My 250 Savage AI Adventure v.LotsOfQuestionToCome

[TSFineGuns]

Hello, All:

**Feel free to skip to the question below if you don't want any background**

My FIL left a 250 Savage AI to my wife. She has graciously passed this along to me. And so my adventure begins.

Unfortunately, the brass, bullets, reloading dies, etc were not passed along with the rifle. So I've had to do a bit of research as to what I needed to use this rifle.

I purchased four (4) boxes of Remington 250 Savage CoreLokt 100gr PTP ammunition to start. I also purchased the Redding three (3) die set from MidwayUSA.

Earlier this summer, I took the rifle up to WI with me to shoot some of the 250 Savage CoreLokt ammunition to fireform the brass. Over a few hours, I went through a box of ammunition and everything went as planned.

I have reloaded several sets of three (3) with various bullets and powder charges to start looking for a load that works well in this rifle. Looking forward to getting back up to WI to start testing.

Here is my first question:

1) How much powder to ensure a good fireformed case?

• Instead of firing the Remington CoreLokt just to fireform the brass, I thought about just pulling the bullet and powder to fireform w/o putting the stress on the barrel. Right now I have a box of brass (20) that I have pulled the bullet and powder from. They are in the box now with primers in and no powder. My question is where to start with the powder load to ensure I'm not undercharging and get case crush? I had planned on using the factor powder that I took out for this. Obviously not all of it per case, but enough to ensure I get a good fireformed case. Each case was charged with approximately 36.7gr of powder and I don't mind wasting it to fireform as I have plenty of other powders for reloading.

Thanks in advance!

 

[fkimble@charter.net]

I'd shoot the factory loads to fireform. Powerful enough to give you a good formed case. Just go slow an don't heat up the barrel. Why waste your good powder, primers and bullets just to fireform.

Frank

 

[M-61]

As you say “ lots of questions to come”
A real treasure of info here so why not be a contributor?
Lots of bang for your buck

 

[AlNyhus]

I my 250 Ackley.

My recommendation is to simply continue to fire the factory ammo to f-form the cases.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[C.E.Smith043]

Once you've pulled the bullets, those necks will probably need to be run thru a die.

Like others have stated, no sense in wasting anything, fireform with the factory ammo and call it good.

Keep barrel heat to a minimum and u should be in good shape.

 

[SeabeeKen]

I used the COW method except I use coffee and 12-15 gr IMR Red to ff my 250 ai

 

[Twdmar]

If you do decide to fireform, any cheap bullet jammed into the lands works for me with a 6xc when forming from 22-250 cases. Some people reccomend a heavier bullet but i cant tell the difference. I can't advise on powder but I like to use a faster burning powder for whatever cartridge with a medium to slightly above medium load.

 

[TSFineGuns]

I'd shoot the factory loads to fireform. Powerful enough to give you a good formed case. Just go slow an don't heat up the barrel. Why waste your good powder, primers and bullets just to fireform.

Frank

Hello:

Thanks for the reply.

Perhaps I babbled a bit and buried what I was hoping to do.

I wouldn't be wasting anything. I'd actually be saving a bullet (not that I'd ever use it after). My thought was to just pull the bullet from the case and fireform the case with the Remington Powder and Primer that are in the case. The only thing I'm changing here is removing the bullet and potentially some of the OEM powder. I just thought it may be easier on the barrel fireforming without the bullet.

So ultimately, my question is....of the 36.7gr of OEM powder that came in each case, how much would I want to put back into the case with OEM primer to get a good fireformed case? I do read that people use pistol primers and a fast charge. So not sure if this is ideal or not? Perhaps I just fire as a complete round and forget about the stress on the barrel?

 

[Rat Rifle]

Forget the stress. Just shoot the stuff. That’s what AI is designed for. I think ?