22-250 stabilizing

[MDT6BRA]

I have a 22-250 vanguard and was trying some varmageddon 53gr and they are keyholing. I have had this problem with 55gr blitzkings before but a 52gr Berger does fine. My questions is, is there a reason to try different powders with the varmaggeddon to try to get it to stabilize or will it be so close to unstable to just scrap this bullet? The 50 vmax seems to be doing good so far too. 1/14 twist,

 

[boltfluter]

I have a 22-250 vanguard and was trying some varmageddon 53gr and they are keyholing. I have had this problem with 55gr blitzkings before but a 52gr Berger does fine. My questions is, is there a reason to try different powders with the varmaggeddon to try to get it to stabilize or will it be so close to unstable to just scrap this bullet? The 50 vmax seems to be doing good so far too. 1/14 twist,

Maybe. I would assume if you are right on the brink of stability you might be able to drive it fast enough to make it work. If you're at the high end of powder charges probably not. The plasic tip is the problem, makes the bullet quite a bit longer so you need more twist. Good luck and keep us posted.
Paul

 

[Gary in MD]

If it's the 53 grain Hornady Vmax and your twist is a 14 then it's probably not going to work, you need at least a 12 twist. Some 14 twists will stabilize the 55 grain Sierra Blitz Kings and some won't, it's a long bullet for being 55 grains. The Blitz Kings WILL take a lot of velocity, the older style Blitz(with lead tip) is the one that is made for slower velocities.

 

[Doom]

The 53 Tipped Armageddon is long and is borderline in a 1 in 12 223. A 1 in 14 isn't going to stabilize it.

 

[K22]

You should not be obtaining key holing with 55 Sierra blitz king bullet in a 14" twist 22 250.

With that said, I obtained my best accuracy / velocity ratio in a 14" twist 22 250 with 50 grain bullets, especially Nosler 50 BT's with IMR 4064, Varget, or IMR 4895. Believe it or not, the tightest groups I ever shot in the 22 250 was with IMR 4350 and 50 Nosler BT's but at a cost of reduced velocity. And yes, Nosler has published data on this loading.

I am at lost to explain the key holing since this is usually attributed to either too long a bullet for the twist or a defective crown. The latter does not seem to be the issue since other bullets are not key holing.

The 55 Sierra Blitz King should not keyhole in a 14" twist. It's hard to imagine that those bullets are being spun too fast with a 14" twist but as suggested by others, you can try dropping the velocity.

One bullet specifically designed for the 22 250 is the Sierra 55 BTHP. I know some that obtained very good results with it, and it will definitely handle the high velocity loadings of the 22 250 and not come apart. The original Blitz bullets were designed for the 222 and 223 level velocities.

 

[Doom]

Per JBM:

 

[Crumster]

Your question, exactly, was "is there a reason to try different powders with the varmaggeddons to try to get it to stabilize............."
No.

 

[Doug Casner]

It dont sound right but my sako 1-14 22-250 likes 60 gr. nosler BTS. and imr4350. I dont know the answer to your question. Doug

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

Your barrel is not happy, shorter/lighter bullets will make you and the barrel happy again. Run the 50 gr vmax, it's cheaper so you can shoot more.

 

[centerlineseal]

Believe it or not, the tightest groups I ever shot in the 22 250 was with IMR 4350 and 50 Nosler BT's but at a cost of reduced velocity.

My experience nearly exact, ... with Nosler 55 grain solid based and successor NBT. Just broke in a new Hart barrel and managed a 0.395 inch 5-shot group. Expect velocity is around 3,300 fps in 24" barrel. I may do a bullet seating test, but Idaho rockchucks beckon.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

As others have said, the 53 v-max is long for its weight and requires a faster twist than your 1 in 14. It's easy to assume it's about bullet weight because most bullets do get longer as they get heavier but, not the case. Length of the projectile is by far the biggest factor in how fast the twist needs to be to stabilize them. The Hornady 53 is just longer than a 14 will typically stabilize. Within reason of course, you can make various weights on a given jacket and in a given die. So yes, there may well be some 60's that are stable in your gun. Now, longer jacket and/or sleeker profile that makes a bullet with less lead, but still longer than the heavies, and it tumbles its way to never neverland. Bottom line is, in this instance, it's length that matters most.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

My experience nearly exact, ... with Nosler 55 grain solid based and successor NBT. Just broke in a new Hart barrel and managed a 0.395 inch 5-shot group. Expect velocity is around 3,300 fps in 24" barrel. I may do a bullet seating test, but Idaho rockchucks beckon.

