22-250 Varmint gun, what twist rate?

[montana_native]

Looking to shoot everything from 80 gr A-maxes down to 55 gr V-maxes and am torn between an 8 and 9 twist barrel.

Will an 8 twist spin smaller bullets apart? If I recall, Hornady recommends an 8 twist for the 80gr bullets.

Thanks.

 

[CanusLatransSnpr]

Montana,
I have shot 52gr. Berger Match Varmints from my 9 twist barrel and haven't had a problem one yet! You will need an 8 twist to shoot the 80gr. A-maxes. Berger recommends an 8 twist to shoot their 80gr. target VLD. I couldn't honestly tell you if an 8 twist will spin the smaller bullets apart.

Mike

 

[jonbearman]

Why do you want to shoot an 80 grainer out of the 22-250,just curious.I never go over the 60's with mine.Just trying to learn all I can.

 

[M700]

Extremely high BC compared to conventional, lighter/shorter .224" bullets.

A buddy of mine latched onto the idea early, when Sierra first introduced the 80 gr SMK, and had Lilja build him a fast-twist .22-250 - back about 15 years ago. He really cleaned up at some tactical matches here in the Pacific Northwest with that rig... Low recoil, flat shooting, accurate and modest wind drift...

 

[johnmyers]

Why do you want to shoot an 80 grainer out of the 22-250,just curious.I never go over the 60's with mine.Just trying to learn all I can.

If you have never shot 80gr or 75Amax out of a 22-250 you are in for a real surprise of how good a long range varmint round they are. It is a completley different round than it is with 50 or 55 gr bullets. If you have a ballistic program like the Sierra Infinity you can run a 80gr SMK at 3200fps and compare that to a 55gr BK at 3650fps and you'll see what they do past 300yds.

 

[CZ93X62]

My current 22-250 (Rem 788) is overdue for a re-tube, but remains a 0.7-0.8 MOA rig with its favored bullet--the Sierra 60 grain HP. When it can still put 10 shots into 3.5" at the 400 yard line, I'm not about to turn wrenches on it.

But that day will come, and sooner rather than later. It has degraded a bit over the past 2 rat seasons from its former consistent 1/2 MOA reliability. The rifle has made MANY hits on ground squirrels and jackrabbits at or beyond 400 yards, one GS lasered at 520 yards. This is my fourth 22-250 example and second 788 that performed this well, all shot the 60 Sierra HP @ MOA or better, and all had the "default" factory twist rate of 1-14". What it boils down to--the 60 HPs have worked wonderfully at what have been conventional hunting ranges (to ~500 yards on little critters). I understand that The Javelins can shoot targets to 600 yards very well, and likely flatter than the 60 HP tracks at. The question for me is whether the substantially increased cost of the match-grade bullets for shooting at rats is justified in the light of the excellent performance I've received from 1-14" twists and varmint-grade bullets for 25+ years. 60 grains starting out at 3650-3700 FPS will travel well.

 

[Live Oak]

Here is a great collection of info. and short articles on this topic. They sum it up better than I can.

http://www.accurateshooter.com/featured/22-250/