Randfal
Silver $$ Contributor
I had a fun project this last spring with a Tikka I built. I had a new Remington 700 22-250 take off barrel sitting around and decided I needed to do something with it. I re-threaded it for one of my Tikkas and was going to just rechamber it to a 22-250AI. But I had a brief moment of inspiration and got creative. I had 100rds of new Hornady 22Creedmoor brass and got to measuring them. I found that if I ran the Ackley reamer in about .010-.012” deeper I could chamber the new 22 Creedmoor brass “just right”. It’s shoulder was already at 30 degrees and the base fit the chamber better than all the undersized domestic brass out there. Like I said “just right”. Even the neck length worked out.
I also cut the barrel down to 17” and made a brake for it. It was a sweet little rifle. While working up some loads with IMR 8208 I was able to get 40gr Nosler B-Tips to 4206fps with no pressure signs. From a 17” barrel!!
There’s a picture attached of two pieces of brass heads that were fired at those speeds.
I fired about 30rds working up to 4200fps and just quit there. It shot really well at 4175fps so I stopped development and loaded for prairie dogs. Meanwhile I had a savage barrel chambered with same reamer that I set up for a fire form barrel. We use it for forming regular 22-250AI brass. I formed up the rest of the 22 Creedmoor brass and 100 more Privi 22-250 brass and loaded them up hot with 40gr Nosler B-tips. I don’t want to post how much 8208 powder because I’m sure it wouldn’t be safe in many rifles.
I like to describe the rifle as Angry when you shot it with that hot load and brake thru a 17” barrel. It just barks really loud! Lots of fun!
Anyway, where was I going with this..? Oh yeah, burned it up quick.
I took it to a primo prairie dog town at just the right time last spring when all the little ones were out. I couldn’t help myself, I kept firing that thing until I thought the plastic forearm skins were going to melt! It was vaporizing everything I was pointing it at. I knew I was destroying it but I guess it was a fit of blood lust. I figured I don’t get in a town like this very often so what the heck. I can always rebarrel it. So about 240rds later I had to set it down so it wouldn’t melt.
towards the end I got a couple stiff bolt lifts as the barrel had copper fouled badly. Shortly after that shoot I bore scoped it and it was copper fouled horribly. I scrubbed the heck out of barrel and scoped it again. There was an inch of missing rifling and about four inches of barely any rifling and it was incredibly cracked and cratered. Probably the worst I ever seen.
I was going to pull the barrel off then but my attention shifted elsewhere. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I decided to go poke a few winter prairie dogs here in Wyoming (before this cold snap hit). I had a handful of rounds left for it and thought I’d shoot them up for grins.
I didn’t expect to be able to hit anything with it but the first dog I aimed at was ranged at 320yds and the angry little rifle hit it first shot cold bore! And then hit the next five in a row. It was even hitting the 400 yd dogs.
It just goes to show that some rough looking barrels might still be useful. I’ve got a Wilson 1:8t barrel blank that’ll replace this burned up one before spring.
That day of shooting was worth the cost of a barrel. Lol.
I also cut the barrel down to 17” and made a brake for it. It was a sweet little rifle. While working up some loads with IMR 8208 I was able to get 40gr Nosler B-Tips to 4206fps with no pressure signs. From a 17” barrel!!
There’s a picture attached of two pieces of brass heads that were fired at those speeds.
I fired about 30rds working up to 4200fps and just quit there. It shot really well at 4175fps so I stopped development and loaded for prairie dogs. Meanwhile I had a savage barrel chambered with same reamer that I set up for a fire form barrel. We use it for forming regular 22-250AI brass. I formed up the rest of the 22 Creedmoor brass and 100 more Privi 22-250 brass and loaded them up hot with 40gr Nosler B-tips. I don’t want to post how much 8208 powder because I’m sure it wouldn’t be safe in many rifles.
I like to describe the rifle as Angry when you shot it with that hot load and brake thru a 17” barrel. It just barks really loud! Lots of fun!
Anyway, where was I going with this..? Oh yeah, burned it up quick.
I took it to a primo prairie dog town at just the right time last spring when all the little ones were out. I couldn’t help myself, I kept firing that thing until I thought the plastic forearm skins were going to melt! It was vaporizing everything I was pointing it at. I knew I was destroying it but I guess it was a fit of blood lust. I figured I don’t get in a town like this very often so what the heck. I can always rebarrel it. So about 240rds later I had to set it down so it wouldn’t melt.
towards the end I got a couple stiff bolt lifts as the barrel had copper fouled badly. Shortly after that shoot I bore scoped it and it was copper fouled horribly. I scrubbed the heck out of barrel and scoped it again. There was an inch of missing rifling and about four inches of barely any rifling and it was incredibly cracked and cratered. Probably the worst I ever seen.
I was going to pull the barrel off then but my attention shifted elsewhere. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I decided to go poke a few winter prairie dogs here in Wyoming (before this cold snap hit). I had a handful of rounds left for it and thought I’d shoot them up for grins.
I didn’t expect to be able to hit anything with it but the first dog I aimed at was ranged at 320yds and the angry little rifle hit it first shot cold bore! And then hit the next five in a row. It was even hitting the 400 yd dogs.
It just goes to show that some rough looking barrels might still be useful. I’ve got a Wilson 1:8t barrel blank that’ll replace this burned up one before spring.
That day of shooting was worth the cost of a barrel. Lol.
