not right on the max (42 grains) it should not be a problem. Say it gets really hot and your velocity does go up 75 feet per second. So what. Just hold a smidge lower on the really long ones. All this hype about temperature sensitive powders for most shots less than 350 yards doesn't amount to anything. Forget about it. I shoot gut sacks for max explosions anyway and if it goes an inch higher well then its heart lungs torn in half critter anyway. If you start flattening primers then back down a grain next time out.

Even if H-380 isn't the absolutely most temp stable powder it is the most consistent through my measure and hot or cold still shoots 1/4-inch groups. I can load 50 rounds in about 20 minutes.

Nice

To keep it short and sweet, try any of the Hornady V-Max offerings and load it in front of a suitable charge of H 4895 or Varget. These WILL turn prairie dogs into a real mess!

I would recommend staying away from the ball powders, personally. I have been in Wyoming and South Dakota shooting prairie dogs when it was so hot you were wishing to hell there was some shade.
AND, I have been in both states in the summer when it was cold as hell. (I have seen it snow like heck in South Dakota on Memorial weekend.)Ball powders just are not the choice here, I don't care who makes them!!

R F

R F

The 22-250 and splat factor? Thats what we out south call red mist! Cut them in two and let the chunks fall from the sky. The best combo for this is from max load phil(The Dog Hunter) Use 40gr VMAX or 40grs Nosler bt and agood ball powder. I like ball powders to load for fast volume. Then its time to paint the dog towns the best color of all, BLOOD AND GUTS RED!

ball powder give longer barrel life, NRA highpower shooters have know this for years.