22-250 wont group

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Speedy7722

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Hi my names Josh. Not sure if this in the right forum or not but anyway. Seeing my intrest in guns and hunting my dad turned his old 22-250 over to me. He never really shot it much, just enough to kill the occasional coyote or fox at around 100yards or less. ha.

It is a 1978 Remington 700 bdl 22-250. I may be 18 but ive been shooting firearms for years and love tinkering and modifying things. So I took this rifle out with its old weaver 10x scope and tried to sight it in with some federal 55gr powershok i believe. It ended up grouping around 3 or so inches at 100 yards. Since then ive tried about everything i can think of to get it to shoot. Ive shot the federals, a few reloads, and some hornady 50 grain v-max..all groupings all over from the very 1in to 6in. I have tried 3 different scopes and 2 different bases 3 different ring combos. I even took the hogue stock off of my sps tactical .223 (which I can group an Inch or better no problem) and tried shooting with it and no luck. I free floated the barrel in the stock bdl stock, dropped the trigger pull to around 3lbs and even had a couple workers at local gunshop and a gunsmith look it over.

They all said it seemed fine, the crown is good, the barrel looks bright after i gave it a going with butches bore shine (considering it could be carbon fouled) on a few different occasions, both said it looked to have alot of life left in it. but no matter what i try the groups will never stay consistent averaging around 3-4in but somehow it will very rarely throw out dang near close a 1in group then the next will be 6in or something. I have tried waiting for minutes between shots and everything. Its driving me crazy. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
 
I forgot to add the strangest part. At 100 yards my bullets are tumbling. Say you held a clock up to the target..the imprint of the bullet would have the bullet nose somewhere around 7o clock if i remember correctly. At 50 yards the bullets have already started tumbling. And that is with all the ammo
 
What is the rate of twist of the rifle?

At what speed are you pushing those pills? Have you fired anything through a chronograph?

What is your barrel length?
 
I am not familiar with Butch's bore shine and I do not know if it removes copper fouling but copper fouling could be a culprit in your group sizing. For the tumbling I would agree with others that maybe your barrel twist rate isn't quite right for the loads you are shooting. I know a search on here can generate several ways to check but the easiest way involves a cleaning rod with a brush (or tight patch and a jag) and a mark from a sharpie on the rod, measure how far the mark is from the rear of your action, push the rod in till that mark has made one full revolution, measure again. This is your barrel twist rate.

Where are you located in Southern Illinois?
 
Drop her down to 40 grain and 45 grain pills. Try again I am willing to bet she preforms better.
 
I live a few miles east of Mt. vernon. and I thought it said the twist on the barrel but i just checked and i guess it doesnt..but i remembering researching it and it was said to have 1in14 twist..so I will try some lighter bullets and see how it goes
 
Yeah 1:14 you will want a light bullet, 40-45 gr bullets will work good in that twist, the downfall to the .22-250 has been that they are factory barreled in a slow twist and have to shoot light bullets. If they had barreled them with a 9 or 10 twist it would really rock at long ranges.
 
If you reload you can shoot those heavier bullets at a slower speed. A 52 grain SMK out of a .22-250 running 3600 or there about is usually a beautiful thing.
 
Alright thanks guys. I have wanting to get into reloading for 22-250 and 223 but not sure if I should go with the Lyman crusher 2, Hornady lock N load, or RCBS supreme kit..They are all around $300 and I would just be doing small amounts of reloading yet I would like to obtain accurate loads.

Which would you guys suggest, or if not what else?
 
Very odd. For the accuracy issue, I'd suggest switching scopes, usually that's the culprit. But the keyholing bullets sort of make that a moot point. :confused:
 
Your Remington 22-250 should shoot 50-55gr bullets accurately, and if the bullets are actually tumbling, then you have a barrel issue. Either it's copper fouled or the crown has a problem.
Those older 700's are usually rock solid performers.

You might allow another experienced shooter some trigger time with your rifle to compare your techniques and groups, if you cannot get the problem resolved.



NCsmitty
 
I'm with NCsmitty on this. There's no reason a 1:14 twist barrel can't shoot 50 to 55 grain bullets with excellent accuracy.

I have practically the same barrel (1:14, 24") on a Remington 788 and it is a true tack driver with those weight bullets. Heavier bullets (60 - 70 grain) will require more twist for good stabilization.

Surely does sound like a barrel problem. But, before going to extremes, what sort of bench setup are you using to shoot? You have to eliminate the human factor before blaming the rifle.

Did you float the barrel before or after the poor groupings showed up? Try putting some sturdy shims up front just to see what happens.
 
Agree w NCSmitty. .22-250s have been accurately shooting 50-55 grain bullets out of 14" twist barrels for 70 or 80 years now. Keyholing with one bullet and extremely poor accuracy with the rest is a very bad sign. I wish I knew for sure what it was a sign OF.
 
Well I have let a few of my buddies shoot it and the same problem occured. I use a heavy wooden picnic table and shoot off of a harris 6-9 and rear bag or just use my lead sled. And when dad first turned it over to me the barrel was not free floating but it shot bad around 2-3in and it seems after I free floated it has got increasingly inconsistent.

And to deal with the copper fouling (Idk whether it is or not) I had a local gunshop give it a thorough cleaning and ive done it several times on my own.
 
What Mal H said. Contrary to current popular opinion, some barrels shoot better with forend pressure. Try putting a few business cards between the barrel and the forend tip.
 
Sounds like copper fouling to me. Try one of the foaming copper solvents and give the bore several good soakings until the patches run white instead of blue. Then give it a whirl. I have found that the federal factory loaded 55gn Sierra GK bhp's shoot well in my Ruger m77. Not as well as my handloads, but acceptably well out to 200yds.
 
Alright I stopped by walmart earlier and picked up 40rnds of winchester 45gr jhp running 4000fps. I cleaned the barrel with some copper cutter and then butchs bore shine till the patches were clean. Took it out to 25 yards and shot a 3 shot group that was easily under an inch..no tumbling bullets so far

Then we moved the target out to around 75yards. The first 3 shot group was around 3/4in with no keyholing. The second group went pretty good. The first two shots were under an inch and the third shot flew about 2in to the left of the group..I then waited around 10min for the barrel to cool and shot a 4th shot and it landed right in the middle of the other two.

So Im thinking since it was 95 degrees out and after two shots with about 5min intervals between shots the barrel was pretty dang hot that i may have not waited long enough and it cause that flier. Overall pretty successful day today
 
Id suggest you contact someone in your area and get some help reloading, for now.

Post that you are interested and your area and Ill bet you get several PMs w/ help..
Good shooting!
 
It is true that a 1:14 twist rifle will group the 55 grain bullets. I have found through my three rifles. Two of which are 1:14 that I get the best accuracy with slightly slower speeds. A 40 or a 45 grain bullet just seems to work for me very well from manufactured ammo.

I had a Savage 12bvss that was beyond finicky about bullet weights. The lighter bullets she preformed like a good girl. Anything beyond 50 grain was another story. With reloads i could make just about anything work but always at moderate speeds. Also the .22-250 heats up far far quicker than say a .223. Find the load the rifle likes and be happy for many many rounds to come.
 
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