22-250AI with 1 in 8 Barrel

[Iron Worker]

Will a 1 in 8 twist barrel smoke 55 gr bullets? My rifle is my walking predator/varmint rifle It has a sporter weight contour barrel now with 1 in14 twist. (Cooper Classic)Thinking of a Krieger 1in 8 barrel. Have it turned down to match present barrel.Maybe add an inch or two to it.Would that be a good duel purpose BBL?

 

[Varmint Hunter]

I'd prefer a 9 twist which would allow you to shoot bullets up to the 75gr A-Max. The 9 twist should be easier on high speed, light-weight bullets and may be slightly more accurate too. Another down-side of the 8 twist is that they are typically a little slower shooting and sometimes require more judicious copper cleaning.

With that being said, I had an 8 twist on my 22-243AI and I shot 55gr bullets when fireforming cases. I never smoked a single bullet at speeds typical of the 22-250 or AI version.

 

[James Jones]

I think that it depends more on the barrel and land profile than the twist rate. Kreigers at typicaly 4 groove barrel and they are cut rifled , some folks say that cut rifled barrels are harder on bullets than buttoned one and the 3 groove barrel have shown to be hard on bullet jackets.
This being said , the only real way would be to try it but give Kreiger a call first, I'm sure that somebody their will have an answer.
Or you could give one of the 5R barrel makers a try , either RockCreek , Broughton , Schnieder , Borden all make these type barrels and its said that they don't cause as much harm to bullets as do the other conventionaly grooved barrels and its been proven that they foul less and shoot a bit faster.
As for the twist , I think that the 1-9 would work fine up to 75gr bullet but it is probably on the edge where a 1-8 would be a little more than needed but plenty if you wanted to shoot some 80gr pills.
Now I have seen a 243 with a 1-8 twist shoot 55gr Ballistic tips out at over 4100fps and have no problems with the bullet comming apart and this was from a 6 groove Hart barrel.

SO all in all , I don't think that you should have any trouble with the 22-250Ai blowing them up in a 1-8 twist barrel so long as its a good lapped barrel.

 

[goodgrouper]

Never blew any bullets up in my 8" twist but they didn't shoot worth a bent peso. Overstabilization way past the design spec window of rpm's for that weight class.

 

[Exhaust3]

I have a 22-250 w/ 1-8" and 50gr. bullets can't handle the twist AT full tilt loads. I shoot 55gr NBT's at 3640 fps. and they handle the twist just fine. I bet those NBT's will handle it just fine as well. I think the 22-250 w/ the 1-8" twist is the perfect walking varmint/predator rifle. The AI chambering is just that much better!!!