Categories
All About Guns

The Awesome Long Range .22-250 Remington

Image result for 22-250 rifle
Your standard Remington 700 in 22-250. Its a great rifle after you make sure that the trigger group is squared away.
Or if you really want to go “Whole Hog” then. You do a whole lot worst than with a High Wall in the caliber.
Related image
 
Image result for 22-250 ammo
So way back when I was in University, which was a hell of a long time ago. I started to hear and read about this round. That & a few like minded classmates of mine. Told me about what they had experienced with it.

  Now I am very skeptical type of person. So of course I did not believe all the stuff that I was told about this round by these folks.
  As the years passed by & I started my career at pretending to be a School Teacher. I slowly was able to start buying more & better guns.
So one fine day. While out doing the Saturday errands. I stopped by one of the Local Gun Emporiums to see if there was anything worth looking at.
  Where of course, the owner had set up a crafty ambush for me and my wallet. In that he would put up in a prominent place. What he called the Special of the Day Deal.
  So in I go and almost automatically turn my eyes to this spot. This time the gun in question was a Ruger Number 1 in surprise! 22-250. It was also outfitted with a nice Redfield Scope. All this for around $900.
 Well there went my allowance for while!
Image result for ruger # 1 in 22-250
  But let us move on to the Range and what i found out. For once my friends from College were not so full of brown sauce. Now granted that the Number 1 is a fine rifle. Two I was able to get my hands on some really good hand loads.
  It was really the first time that I was able to put a couple of rounds in an area the size of a quarter. Now I know that there are a lot of good shots out there reading this. But for me it was a very nice feeling to be able to do this myself.
(Pity that I gave it to the Son & Heir for a gift. But he lets me shoot it when ever I want to. As he is the best kind of Son)
  What it is good for out in the field?
  I would not recommend it for shooting anything bigger than a small wild boar. The round also is very hard on the meat. That & it can create some really awesome looking wounds.
  But if you want to do some serious long distance shooting like at Coyotes or Ground Squirrels. Then you could do a whole lot worse than this round!
https://youtu.be/jYf607xz1rM
Now for some technical information that is better written Than I could do.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.22-250 Remington
22-250 Remington.JPG
Type Rifle
Place of origin USA
Production history
Designer Grosvenor Wotkyns, J.E Gebby & J. Bushnell Smith
Designed 1937
Manufacturer Remington
Produced 1965-Present
Variants .22-250 Ackley Improved
Specifications
Parent case .250-3000 Savage
Case type Rimless, bottleneck
Bullet diameter .224 in (5.7 mm)
Neck diameter .254 in (6.5 mm)
Shoulder diameter .414 in (10.5 mm)
Base diameter .469 in (11.9 mm)
Rim diameter .473 in (12.0 mm)
Case length 1.912 in (48.6 mm)
Overall length 2.35 in (60 mm)
Rifling twist 1-12, 1-14
Primer type Large rifle
Ballistic performance
Bullet mass/type Velocity Energy
40 gr. (2.6g) BT 4,224 ft/s (1,287 m/s) 1,585 ft·lbf (2,149 J)
50 gr. (3.2g) SP 3,945 ft/s (1,202 m/s) 1,728 ft·lbf (2,343 J)
55 gr. (3.6g) SP 3,786 ft/s (1,154 m/s) 1,751 ft·lbf (2,374 J)
60 gr. (3.9g) BT 3,580 ft/s (1,090 m/s) 1,708 ft·lbf (2,316 J)
64 gr. (4.1g) Power Point 3,500 ft/s (1,100 m/s) 1,741 ft·lbf (2,360 J)
Source(s): Hodgdon [1]

.22-250 Remington maximum C.I.P. cartridge dimensions. All sizes in millimeters (mm) / Imperial (inches).

