22-250 TEST

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  • Last Post 04 September 2016
joeb33050 posted this 02 September 2016

In the fall of 2015 I bought a Savage Striker in 22-250 and quickly found that it shot cast bullets very accurately. I had been trying to get various Savage 223 barrels to shoot cast bullets accurately, without success. I bought several Savage 22-250 barrels and put them on M10 and M12 Savage actions. A heavy varmint barrel didn't cooperate, and was sent away. As shown below, the M110 barrel isn't shooting, and it will be sent away. Ken Campbell rechambered a 223 barrel to 22-250; it shoots very well. The M11 barrel shoots accurately. Both the 223/22-250 and M11 barrels are light sporter 22” barrels. Bullets were cast, visually inspected, gas checked, lubed with Lee Liquid Alox and sized .225”. Some were nose sized. Nose sizing increases MAX OAL, maybe accuracy, but many small groups were shot without nose sizing. The guns were not bedded or fiddled with, barrels were not lapped, no tricks. Brass was trimmed, FL sized, M died. Powder charges were generally in .5 grain steps. Nothing was weight segregated, polished or oriented. Bullets were cast from varying alloys of mostly linotype, weights and hardness varied with the alloy. No quenching, heat treatment, or hardness measuring. Conclusions: Savage 22-250 barrels vary a lot in accuracy with cast bullets. Two barrels out of four were very inaccurate.   With an accurate barrel, averages of five five shot groups < 2” at 100 yards are easily and quickly developed.   Big cases such as 22-250 are not less accurate than smaller cases such as 223 Rem., at least in the < 1.5” average area.   Powder charge vs. accuracy varies in interesting ways, as shown on the charts. These charts suggest that in the range of 5-9 grains of powder, charges ending in .0 or .5 are as accurate as charges ending in any other number.

The smallest group averages for each barrel/bullet combination using Titegroup.                           225415                                    225646 Striker             1.075”/5 groups/8 grains           1.150”/15 groups/7.5 grains 223/22-250     1.685”/5 groups/7 grains            1.470”/5 groups/7.5 grains   M11                 1.580”/5 groups/5.7 grains         1.578”/10 groups/5.7 grains M110               2.905”/5 groups/7 grains            2.017”/15 groups/6.5 grains   I fired 162 groups, Titegroup, 225415; 265 groups, Titegroup, 225646. In total I fired about 3500 shots with various powders and bullets.

All the data, and charts, is on the attached Excel workbook

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mtngun posted this 04 September 2016

That's a lot of shooting, Joe!    I wish more members would do the same.

Thanks for sharing. :)

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