22-250 caliber upgrade?

B

beerengineer

New member
Went to a practical rifle competition this weekend as an observer. I have shot f class in the past but this looks like a lot more fun. I have a overstocked...overscoped 22-250. One of the events was 5 shots... 940 yards.... 12 inch plate.... 1 minute. Maybe a little much for my 22 250. Any ideas on what could be done to convert this rifle to compete? Rebarrel? New action? Etc. Currently it wears a B&C tactical stock and a Leupold VX-L 6.5 x 22 scope. Im not taking advantage of these components. What would you do?
 
If you want to rebarrel, the .22-250 uses a .473 bolt face which is the same as the .30-06 family, .308 family, 7&8mm Mauser family, 6.5 creedmoor and many others. I'm guessing your rifle is a short action being a .22-250, if so you can't do anything in the '06 family. For 940 yards the tried and true .308 would be a good choice. 7mm-08 or 6.5 creedmoor would be good choices as well. Also more and more people seem to be shooting .243 longer range these days. Many good options, have fun deciding!
 
If it were my rifle, I would rebarrel to 260 Rem with a longish throat for the heavier bullets. There is probably not a gun game under 1200 yards that the 260 Rem cannot conquer.
 
Its a remy 700 sps varmint . I bought the rifle when I learned my father in law used that caliber when he worked as a swat sniper in the 60's. Fell in love with the ballistics. But now leaning towards the 260 rem or 243. If I go that way, Im assuming a new action as well?
 
A new action depends on how you want to handle things. I just put together a .243AI on a Savage 11 SA that had been a .270WSM, you certainly don't "need" a LA for the .243. Any of those rounds COULD be used in a short action but you'll lose some flexibility with loading them long and/or feeding from the magazine.

Getting a new action puts you in a whole new ball game. Then you've got to talk budget. The scope would be fine but the stock would be a waste because I personally would be buying either a Savage Competition Action or a truly custom action, if the budget allows.

The Savage action is going to run you $650 or so, the barrel another $350-$450, new stock, you know what they cost, you already bought one.:D. Considering that you have the scope, you'd be in it for $14-$1600 considering other miscellaneous costs.

Going with a true custom action or even another 700, you're adding gunsmith costs into it too, where with the Savage it's DIY.
 
Why "assume a new action?"
You have a standard short action with standard bolt face. A new barrel in a bit larger caliber for higher BC bullets will let you increase your range.

I don't know the magazine arrangement on the Remington, I was looking at my Ruger 77 .22-250 the same way. It would need the spacer taken out of the magazine well and a new follower for, say, .260. If you needed to shoot from the magazine, that is.
 
Thanks for the input guys. Yeah, from what I saw, a five round magazine would be the minimum. So what im to understand is the following: standard bolt face standard short action could be rechambered from a 22 250 to a 260 remy with a new after market barrel and a good gunsmith. Oh and another bit of info..... at this competition, EVERYONE from 243 to 300 winmag were using breaks. Thought that was I interesting. Thanks again and ill let yall know how it goes.
 
The 260 Rem produces the time honored excellent ballistics of the 6.5x55mm Swede in a short action (.308 Win family) case. It does this by running higher pressure than the venerable Swede, which is limited to 45K range due to the old rifles (and original specs).

The 6.5mm caliber bullets have great BCs, and even at moderate velocities shoot very flat.

Rebarreling your rifle to a .260 is a simple task for a gunsmith.

5 rnds is all you are going to get in a regular Model 700 magazine using a case with the head size of .473".

Another option is to have your .22-250 rebarreled to a 1-9 or 1-7" twist so you can shoot those 75-90gr VLD bullets the .223 shooters are having such fun with. All the benefits the long range AR shooters are getting from them, plus several hundred fps more velocity from a .22-250. Standard .22-250 barrels have twist rates optimized for the 55gr varmint bullets and do not shoot the long heavy VLD type bullets worth a darn. BUT, get a .22-250 barrel with the twist the AR shooters are using, and you've got them beat by 400fps or so, and that is enough to make a usable difference.
 
If you are going to use it for competition, first, blueprint the action to make sure it is true and square. Then you can decide on what you want to mate with it.
 
I'd move to .260 REM or 6.5 CM. I've currently got a Rem 700 in .308 and my long term plan is to eventually have a .260 REM.
 
I thought about a fast twist heavy bullet .22-250, too; being that I have worked with the setup in .223.
It would probably shoot like a champ but barrel life would be shorter than a .260.
 
One question. What is the barrel twist?
I might be tempted to replace just the barrel with a faster twist.
 
Do you handload or not? If you do, then I'd look at the 6XC as well as the .243 to go along with all the 6.5 calibers.
 
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