22-250 deer load testing

[cantfixstupid]

I have two rifles I shoot whitetail on my lease with, 1 is a Grendel the other is very old 225 Winchester, I shoot the 55 Gr Sierra Spitzer with H380 its a 1in14 twist .5MOA and its running around 3600 FPS non have walked away from it. The 225 is almost the same as the 22-250, the 22-250 put it out of existence,

 

[VinceMule]

If you can scrounge any, the Speer 55g bonded core Gold Dot is excellent on deer and hogs, so are 62's.

 

[Rick79]

55g Hornady's work very well in my model 700 STS and it's a laser beam to 300 yards. It's dropped 5 whitetail in their tracks from 50 to 250 yards. My oldest daughter shot her first buck with it and it was a neck shot at 250.

 

[hunter67wa]

I have used 65 SKG and the 64 Nosler bonded, and both have worked well. I would choose the Nosler for a slower twist and performance. With great success with the Nosler, I shot a doe at 50 yards and one at 325.

Good luck

 

[STGguy]

Im in the process of working up a load for deer this year using my savage model 10 predator 22-250. It has a 24" 1 in 12 twist barrel. I have 4 loads Im going to test. The first is one Ive had for a couple years now. Its a 60 grain sierra tmk over Cfe 223. The next three bullets are the 62 and 65 grain sierra gamekings and the last is the 70 grain speer round nose. Im gonna try the heavier three with Superformance and then do a video of all the accuracy and speeds and hopefully take a deer with each this season to see how the perform. Cant wait to try them all out.

I've killed 14 deer with my 18" SPR AR using a 65gr SGK right under 3000fps with a max load of AA2520 from 40yd to 170yd- several were large for our NC deer. About half of them were bang, flops... a few kicks and that was it. The others were bang, flop, get up and stumble 20 yd and expire, and only 1 was what you'd expect when you shoot a deer w./ a high powered rifle- bang, Thwaappp, buck, take off running whatever direction they were pointed leaving a very nice blood trail and dead in 50-60 yd.

Something about that little bullet- I discovered it was designed with a thicker jacket for hunting Kangaroo's in Australia I believe I read. Anyways, I cannot believe the impact that that load/ bullet combo has on deer. The biggest one was a nice 7 pt and about 170 lb at about 80 yd as he was rubbing a tree- tree was moving, no wind and it took a while till he moved in an opening thru the trees so I could thread the needle so to speak, shot right at dusk and I heard very loud crashing around, By the time I climbed down out of the stand it was dark , I didn't have a flashlite- my bad- so I used my cell phones lite. When I found him it was amazing what that little bullet did- perfect shot behind front shoulder- bullet must have hit part of the shoulder as it was all "jacked up" front legs cross in a very weird way, both shoulders broken, a piece of the bullet went up and broke the spine and the rest of it exited with a pretty amazing exit hole. That was one of the Bang Flops for sure.

Its not my "go to hunting rifle" i usually use a 7-08 w/ 140 gr ballistic tips, but when Im just filling doe tags at the end of the season, I grab my ar.

Just my experience over about 5 yr of using it for that purpose.

 

[VinceMule]

The 22 Creed, 22/250 AI shooting the 60g partition, 64g Win, and 65g Sierra would be awesome, I use the 22/250 AI, 60g at 3700

 

[pdog shooter]

Biggest deer I've ever killed 22-250, 60gr partition, 43gr superf, 10 twist, 200 yards.
I was hog hunting that day, had already killed nice buck, just couldn't pass this one up.
Had to buy another freezer.

 

[VinceMule]

Dang Son! That is a nice Buck!

 

[westexhunt]

We culled deer on an MLD permit ranch when I was growing up. Hundreds fell to the 55gr coreloct Remington factory 22-250 ammo. Had one run off, not to be found. It was neck shot. None were lost to behind the shoulder shots although some did run 50-100 yds.

 

[pdog shooter]

Dang Son! That is a nice Buck!

Thanks.
Like many, I considered the 250 a varmint rifle only. Most likely because all were 14 twist and 40g bullets when I was young. After killing several hogs, shoulder, gut, neck made no difference they were such devastating wounds. Nearly cut smaller hogs in half. That's what changed my mind. The correct bullet, barrel and reasonable range it's a fine cartridge for whitetail and smaller.

 

[Steves1911]

I like the 62gr speer gold dot on deer from the 22-250. Bought several thousands a few years back sold as pulled federal fusion bullets. Work great in the 223 and 22-250.

 

[Coldfinger]

The 45 Grain TSX from Barnes will do the trick on deer sized game from a 1 in 14 twist. It would not be my preferred deer rifle but if you put this little pill in the boiler room at 3500-3600 FPS it will do the trick. I have killed lots of Antelope, Whitetails and Mule Deer with my 22-250 over the years. Its a very versatile caliber. I would not recommend it for any type of long range hunting for animals this large but in the 100-200 yard range it should work just fine.

22-250 Remington Load Data
Case: Winchester Case Trim Length: 1.902
Primer: Rem 9 1/2
Barrel Make: McGowen Barrel Length: 24"
Twist Rate: 1:14"
Bullet
Weight
Bullet
Type
Bullet
SKU
Bullet
S.D
Bullet
G1 B.C
Cartridge
O.A.L
45gr. TSX FB 30176 0.128 0.188 2.350"
Charge Velocity Charge Velocity
Powder (grains) (fps) (grains) (fps)
IMR 4320 35.0 3536 38.5 3941
TAC 34.0 3664 37.5 4015
Varget 35.0 3653 38.5 4023
RL 15 35.0 3644 38.5 4033
IMR 4895 34.5 3626 38.0 4035
A-2520 37.5 3727 41.0 4060

Fast and furious works wonders!

 

[Coldfinger]

So you found the 52 SMK worked well on deer? What range were they at and what MV did they start at? Good information to know. Thanks. BTW I believe a buddy of mine took a buck with a 55gr BT out of his 22-250. Around 150 yards if I remember correctly.

I've used Speer 50 grain tnt out to a tad over 400 yards. I've never had a problem with it, just try to keep the lighter weight bullets behind the shoulder, or in the neck eye ear you name it!

 

[xsn10s]

I've used Speer 50 grain tnt out to a tad over 400 yards. I've never had a problem with it, just try to keep the lighter weight bullets behind the shoulder, or in the neck eye ear you name it!

Good stuff to know just in case!