22-250 Match Rifle

[flyingbair]

Has anyone tried to build a 22-250 Cross-the-Course match rifle with a 1:6.5 twist barrel designed to shoot 80 gr and 90 gr bullets? I am interested if it was successful and were there any problems encountered with the 22-250's accuracy? I have always read that 22-250 was not a good cartridge because of carbon fouling and it would not maintain it's accuracy for the necessary 88 rounds fired at a match. Firing 80 gr and 90 gr VLD bullets at over 3,000 plus fps has a significant ballistic advantage at 600 yds to almost any other caliber per the NECO ballistic program.

Johnnie

 

[Mudcat]

I dont think folks are trying a 22-250 for XTC use as its just not going to be something that is worth the effort. If youre gonna run a cartride that size, in terms of powder, and you want to run large bullets, why not just neck it up to 6mm? Hey, wait a second, thats been done! The 6XC!

Seriously, I dont know anyone that runs the 22-250 as the point is to get away from the BC...ie ballistically challenged, and run with a better BC cartridge. The 6mm is a great compromise of low recoil, great accuracy, etc with the negative being barrel life at 2000+ rounds. I do have some bbls that have went longer but a lot of that is probably due to running somewhat tame loads for 200-300 use and using powder other than H4350 for practice.

If someone has done the 22-250 thing and thinks it has potential, I would like to hear about it, if for nothing else, curiousity.

Oh, and in the real world, I dont think you will find the 80 and 90 VLDs whupin a 6XC running 107s or 115s at 3000 or more. Shoot, check out Joe's 6CM, he is getting WAY more than that with those bullets!

Not saying it cant or shouldnt be done, but I wont be the one trying it....

John

 

[chino1969]

I don't know about cross the course but I just had two 1:8 Kreigers chambered in .22-250 AI for varmints. One was throated to shoot 69grn. to 77grn. bullets and the other was throated to shoot 80grainers. I love the .22-250 AI and want to shoot varmints at long distance.
Chino69

 

[Dans40X]

I've burned up 2 Krieger S/S 27-1/4" 1:8 twist barrels shooting XTC & a few 1K prone matches with moly'd 80gr & 90gr's @3200+ fps in a 22-250.
Fouling was never an issue-throats wash out rather quickly running 36-38gr of 4350 or RL-19!!
The almost non-existent recoil in a 12Lb gun is fun for the first 2000rds or so & then it won't hold 1MOA @600.
You do have an advantage over the mouse guns in the time of flight category,but the 6mm,6.5mm have you beat ballistically,in the wind.

 

[Rtheurer]

Great post by Dan. He pretty much summed it up.

Johnnie

Is there any particular reason why you were leaning toward the 1:6.5 Twist barrels for the 22-250? The faster the bullet can be pushed the slower the twist rate you can get away with. As you can see from Dans example he used a 1:8 Twist with no problem at all with the 90's. A Kreiger 1:7.7 Twist would be more than enough in this speed demon. THat little pill would be zippen right along at that 3200fps, Wow. My first experience of a mid air bullet failer was from a XTC 22-250 at the 200 yard line with 69gr SMK's. This was back in the mid 1990's and I have no idea how fast he was pushing those little bullets but he was not having a good day.
If I had free barrells and chamberings I would give it a try for a Prone rifle. Ah so many toys and so little money. Good Question I bet there are a few others out there thinking the same thing. How about a 22BR or 22Dasher? German any thoughts?

RT

 

[flyingbair]

RT,

I am really not concerned about the barrel twist for the 22-250, as previously stated above, because of the high velocity of the bullet a 1:8 twist will stabilize a 90 gr bullet. What I have found interesting from the NECO Ballistic program is that a 22-250 shooting a 90 JLK bullet,3200 fps) is equal to a 6mm, 115 gr bullet,3100 fps) fired from the 6XC Tubbs cartridge at 600 yards with a 10 mph crosswind. If the NECO Program is correct, a 22-250 has potential as a high power XC match rifle if accuracy can be maintained. Bullets are less expensive, recoil is less and for those of us which have several thousand rounds of .22 cal bullets laying around the house it is a alternative to the 6mm. The questions I have, can accuracy be maintained from a 22-250 with heavy bullets? How may rounds can be expect from a barrel before needing replaced and has anyone had success with the 22-250 as a high power match rifle?

Thanks,

Johnnie

 

[Dans40X]

johnnie,
The 1:8"tw Krieger barrels chambered in 22-250 that I smoked were fitted to a 40X repeater action,in a McM 40XC stock w/Warner #1 rear/Gehmann Ap,RPA 22mm front/Anschutz Iris.
The set-up worked well for XTC & LR matches.
For standing & rapid fire stages shooting XTC,I'd run Sierra 80's @ 3000fps,for the 600,800,900,1000yd prone stages I'd run Berger 80's or JLK 90's at +3200fps.
Moly'd 80/90gr Bergers/JLK's seemed to shoot better than the Sierra 80grs in both Bbls.
I ran the above combo just to mess with the mouse gun shooters-pushing 80gr/90gr's +400fps faster than their mouse guns!!!
On a couple of instances,I ran two XTC matches,176rds)with just a wet patch of Kroil followed by two dry patches thru the bore,placed the 40X Bbl'd 22-250 in the safe & called it good for a week 'till the next match was held-NO degradation of accuracy was noted-the Bbl would hold under 5/16" 5 shot groups until you approach the 2000/2500rd count then 1MOA groups are appearant.

A 1:6/:7 twist barrel in warm temps,90deg) will probably spin the jackets off the 80&90gr bullets.

If temps were forcasted in the 80's on match day,I spun the 22-250 off & spun a 1:8tw .260 or 1:10tw 7.62 chambered Bbl on the action.