I will answer as many questions as I am capable of but I need your "guesses" on what I bought on Monday! The rifle started life as an older style bdl 700 Remington. Even has the aluminum butt plate. Action was trued by Mark Penrod and then he installed a Shilen med heavy barrel and chambered it in 22-250 A.I. The owner's brother did all the reloading for their rifles and this was one of them used on prairie dog hunts! The rig came with Redding deluxe dies, 274 loaded rounds and another 100+ brass all of Lapua brand! Rifle is glass bedded and floated by Penrod. I finished cleaning up the rifle, bore and scope and went to work reviewing and cleaning the dies. First, I found two bullet expanders of Redding mfg and another one in the f.l. die with .0085 smaller diameter!? Not sure of mfg as it was different color and design than the factory ones. Anyway, it is a much smaller diameter so bullet tension has to be high! The gentleman advised me that the bullets must be fired single fire as they are too long for the magazine! They are 60 grn Horn flat base h.p. First strange thing when I pulled the bullets is that they are seated only .058 into the neck! Yes, .058!! This must be the reason for the tight bullet tension expander?! First question: Would Penrod really chamber a rifle like this with the lands that far out or is this chamber eroded to beat hell?! Before you ask, I have not tried to determine where the lands are yet but a friend is going to drop off a Stoney point chamber tool. I will try the old fashioned way tomorrow but just wanted your thoughts on this! Next: The loads are 60 pt Horn h.p., 210 cci primer, 41.7 grns of 414 and as stated, Lapua brass. Needless to say, when I pulled the bullets using an inertia style bullet puller, they came out real easily! Next problem: The powder in all three loads was a combination stick powder and sperical as 414 should be! What in the hell is this? I loaded a lot of 414 20+ years ago and it certainly never had stick powder in it!! Any thoughts guys buy mainly on the chamber situation on this gun! Thanks, Tom
Need your guesses on what I have in this 22-250 A.I. smithed by Penrod
- Thread starter tcr1146
- Start date
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
Im sure he didnt use a custom reamer so freebore is what it is
Fire a round of the ammo that came with the rifle and check for pressure signs and velocity if possible. Check the velocity against factory loads with same weight bullets. If they seem OK, use them up and start over! If you do not have a bore scope ask a gunsmith to take a peek and see what the throat looks like. Beyond that, if it shoots enjoy it!
AckleymanII
Gold $$ Contributor
You probably have not measured the twist rate? It may be a fast twist and throated for 80-90g bullets?
Pull all the bullets, sounds like he got mixed up on the loading bench and mixed powders by mistake, no telling what you have.
I doubt if you will be able to measure the OAL with a 60g hornady, will probably take a 80-90g berger as it seems like it is very long throated...I am thinking positive here for you...the alternative is not good.
P. dogg'en can wear barrels out fast on hot towns when the ground is pumping out dogs from sun up to sun down.
good luck!
Pull all the bullets, sounds like he got mixed up on the loading bench and mixed powders by mistake, no telling what you have.
I doubt if you will be able to measure the OAL with a 60g hornady, will probably take a 80-90g berger as it seems like it is very long throated...I am thinking positive here for you...the alternative is not good.
P. dogg'en can wear barrels out fast on hot towns when the ground is pumping out dogs from sun up to sun down.
good luck!
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
Hillbilly duplex 
My advice is never buy a gun thinking that barrel is ok. Always plan on replacing it. That way if its good thats fine but if it belonged to a prairie dogger you aint lost nothin and aint mad
My advice is never buy a gun thinking that barrel is ok. Always plan on replacing it. That way if its good thats fine but if it belonged to a prairie dogger you aint lost nothin and aint mad
DHD
Silver $$ Contributor
As stated already, expect that barrel to be done. I don't have a 22-250AI, but do know it is a lot of fun but barrels don't last too long. As far as the loaded rounds are concerned, I wouldn't shoot them either. You stated that they were easily broken down, so your work is already half done for you......
Unfortunately, I also doubt it's a fast twist barrel throated for 90 grain Berger's. For me, life doesn't work that way. Even though those 60 grain bullets are only in the case a frogs hair, they are probably still jumping a good distance. That rifle more than likely served the owner well over the years.
At least you have a path forward as you have a action ready to rebarrel, dies, and good brass. All you need now is a new barrel. As long as you didn't spend a mint, you are not in a bad place.
Unfortunately, I also doubt it's a fast twist barrel throated for 90 grain Berger's. For me, life doesn't work that way. Even though those 60 grain bullets are only in the case a frogs hair, they are probably still jumping a good distance. That rifle more than likely served the owner well over the years.