I have (for 20 years+) ran the Nosler 55 BT with varget @3600 ish. Very accurate out of 1/14 and faster twist barrels. Great coyote fur load. Clean up is easy with Sharpshooter accelerator/foam. Ran these out of a couple M700, Ruger no.1, TC predator/Dimension. All accurate, for prairie dogs and other critters.

 

[bozo699]

I have a 22-250 vanguard and was trying some varmageddon 53gr and they are keyholing. I have had this problem with 55gr blitzkings before but a 52gr Berger does fine. My questions is, is there a reason to try different powders with the varmaggeddon to try to get it to stabilize or will it be so close to unstable to just scrap this bullet? The 50 vmax seems to be doing good so far too. 1/14 twist,

How fast are you pushing the varmageddons?
Wayne

 

[358WCF]

Varmegeddon or V-Max? The OP asked about Varmageddons.

The 53gr Varmageddons I have are FB & measure .817" base to tip & about .690" without the tip. Nosler #9 shot their V-geddon data in a 14 twist barrel.

Hornady #11 says the V-Max wont stabilize in 14 twist. The 53gr V-Max measure .830" base to tip & about .700" w/o the tip.

Neither bullet has been unstable at 22-250 Ackley velocities, c. 3900fps+, in my 14 twist rifle @ 100yds. Haven't tried either of these yet in the standard 22-250 yet, but will sometime soon.

The OP says nothing about velocity, so maybe yeah, a different powder may help. More powder may also help if there's room to increase safely.

I've read not to count the plastic tip when calculating stability. Looky here...

Twist Rate Stability Calculator

Our newly updated Twist Rate Stability Calculator not only tells you what your SG is, but it also lets you know if you are reaching your optimized BC.

bergerbullets.com

 

[SSL]

It is not at all unusual for 1-14" twist barrels in 22-250 to be picky. My 22-250 has a 26" barrel in 1-14 and just barely stabilizes most 55-grain bullets with marginal accuracy. It does, however, shoot 50-grain VMax,, 52-grain Hornady HPBT and 52-grain AMax in excess of 3,850 fps with incredible accuracy. 53-grain VMax group poorly and show signs of incipient tipping on paper even at the same velocity.
Those same 53-grain VMax bullets shoot splendidly from my 1-8" .223.

 

[MDT6BRA]

I shot some 50gr vmax and they look pretty good, I just figured the 53 varmaggeddon would do pretty good since the 52gr Berger did. It makes since to what your saying thought that it is more about length to weight stabilizing.

 

[K22]

My experience nearly exact, ... with Nosler 55 grain solid based and successor NBT. Just broke in a new Hart barrel and managed a 0.395 inch 5-shot group. Expect velocity is around 3,300 fps in 24" barrel. I may do a bullet seating test, but Idaho rockchucks beckon.

Sub 1/2 moa groups were the norm with that powder using the 50 Nosler BT.

It was a fellow ghog hunter who encouraged me to try it. At the time I thought he was a "few cans short of a six pack" but decided to try it especially since Nosler had published data on it and I saw firsthand his shooting results.

It blew me away, the accuracy. My memory is kind of vague since it was years ago, but if I remember correctly, the load out of a 26" Remington 700 Varmint 14" twist clocked at about 3,400 f/s. which was well below what I was getting out of IMR 4064 or Varget.

 

[Zero333]

Even if it's a true 14" twist I'd stick with Flat Base 50 bullets.
As long as the bullets are shorter than 0.700" you'll have no issues.

Edit:... JBM ballistics has a pretty decent database of bullets and their lengths.

 

[Zero333]

If you can't get the accuracy you're looking for...
With 50 gr bullets I suggest...

Varget 37 gr.
or
40 gr Win-760 / H-414 (same powders).

Those are near MAX loads so reduce a 1 or 2 gr and work up like usually.

 

[Murray Brook]

I have read before not to take the plastic tip into account when measuring stability but in my experience that is definitely not the case. In the early 2010's I had a 14 twist 22/250 Rem 700 VSF. I purchased a box of 53 gr Hornady V-max. Bullet holes were very oval and the group was more of a pattern than a group. Having no other 22 cal rifle to use them in I decided to do an experiment . The length of my V-max's were .830. I decided to cut the tip off and file flat the bullet tip, not touching the jacket. This made the bullet .701 in length. Using the rest of the bullets I had (75 ) along with H-380 I ended shooting 1/2" groups with very round bullet holes. The only change made was the removal of the red tip. Since then I have always included the tip in any stability program. I had the same thing happen to me in my 7/08 with the Barnes 168 LRX. Done the same and shot good for the rest of the bullets I had left. JME