Love to hear some info, stories. Seems like a quiet, underpraised/over performer whether in Saami or AI form.

Thanks.

My oldest son now 22,and my daughter now 19 shot their first bucks at ages 12 and 13 with a good friends Savage bolt, stainless and plastic, in .250.

Daughter shot a small whitetail buck at about 80 yards, bang flop. Son a small 4 point muley at about 175 yards, shot high in spine, took out the back legs, next shot through the lungs and dead.

Light recoiling, and the kids shot it well. My friend has taken several deer with it. I found I like it better than the .243 I have. Nice, easy shooting cartridge that seems to perform above it paper ballistics.

My 250-3000 was on a Mauser 98 action with 24", 1 in 10" barrel. Much more civilized than the .243 with a slower recoil, less muzzle flash and jump. My rifle was reasonably heavy though. Very good with 87 projectiles. 100 grainers were the most accurate but I loaded them for accuracy, not velocity and the trajectory was a bit curved. Great out to 150 paces.
I will build one again one day possibly on a Remington action similar in style to the CDL, or an all weather on a Stevens.
You won't go wrong and with a good light 3-9 scope would cover 99% of all shooting available here in Oz.

I've got a Remington Model 7 that I rebarreled to 250 Savage. The barrel is 22" with a 1-10 twist. I put a 2-7x Leupold on it. The gun is very nimble and it barely recoils. It is a true pleasure to shoot.

I've dropped a coyote and a feral pig with it. I use 90gr HPBT Sierra bullets. The 90gr Sierra is considered a varmint bullet when used at 25-06 velocities, but at 250 Savage velocities it mushroomed nicely and had good penetration on the pig. On the coyote, it mushroomed and killed quickly, but it punched through him so I never recovered the bullet.

I also took the gun on a prairie dog shoot and used out to about 200 yards. The 90gr Sierra worked great on these critters too.

Thanks guys.

I have killed deer with it. I however, prefer the .243. The .250/3000 is a fun little cartrige especailly in a classic rifle like the model 99. Just remember not to load it to hot in that fine gun.

Built my first in the early 70s. My Molokai Bro got it! Now still use my 600 but it`s now the AI.EVEN BETTER if possible!
Aloha, Mark

I love the caliber and have always been impressed by its performance, whether it's in a 22" rifle or a 15" pistol.

Using a 15" XP loaded with the 85 grain BT at just over 2900 fps, I took a gorgeous blackbuck at 260 yards a few years ago. A year or two prior to that, I used the 87 grain Hornady SP at 2900 fps during a TX Hill Country hunt and took a buck (140 yards) and a doe (90 yards) and was rewarded with exceptional bullet performance.

Both the Hornady 87 grainer and the Nosler 85 grain BT work very well for medium big game in the cartridge.

With that being said, most of my hunting, though, has been with the 100 grain BT at 2700 fps. At that velocity, bullet performance is exceptional, and the 100 grainer seems to be a bit more authoritative on game.

The aoudad was taken with a 100 grainer at 2650 fps MV, albeit with a .257 JDJ in a 14" Contender barrel. It's the ballistic twin of the Savage but more suitable to the Contender.

In a rifle, it's only more of a good thing.

Forgot to add: I have used a number of powders in the .250 in both standard and AI format, and Re-15 has always risen to the top and rewarded me with the highest velocities and best accuracy.

The 250/3000 is my go-to whitetail rifle here in central Florida. I load 36gr of RL15 under a 100gr Partition. the rifle is a Savage 10 re-barreled with a 25/06 take off.I also have the 250AI on a Ruger #3 action with a Douglas #8 Varmint barrel. It is super on the PD towns of the Texas panhandle with 75gr V-Max and 42gr of RL15.
I also shoot a 25/06 and a 257 Roberts.
GOOD LUCK and GOOD SHOOTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great info guys, Bobby, your post reminds me long ago of an article perhaps by Layne Simpson, Dick Metcalf or perhaps Bob Milek. My apologies for my memory, but it was in shooting times or G&A and the subject was the XP-100. It had VERY good things on the 250 savage in the XP, and it seems the author took a Caribou with a 7BR and a 130 X bullet.

I just may get something like this built, as long ago not many knew what I toted then a 7mm-08, now MANY carry them afield, so I am back to 6.5's, but I do have a growing interest in this little 25.....

Thanks again.

The .250 Savage is a great round for hunting. At least as good as the .243 Winchester for anything on our continent. With handloads maybe somewhat better sometimes.

Anyway, I have owned and hunted with numerous ones, and all were good. Among those were an original Kurz Mauser sporter, a M-1920 Savage bolt action, half-a-dozen M99's, and a Remington 700 Classic. There doubtless have been others I don't recall off the top of my head. My bottom line for them is this:

Accurate, reliable, a good game killer, light to carry, civilized, low recoil, circa 100-years old and still around.

