Custom .22-250?

Just poking in an addition as I haven't yet seen it "together" in my skim of previous - the 7-8 range shouldn't be "too fast" in the "heavy for caliber" weight range here. Some of the early design lighter weight bullets would most likely be where you get any coming apart from "over" rotation. In the 62 (ballpark) and heavier you're "only" getting a tad more than 223/556 in published data and those run 7-8 too.
Edit/add: 22CM is being reported by Peterson cartridge as 1-7. Depending what action you have there are alternut offerings out there in you can always split the difference with a 7.5 (my suggestion) in whatever chamber you choose. Figure out which pill you wish to give flight to and how fast you want to send it, functionally. I can tell you the 70 RDF does just fine in 7.5, three in 1 hole at 100 with the first workup. Shilen's chamber happens to have plenty of freebore in 22-250, leaving plenty of space for "combustion chamber", too. As the other gent later in this post wrote, he had zero expansion at very far range, something to keep in mind once these heavy pills drop enough velocity.

FireFlyFishing said:

I love the .22-250 cartridge. The SAMMI spec is lame compared to modern standards and projectiles though. So…contemplating a .22-250 custom with a 6" or 7" twist barrel. Now we're talking old cartridge with some legs.

Before you start throwing 22 CM or others at me because this or that…I have lots of .22-250 brass laying around…like a lot. I also have a metric crap ton of 77 grn SMKs laying around.

What action size would be adequate? Should I throat the barrel for the specific bullet I will be using?

Intended purpose: Coyote gun. That's it….just a yote gun. I'd run it suppressed. Long barrel ok…even with a suppressor.

How would you build this rifle?

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Good morning from the land of the "Cats"...

I took a Kimber Montana, had Carson @ Lilja build me a barrel that the contour follows factory to the end of the forend (don't have to open the channel) then tapered to .62" at the muzzle @ 23".

8 twist

So far it's shot all from 55's to 88's into little tiny bug holes.

I mainly carry the 73 Berger in it, I also have loads with the 62 TTSX and the 70 Hammer.

Great piece, use it for all that moves from elk on down here in Montana.

(side note, IMO the main reason to AI isn't for speed, it's to remove trimming.....typically you'll give up a bit of smoothness in feeding but it'll still work ok)

Mine is set up for a Can

I've had several .22-250 Rem's over my lifetime, at one point I decided to punch one out to the .22-250 AI... Going back, I found nothing wrong with the original .22-50 Rem, but... the .22-250 AI gave me a little more gain all the way around, what was surprising was the accuracy, not that it wasn't already accurate enough before. I re-chambered it to the .22-250 AI bottom line it just gave me a little more. It originally started out as a .22-250 Rem with a 1-7 twist polygonal 28" barrel, custom Varminter/Palma from PacNor. That 1-7 twist really like Sierra 65gr Gk's and 77gr Mk's. The brass seemed to live forever. So would I do the re-chamber again? I sure would. Just my 0.2 Cheers

Just a couple more thoughts...
I will attest to regular 22-250 brass stretching and needing to be trimmed regularly. This may not be a concern for you if you have a bunch of brass and won't be using the rifle for Prairie Dog volume shooting. When I built my first 22 Creedmoor, there wasn't factory brass available so I was forming my own. I did it two different ways. First was necking down 6mm CM brass. The other was just loading up regular 22-250 cases with the bullet seated to jam depth. Both methods worked well and gave great accuracy. The 22-250 to 22CM was much quicker and easier and resulted in good cases. Lapua 22-250 brass formed like this is fantastic. Another thought on twist rate. I did my first build as a 1/7 twist as I was planning on shooting the then new 95gr SMK. It shot this bullet extremely well, but as the barrel wore in, I started have bullet failures with lighter 75 and even 88gr ELDMs. When we built a 22CM for my brother we used a 1/8 twist. His rifle shoots like a laser and will reliably stabilize 88gr ELDMs, although it shoots the Berger 80.5s the best. My opinion would be do a 1/8 twist 22-250 AI or a 22CM since you have brass that will work for both. Good luck!!

I am real olde & like stuff that works good. I have 4, .22-.250's all with 7.7 twist, McGowen barrels. I only shoot 75 grain ELDM bullets. I like SW 4350 & StaBall 6.5 powder. Any kind of large rifle powder works but I prefer standard primers for extruded powders like the friendly, accuracy producing, & available SW 4350. StaBall 6.5 provides about 100 fps more velocity & is more happy with more sparky primers like CCI 34's.

Three of my rifles are SA Ruger M77 MKII's, 1 is a Rem SA 700. One Rugers has a Timney trigger, the other 2 have had self performed trigger jobs involving lightening spring tension & engagement tuning. Two of the Ruger's are 1st run push feed & I converted them to single shot by drilling & tapping .25X28 (same as Rem 700) front action screw hole on bottom of receiver - works good & I then traded off magazine parts.