The .22-250 Remington is a very high-velocity (capable of reaching over 4000 feet per second), short action, .22 caliber rifle cartridgeprimarily used for varmint hunting and small game hunting, though it finds occasional use on deer.[2] This cartridge is also sometimes known as the .22 Varminter or the .22 Wotkyns Original Swift.[3]Along with the .220 Swift, the .22-250 was one of the high-velocity .22 caliber cartridges that developed a reputation for remote wounding effects known as hydrostatic shock in the late 1930s and early 1940s.[4][5]

History[edit]

The .22-250 started life as a wildcat cartridge developed from the .250 Savage case necked down to take a .224 caliber bullet. In the early days of the cartridge there were several different versions that varied only slightly from one to the next, including one developed in 1937 by Grosvenor Wotkyns, J.E. Gebby and J.B. Smith who named their version the 22 Varminter.[3]
The .22-250 is similar to, but was outperformed by the larger .220 Swift cartridge. However, it is in much wider use and has a larger variety of commercially available factory ammunition than the Swift. This makes it generally cheaper to shoot. The smaller powder load also contributes to more economical shooting if a person is doing their own reloads. Despite common myths regarding longer barrel life on a 22-250 vs the Swift or other calibers, that is directly related to shooter habits, allowing the barrel to cool between volleys and the speed of the bullet, an important factor for high-volume shooters. Both the Swift and the 22-250 shoot at very similar velocities and bullet weights so barrel wear when used and cooled equally is identical between the two calibers. Due to its rimless case the 22-250 also feeds from a box magazine with ease.
In 1937 Phil Sharpe, one of the first gunsmiths to build a rifle for the .22-250 and long time .220 Swift rifle builder, stated, “The Swift performed best when it was loaded to approximately full velocity,” whereas, “The Varminter case permits the most flexible loading ever recorded with a single cartridge. It will handle all velocities from 1,500ft/s up to 4,500ft/s.”[6]
Sharpe credited the steep 28-degree shoulder for this performance. He insisted that it kept the powder burning in the case rather than in the throat of the rifle, as well as prevented case stretching and neck thickening. “Shoulder angle ranks along with primer, powders, bullets, neck length, body taper, loading density and all those other features,” he wrote. “The .22 Varminter seems to have a perfectly balanced combination of all desirable features and is not just an old cartridge pepped up with new powders.”[6]
Accuracy was consistently excellent, with little need for either case trimming or neck reaming, and Sharpe pronounced it “my choice for the outstanding cartridge development of the past decade.” He finished by saying he looked forward to the day when it would become a commercial cartridge.[6]

Commercial acceptance[edit]

In 1963 the Browning Arms Company started to chamber its Browning High Power Rifle in the .22-250, at the time a wildcat cartridge. This was a risky yet historical move on Browning’s part as there was no commercial production of the .22-250 at the time. John T. Amber, reporting on the development of the Browning rifle in the 1964 Gun Digest, called the event “unprecedented”. “As far as I know,” he wrote, “this is the first time a first-line arms-maker has offered a rifle chambered for a cartridge that it—or some other production ammunition maker—cannot supply.” Amber foresaw difficulties for the company but “applauded Browning’s courage in taking this step”. He said he had his order in for one of the first heavy-barrel models, expected in June 1963, and added, “I can hardly wait!”[6]
Two years later in 1965 Remington Arms adopted the .22-250, added “Remington” to the name and chambered their Model 700 and 40 XB match rifles for the cartridge along with a line of commercial ammunition, thus establishing its commercial specification.[7]
The .22-250 was the first non-Weatherby caliber offered in the unique Weatherby Mark V rifle.

Military acceptance[edit]

Both the British Special Air Service and the Australian Special Air Service Regiment used Tikka M55 sniper rifles chambered in .22-250 for urban counter-terrorism duties in the 1980s, in an attempt to reduce excessive penetration and ricochets.[8]

Performance[edit]

Typical factory-loaded .22-250 Remington can propel a 55 grain (3.56 g) spitzer bullet at 3,680 ft/s (1122 m/s) with 1,654 ft·lbf (2,243 J) of energy.[9] Many other loads with lighter bullets are used to achieve velocities of over 4,000 ft/s (1,219 m/s), while still having effective energy for use in hunting small game and medium-sized predators.
The .22-250 is currently the fastest production cartridge, surpassing the .204 Ruger. This round is loaded by Hornady under their Superformance line and is a 35 grain, non-toxic, fragmenting varmint bullet at 4450 feet per second (1356 m/s) from a 24″ barrel.
It is particularly popular in the western states of the USA where high winds often hinder the effectiveness of other varmintrounds in prairie dog hunting. Many states in the USA have minimum caliber restrictions on larger game such as deer, although most states do allow the cartridge to be used for big game.