At least you have a path forward as you have a action ready to rebarrel, dies, and good brass. All you need now is a new barrel. As long as you didn't spend a mint, you are not in a bad place.
tcr1146,
Previous posters are probably correct. The barrel is gone. Mark Penrod builds quality rifles. You may want to contact him to see what his records show as the reamer he used and what the throat length was. Nice thing is that Barrels are meant to be changed and with the .473 bolt face the sky is the limit on what you can have the new barrel chambered in if you want to change from the .22-250. I am sure Mark could help you with that too.
Previous posters are probably correct. The barrel is gone. Mark Penrod builds quality rifles. You may want to contact him to see what his records show as the reamer he used and what the throat length was. Nice thing is that Barrels are meant to be changed and with the .473 bolt face the sky is the limit on what you can have the new barrel chambered in if you want to change from the .22-250. I am sure Mark could help you with that too.
If I'm not mistaken, Long Range Match pull down powder has ball and stick powder both in it. It's similar to RL-15 which would probably work well with 60 grain bullets. It's probably a good idea to pull them as I have a hard time trusting anyone else's reloads especially if I don't know them. I find it hard to believe that any bullet loaded in a 22-250 case would be too long to magazine feed.
Since you are unsure of the safety of the loads you bougt the first thing I would do is pull the bullets and dump the powder.The nitrogen is good for your lawn.
Second I would find a borescope to look down that barrel.You may be throwing out a barrel that still has life left in it.A new Krieger plus fitting and chambering is probably near $600 or so (chime in if I am way off). If the barrel is bad in the borescope view you know now it is toast so go ahead and replace it.Nothing lost by borescoping. I do it before I buy a rifle.
Third- buy a borescope and learn how to use it.
Second I would find a borescope to look down that barrel.You may be throwing out a barrel that still has life left in it.A new Krieger plus fitting and chambering is probably near $600 or so (chime in if I am way off). If the barrel is bad in the borescope view you know now it is toast so go ahead and replace it.Nothing lost by borescoping. I do it before I buy a rifle.
Third- buy a borescope and learn how to use it.
TCR -
Howdy !
Did I miss your mention of twist rate ?
From a .224" cal 1-14, you should be able to stabilize 60gr bullets, as-long-as they are not > .750" long.
If the barrel were a faster twist than 1-14, I'd speculate that it was set-up for bulllets a little heavier than 60gr.
Those loaded 60s would have to be seated out there, awayz.... in-order to get that much H414 into a
.22-250 case. The minimal length of bullet retained in the case' necks is suprising ! Do they " shoot " ?
Sounds almost as if H414 was " duplexed " w/ H4350 ?! Nothin' I'd want to try.
The primers might be LR Magnums, or even FED LR Magnum Match; FWIW.
With regards,
357Mag
Howdy !
Did I miss your mention of twist rate ?
From a .224" cal 1-14, you should be able to stabilize 60gr bullets, as-long-as they are not > .750" long.
If the barrel were a faster twist than 1-14, I'd speculate that it was set-up for bulllets a little heavier than 60gr.
Those loaded 60s would have to be seated out there, awayz.... in-order to get that much H414 into a
.22-250 case. The minimal length of bullet retained in the case' necks is suprising ! Do they " shoot " ?
Sounds almost as if H414 was " duplexed " w/ H4350 ?! Nothin' I'd want to try.
The primers might be LR Magnums, or even FED LR Magnum Match; FWIW.
With regards,
357Mag
GAnderson
Gold $$ Contributor
Tom, as barefooter stated...Mark builds some of the finest rifles around and is very competent as a gunsmith...I would contact him first to determine what his reamer is spec'd for. I do have a couple of questions from your original post...first, are you talking about the expander buttons being two different diameters?? If so, this is not uncommon if you are using bushings to size the necks...Redding used to give you 2 different diameter expander buttons in bushing die sets...the smaller diameter one will not necessarily give tighter neck tension if the proper bushing is used. Second, I don't think CCI makes the 210 primer...Federal makes the 210...CCI makes the 200. The possibility exists that these bullets are just barely seated with very little neck tension and the original owner was using the rifle to actually seat them in contact when chambering a round...much like some benchrest shooters do with the 6ppc.
Since Mark Penrod doesn't have control over what owners/reloaders do after he builds a rifle I doubt he can tell you much except what the freebore is on his reamer and the preferred bullet weight/design...so I wouldn't expect him to be able to tell you much more than that...but hopefully you can then determine what the original owner was up to.
Gene
Since Mark Penrod doesn't have control over what owners/reloaders do after he builds a rifle I doubt he can tell you much except what the freebore is on his reamer and the preferred bullet weight/design...so I wouldn't expect him to be able to tell you much more than that...but hopefully you can then determine what the original owner was up to.
Gene
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