22-250 load for deer

50-55 grain sp works like lighting around 3800fps, high shoulder and neck shots they don't move a inch. Behind the shoulder should be good to but never tried. Hot loaded some 50 vmax from a 26" about 4000fps was very good to, almost took does neck off if it was not for the little bit of thicker hide in the back.

Lots of folks in Texas use the .22-250 for deer with great success. Shot placement and blind hunting means lots of venison in the freezer.


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The 60 gr Nosler Partition would be a good bullet choice, imho

The 60 gr Nosler Partition would be a good bullet choice, imho

The 60 gr Nosler Partition would be a good bullet choice, imho

not sure how I triple posted that??? My apologies

Highland Lofts said:

I bought an older Interarms 22-250 a couple weeks ago and will be loading ammo up for it to use next fall whitetail hunting.
What are you guys useing?
Type & weight of bullets and powders.
I will be picking up some cases to load this week and I need to buy bullets to test out in the gun.

I'm sure there are guys out there useing 22-250 for deer hunting.

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see if you can find some heavier weight combined technologies bullets.
The partition is good too it's what I shot that doe with from my 223.

What is your barrels twist rate? That will determine what bullets you need to be looking at. If your barrel has the faster twist rate is look at the 70gr Nosler Accubond or the 90gr Speer Gold Dot.

CarJunkieLS1 said:

What is your barrels twist rate? That will determine what bullets you need to be looking at. If your barrel has the faster twist rate is look at the 70gr Nosler Accubond or the 90gr Speer Gold Dot.

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Yes, my Remington 700 in .22-250 will not shoot any bullet over 55 gr. accurately due to the rate of twist. If I remember correctly, it has a 1:14 twist. My Weatherby MarkV has a 1:12 twist and does better with the 60 gr. Nosler Partition. However, an even faster twist will give better results with heavy bullets.

Highland Lofts said:

I need to check out the twist rate.

What is the easist way to check it out?

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Cleaning for with a tight patch, measure how long it takes to turn on time.

Wouldn't be my first choice even though lots of folks seem to have success with the .224 diameter gun on deer. I sure wouldn't use it on some of the bruisers we have up here. If I had to, I'd use the primium 60 grain range or heavier. I keep telling myself its only a little bit smaller than my .243. Maybe I'll convince me someday. Good luck.
(Had more than a few horror stories of guys coming in the shop who had failures on deer with their .223s. Most admitted they used 50 or 55 grain varmint loads.) Probably where my prejudices started.

I've shot a few over 200lbs dad shot his biggest deer with a 22-250 it was 260 dressed when we weighed it on a grain scale. You put that bullet in a good spot it's lights out.

I have had good accuracy with the loads below (I have not tried on deer yet, but the rifle goes on a walk through the woods several times each fall, whilst my oldest son lays claim to the .30-06).

I’m basing the bullet recommendations based on what I have heard from others, with good shot placement being considered critical.

This is for a 12” twist Savage. I really enjoy loading for the 22-250 (probably a bit too much...I often try out a new bullet just to see how accurate of a load i can find, hence the multiple suggestions below)

Most of the recipes below came from Hornady’s 8th edition, or the Hodgdon online data site.

1. 55g Sierra GameKing over IMR 4064 or H414 at 2.350”. This was one of the most accurate of the loads listed below, and i typically can get MOA at 100 yards if i do my part well.

2. 60g Nosler Partition over IMR 4064. I seemed to have better accuracy when these were seated a bit deeper (2.325”). Groups are a bit wider here, and about 2” is the normal group (for a 100 yard shot on deer. I had similar results with H414, but seemed more accurate with Varget (typical MOA, but not tested as much as prior examples). With Varget I was seating to 2.350”.

3. 50g Barnes TTSX over IMR 4064. My notes say 2.350” COAL, and a 2” group is about typical. I had similar results with Varget.

4. 64g Nosler Bonded PSP over IMR 4064. These also showed better accuracy with a shorter COAL of 2.325”. My typical group is 1.5” from the bench.

I’ve also had good luck with other bullets with H4895, so if you have that on hand, it might be worth a try.

Highland Lofts said:

I need to check out the twist rate.

What is the easist way to check it out?

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while you're at it, check the condition of the barrel. At over 3300 fps, .22-250s burn out barrels pretty quickly.

Lee Q. Loader said:

The 60 gr Nosler Partition would be a good bullet choice, imho

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I'll agree with that. Partitions are my favorite whitetail bullet. In a bigger rifle for elk or bear the Barnes X bullets are my go to.

Lee Q. Loader said:

not sure how I triple posted that??? My apologies

Click to expand...

CarJunkieLS1 said:

What is your barrels twist rate? That will determine what bullets you need to be looking at. If your barrel has the faster twist rate is look at the 70gr Nosler Accubond or the 90gr Speer Gold Dot.

Click to expand...

Highland Lofts said:

I need to check out the twist rate.

What is the easist way to check it out?

Click to expand...

Having my dad's old interarms mark x and having the issues that I've had, I'll tell you right now it's 1-14 and no the partitions won't stabilize! Top game worthy bullets to experiment with (high end velocity required to balance that 1-14) 55 gold dot, 53 tsx, 50ttsx, 64 gr nosler bonded solid base. In that order for stability/accuracy, but in order for hunting favorite? 50 ttsx and 64 nosler. Keep impact velocities above 2200 on the Barnes and gold dots and you'll be ok.

My go to bullet for the 22:250 Remington with a 1:12 twist is the Speer 70 grain Semi Spitzer. It provides fine accuracy and puts things down fast. The longest shot for a deer I've taken was 360 yards with that bullet and it was DRT. I also used it in a 222 Remington with a 1:12 twist to take a deer at about 80 yards. That one wasn't DRT but it didn't last for long either.

The Semi Spitzer is shorter than a pointy match bullet of the same weight which is why it works in a 1:12 twist barrel.