7.7 twist:



.224 75 ELDM



Staball 6.5 with Fed 215M



The .22-.250 AI would reduce case stretching & give slightly more velocity. Small primer .22-.250 brass would make me real happy. I am now mounting scopes using Burris Ruger M77 mount bases with Burris Sig rings or Weigand 20 MOA bases. This gives me increased range like up to 1,000 yards & helps to keep reticle, both elevation & windage closer to center.

Hugnot said:

The .22-.250 AI would reduce case stretching & give slightly more velocity. Small primer .22-.250 brass would make me real happy.

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We've discussed this for years now. I can't believe there isn't small primer 22-250 brass available. Maybe we can convince Peterson or Starline to do a run of it. I bet it would sell like hotcakes!!

Hugnot, mind me asking what is your use for your rifle, and thanks for sharing!

Some years ago I bought an XR-100 in 22-250. Came with a 26" barrel and a laminate thumb hole stock. I put a Jewell trigger in and this thing was a shooter right from the beginning. I recently had it set back and reamed to an AI. My first AI and I am experimenting with 35 and 44 grain hammers instead of the 52hpbt I was using. Looking for 4000+ FPS. Should be lots of fun!

In another 12T, zero freebore, with 40g noslers, H380, I get 4200 out of a 27" barrel, tiny bug holes abound. Citified, with your shortened barrel, I am sure you will be all over 4000!

quigley257 said:

We've discussed this for years now. I can't believe there isn't small primer 22-250 brass available. Maybe we can convince Peterson or Starline to do a run of it. I bet it would sell like hotcakes!!

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Lapua WERE making SRP brass and I ordered 2 lots of 500. Best brass I have ever used in my 22-250AI. It's now been dropped.
I even started using some in my standard 22-250 running 55g BT's @ 3850fps for spotlighting foxes & rabbits.

Cheers.

I am excited about the idea of getting over 4000 fps. This thing was already like a laser.
If and when the barrel wears out, I will replace it with faster twist. First loads are not with H380 but I have a lot of that so I may try that too. Thanks for the input.

I know you said you didn't want to hear it but I'm gonna say it anyway. Even though you own a ton 22-250 brass I bet when the dust settles you could go 22 Creed and buy 200 pc of premium brass and end up the same price or cheaper.

The 22 creed is popular right now and the reamers are real dialed in. You could probably call up one of the major prefit makers and tell them what bullet your shooting with what brass and they are gonna have a reamer for it.

Finding a prefit manufacture with a specific freebore reamer for 22-250 might be a challenge. If you have to buy a reamer your already ahead with 22 creed and 230.00 worth of brass which is enough to wear out a barrel.

If you go AI now your fireforming (that alone would sway me from it) the dies are gonna cost what 22 creed brass will and the 22 creed brass that's available right now blows any 22-250 brass made now out of the water (and you can easily get small rifle primer brass if you want). And this is all just to get the same performance (with the AI) that the creed will do with an easy to find reamer and easy to find brass.

VinceMule said:

Hugnot, mind me asking what is your use for your rifle, and thanks for sharing!

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Steel targets and use against destructive rodents - order Rodentia, like compulsive gnawing and spreading of filth & disease.
The 75 ELD swats down pop can size rodents & expands well on 1/2 gallon milk carton size rodents - but not for heavy volume shooting.

The 87 Vmax @ 3475 fps MV surpasses but burns up to 15 grains more powder with more blast.

A major advantage with the .22 CM is the availability of small rifle primers, A Rem 7 1/2 should work fine with up to 40 grains of most suitable ball powders.

Eons & eons ago, when I was young, H380 was the .22-.250 powder using 50 - 55 grain bullets out of 14 twist barrels. Experience out on rodent habitat where the rodents (rock chucks) were perched on refrigerator size & shape rocks across windy coulees (immediate post Pleistocene flooding where the mighty Colombia river temporarily gushed through & formed the deep valley or coulee) having vast flat bottom land alfalfa fields. Ranges were longish, like 440 to 600 yards and the puffy 10-15 MPH winds blowing from the NE down the coulee made hits problematic using 55 grain Sierra BTSP bullets at about 3,700 fps. The solution was to deploy 6.5-06 rifles loaded with 49 grains or so of surplus H4831 & 140 Sierra Game King bullets @ about 2850 fps. kills were recorded up to 1/2 mile.

Hordes of destructive rodents gnawed away 20 or more feet of alfalfa near coulee edge and used massive blocks of basalt at coulee edge for sanctuary (dens). In addition to gnawing away 100's of yards of alfalfa out to 20 or more feet the area was littered with rodent filth (poop), The rodent filth presented a health problem when it was incorporated into bales of alfalfa.

H380 came about when huge stocks of 4895 powder used in cal. .30 M2 ammo left over from destroying the enemies of our Republic during WWII were dissolved for nitrocellulose content and made into ball powder with NG and other stuff.