If those terms sound about like what you'd want, you owe it to yourself to have at least one.

+1+ on what Alberta Canuck said.
I bought a 700 Classic the year it came out, 1984 IIRC. It is one of the most friendly calibers I own, always wanting to please me. It is scary accurate with 87 grain Speer, 90 grain Sierra, and 100 grain Hornady and Sierra bullets grouping always less than 1 inch. 117 grain Hornady RN and 120 Hornady HP open to around 1.5 inches. I've found H-4895 to be the best powder for 100 grains and under, while IMR-4320 is perfered for 117-120 grains.
I have used the Hornady 100 grain bullet at 2900 fps on w/t deer and they have always dropped within 25 yards. My shots have been 100 yards or less but, I wouldn't hesitate at twice that range. A most efficent little round with hardly any recoil and not much muzzle blast, what's not to like.

quote:

Originally posted by Joe Dean:
+1+ on what Alberta Canuck said.
I bought a 700 Classic the year it came out, 1984 IIRC. It is one of the most friendly calibers I own, always wanting to please me. It is scary accurate with 87 grain Speer, 90 grain Sierra, and 100 grain Hornady and Sierra bullets grouping always less than 1 inch. 117 grain Hornady RN and 120 Hornady HP open to around 1.5 inches. I've found H-4895 to be the best powder for 100 grains and under, while IMR-4320 is perfered for 117-120 grains.
I have used the Hornady 100 grain bullet at 2900 fps on w/t deer and they have always dropped within 25 yards. My shots have been 100 yards or less but, I wouldn't hesitate at twice that range. A most efficent little round with hardly any recoil and not much muzzle blast, what's not to like.

Joe,

My 700 Classic in 250 shoots 36.0 grains of Varget with the 90 Sierra HPBT very well..
It is just a pleasure shooting this rifle.
Target below.




Don

Don, It looks as if your rifle does quite nicely indeed with Varget. Mine just did so well with H-4895 right out of the gate that I haven't tried many others. I do have a lot of H-335 and wonder how it would do with the 100 grain and lighter bullets. Guess the best way to find out is to load some and see.
Joe

DMB, that's good shooting, and a good shooter.

I had considered rebarrelling one of those new TC Icons in 22-250 to 250 Savage. I guess it depends on what happens with aftermarket stocks.

I hope McMillan picks up that ball.

Would also be neat in 6mm BR.

That Icon in Hornady's new 6.5 Creedmoor would be very close to a 250 AI, in performance with heavier, though not as light of bullet options.

A '25 TC' would be a balanced round perhaps more so than the WSSM IMHO. Who knows what may come up.

Question for Bobby Tomek: The guy on the right in your picture looks like the late Dennis Weaver from the 70's TV series "McCloud". Is that him?

I used a Savage M99EG for several years back in the 1970s. It was accurate, no recoil at all, and accounted for several Woodchucks and crows. The high point came when I discovered a cache of 60 grain W-W hollow points made for the .25-20 WCF, and loaded them into the Savage. Suddenly I had varmint artillery that turned crows into puffs of black feathers. Really enjoyed that Savage, and it won me a few beers at the local shooting club running deer course too.

LLS

The 250-3000 is one of my favorite calibers..I have shot a lot of deer with it and shot a number of elk with it also in my youth..My dad must have shot over 40 or 50 elk with it as did both of his brothers. We all shot Savage 99s with the factory iron sights back then, usually sighted them in on beer can! We also only used 100 gr. Rem Corelokts and 100 gr. Silvertips as best I recall. A shot in the shoulder and the deer or elk didn't make many tracks.

The little 250 Savage seems to kill all out of porportion to its size IMO..Its just one of thoes well balanced cartridges that works..

It handloads easily and isn't particular about loads..I much prefer it to the 6mms...and its the perfect deer rifle IMO...

I can't praise it enough....

MCA, sounds like great memories! Reminds me of a buddy who used old Win 22 mag bullets...in a 22 K Hornet #3 Ruger on blackbirds....w/similar effect!

Ray, can't argue w/track record of success there...iron sights likely meant few shots 'outside it's capabilities' but when used w/in limits.....you and the family got to eat! Good thing!

Having owned and killed deer w various 6mm rounds, I always suspected and heard some say the 25s just does it a little better. I think the 6's are marginal in frontal area, though some select bullets do very well on deer sized game, I would not be surprised if one could find enough empirical data, the stats just might show an improvement in short trails post shot.....w/250s. That statement is made just looking at ALL shots using various bullets....as it seems there is more variance in bullet construction in 6mm's used in factory ammo, vs the lesser variety offered in 250s.

