twist rate for 22-250

[mikeincool]

I shoot at a small local gun club. At the last monthly rifle competition, there was a lot of talk about what twist to use in a .223 and 22-250. I have a savage 22-250 bvss with a 1-12. I have noticed that most 223's have a 1-9 or 1-8. Does the twist make that much difference or is it just one more thing for shooters to tinker with. I am also wondering why there would be a different twist for 2 guns that shoot the same bullets.

 

[Runt]

The faster the twist in a barrel the heavier bullets you can shoot. 22-250's use a .224' bullet. Even though both rifles can shoot the same bullet weight, they're moving at different velocities. I push 50gn Noslers @3800fps out of my 22-250 with room to spare. Not sure if you could do that safely with a .223.

 

[mikeincool]

So the different twist is to make up for the lack of speed. Okay..... Will the 22-250 shoot the bigger bullets with a 1-12? The reason I ask is that the guy that has a 223 rem thinks he can shoot 70 grain bullets. I am wondering why he would want to.

 

[Runt]

Heavier bullets have a higher BC so they are less effected by the wind at longer distances. I think a 1:12 in a 22-250 is good for up to 62 or 67gn bullets, somewhere in that area.

 

[Rtheurer]

The 223 guy can actually shoot 80 grain Berger, sierra, Nosler and JLK bullets. Even the 82 gr Bergers with his 1:8 twist.The 1:12 twist is limited to the lighter weight bullets which is fine if that is what you want. A faster twist would give you a little more choices is all.
Have you ever played with a Balistics caculator? Look up JBM small arms balistic calculator on the web. Go down to simplified trajectories and start playing with the list of verious bullets and plug in speed that are realistic and you will be amazed. Its worth about two full days worth of sitting at this dang computer not getting anything important done.

Your next question might be 'why would you want to shoot such aheavy bullet out of such a small case,223)'. I might as well answer that one while im here. If you have ever heard of HighPower Rifle Shooting sanctioned by the NRA you find out the M16/AR15 so called Service rifles started to take over the former dominate M14/M1a scene in the early 90's when the new bigger heavier bullets came out. They found the little Mouse gun with some modifications was amazingly accurate and a whole lot eisier to shoot in the Rapid Fire portion of the event at 200 and 300 yards. It only lacked a little pepper at 600 yards against the ole M14 at that time but now bigger better higher BC bullets have proved the Little AR15 is a force to be recond with even at 600 yards. The M16/AR15 pretty much dominate the service rifle catagory at Camp Perry during the Nationals nowa days. Of course this is target shooting and not shooting critters. a 50gr BT at 3800fps is a death ray on critters. Of course the bolt gun I had as a pickup coyote rifle with a 20' barrel chambered in 223 that spit out the same bullet at 3550fps thats not far behind.
It takes a tremendous amount of velocity to overcome a high BC.

Play around with that free program a little, you will see what I mean. If you never shoot past 300 yards it wont really matter.

RussT

 

[mikeincool]

Thanks Russ, I will check out JMB.