I'd imagine a 95 ballistic tip in a 243 would be nigh identical as a 100 ballistic tip in a 250, but since Blue is my favorite color......I think I'd rather use a blue bullet all else equal! How does that stand for logic in cartridge selection? Yes, pure emotion perhaps....which is part of the 'fun factor' in the hunting equation.

I do recall years back Steve Timm wrote highly of a 250 perhaps AI, his wife used with deadly effect. I'll have to dig that Varmint Hunter issue up sometime.

Thanks Ray.

My dad used 250-3000 sav model 99 back in depression.i have his guns 2 of them and 3 sav 99 in 300 caliber...

Between us/relatives we have 100 deer out of the 250-3000 ..dad felt the 87 gr was better on deer than 100 gr..I do also..

I load it with Speer 87 gr ,cci200,3031 powder ,rem shells with overall length of 2.510 ..It puts deer right down so did 100 grs BUT dad said 87 really dropped the deer so I still load it ...

We found out that Spire point bullets did not work well in the 250.
We only used Speer/Sierra bullets .I believe my 250 is 1-10 twist my other one is 1-14 twist I do not shoot the 1-14 i like the 1-10 as its lighter gun....

glad to see interests here in 250-3000..out to 300 yards it really will put deer down ,no recoil and very light gun..

I jumped on the .243 bandwagon early on, like what I read..It killed like a lightening strike most of the time, but more than a few times it failed miserably...Finn Aagard said the same thing and so did a lot of Texas Ranchers who dropped it for larger or different calibers. Over the years at SCI folks talking at my table told horror stories to the same effect, so it must be so, perhaps it is the cross section, but I never had that problem with a 22-250 so who knows..anyway I choose not to use the 6's based on that and went back to my 250s that never failed me one time even on elk and one big bear.

Im pretty basic on hunting, and if someone asked my if I would ever use a 6mm on deer again based on my experience, I would in a heart beat, we have better bullets today, plain and simple..Also I think many of the quoted failures had to be shooter error and shots around the edges of the kill zone, but of course they were dead center heart shots or so claimed..

The other reasoning is I built a 6x45 in the early 80s and Ive killed a lot of stuff, both small and large with it, without a single incident..love it. I shoot big stuff with the 80 gr. GS Customs HVHP monolithic bullet, it will shoot thru a cow elk broadside every time and has by a ranchers wife..She used to use the 22-250 for her yearly elk, but likes the 6x45 much better..out the window of the ranchhouse kitchen...

I have had 2 rifles chambered in 250-3000. The first one was a Remington 700 classic. I killed a couple of deer with it and my nephew expressed and interest in buying it. I sold it to him and immediately regretted it. Several years later I stumbled upon a 1949 year Savage 99 and wrote a check for it so fast the ink dried from the friction generated heat.

Here is a picture of a nice 8 point taken with the 99. It does kill things all out of proportion to it's size.

My brother had a little Mauser Kurz 250 Savage and shot a lot of red deer and feral goats with it. It did kill out of proportion to its size. Can't recall what 100gr projectiles we used when reloading but do recall acquiring a box of sleek 120gr hollow points. These bullets would not stabilise in the Mauser barrel but 117gr Hornady round nose bullet did. These were my brother's favourite projectile in this cartridge and he rolled deer over with regularity.

My model 14 American harvested its first animal this season with the 90 Sierra HP bullet, shot by a youngster for his first deer. The lungs inside his deer were mush, complete devastation were his dads words. I loaded them with Win. 760 powder.

We have a 99A (I think) with 20" bbl and straight hand, uncheckered. Wears a Weaver 4x. Evidently, it has the slow twist as barely manages 100 gr PSPCLs. Still have a bunch of 117 gr Hornady RNs and even some 100 gr Silvertips. When I get time going to try, just to see.

Dad shot his one and only whitetail, 6 pts from about 125 yds away, with it behind the farm in Guilford. A farmer in CT borrowed it to shoot a couple deer, too. One of my brother's kids killed his first with it. Me? In 1980 missed a crotch with it b/c POI was 6" over aim - dumbass med student. Killed that very deer same evening but used a 336 in .30-30.

I wish someone would make a .250 bolt again - with a useable twist rate - but suspect the 6.5 Creed has dampened enthusiasm.

You can find a good bolt gun in 250-3000 if you stay on the internet blogs, AR, Guns Int. or Guns America..I recently bought a real nice Ruger Ultralight, mod. 77 on AR, I think that model is from the 1960s or 70s?? It shoots like a dream. My favorite load is the 110 gr. Nosler Accubond behind a stiff load of H-414. Shot two Whitetail with it and my grandson in law shot his first Mule Deer with it this year and he is a convert to the 250 and I created a monster, all he wants to do is hunt.