22-250

"300 yards is as far as I can shoot anyway"

That may change, if you do much shooting. Experience makes a shooter better if they are working at correct technique all the time. Unless you are distance limited by brush and trees etc, you might be surprised what you end up doing. I used to think shooters that said they could hit prairie dogs at 400 yards and beyond were perhaps stretching things. After a few years of fairly steady shooting, I find myself doing that--occasionally.

22-250 is a nice varmint caliber, there are lots of ammo options when a hoarder shortage isn't sweeping the land, and there is bookoo load data for it if you reload.
 
Thinking of putting a Leupold VXlll 3.5x10 boone and crocket
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The boone and crockett is an excellent big game reticle.. But with the 22-250 round on smaller critters I would use the varmint hunter's reticle...

I have experience with both reticles..
 
Back when the 40gr bullet in a .22-250 factory load first came out (and there was still a fur market) the coyote hunters in my area bought almost all of it.

Stores had a hard time keeping that load on the shelf. That's because it was believed (and normally worked out that way) that the 40gr bullet would "blow up" and not exit. This meant only one hole in the pelt.

Today there isn't much (if any) fur market for coyote pelts (at least, not around here), and while still popular, the 40gr load isn't quite as good for just dispatching the varmint as the heavier 50-55gr bullets, because the light bullet drifts more in crosswinds at longer ranges. Not a lot, but enough that the heavier bullets are preferred for that reason.

Also, I haven't met a .22-250 yet that didn't shoot well with 50, 52, 53, or 55gr bullets. Some of them haven't liked the 40gr quite as well. And some of them (most) don't shoot 60+gr as well, either. Standard twist rates for the .22-250 are not good for long heavy (for caliber) bullets.

As to the scope, I don't know the specific model you mention, but a variable is a good idea. Coyotes move a lot, unlike chucks and prairie dogs, so a wide field of view in better then high magnification. The variable gives you the option of either, although count on it, at some time, you will have the scope set on high X when you need it on low.;)

I won't speak to any kind of BDC, being a handloader who never seems to shoot exactly what the factory loads are, BDCs are never "perfect" for me, and I have never bothered with them. If you shoot what they are calibrated for, (or take the time to range test them, and learn where they hit with your loads -which I could do, but never bothered) they could be a useful thing. But if you don't do that, you're better off without one, in my opinion.
 
44AMP

Correct me if I am wrong....the throat on the .22-250 gets eroded with each and every firing. When it gets eroded far enough accuracy suffers. However if one loads long would that not mititage the loss of accuracy? Of course one could no longer use factory ammo and one might well have to load Single Shot, if the bullets are too long to fit the magazine.
 
I suppose that theoretically the throat gets eroded a bit by each round fired, but surely it's not a measurable amount. The first barrel on my old 220 Swift finally eroded at the throat enough that I was loading the bullets further out. That took an awful lot of shooting to be noticeable, but finally the 63 gr Sierra SMP's were barely in the end of the case. It was time for a new barrel.

As for scopes and BDC reticles, I'm thinking about a new scope. It'll probably be a Leupold 4.5-14x40 with the Varmint Hunter reticle. As for what each BDC line or dot means distancewise, all you need is to download the ISnipe app on your iPhone or iPad and put in your load info (velocity, bullet type, BC, etc.) and tell it your zero point is 100 yards. Then take that info to the iStrelok App for iphone or iPad and tell it what reticle you want to look at and it'll give you just the info you need distance for each BDC line or dot. It's good to have a chrony to be sure of your MV, but a good guess in the ballpark will give you useable BDC data that's good enough for pig shooting. If you're off 100 fps on MV, the zero distances don't change much. For instance...my 260 Rem, shooting the Nosler 100 gr BT with a MV of approx. 3000 fps and with the Burris 4.5-14 and the BDC dots, when sighted in at 1 inch high at 100 yards, will be on at 250 for the first dot, 350 for the second dot and 450 for the third dot. Now I do intend to verify all of that, shooting at distant hay bales on my hay field, but previous use of that info, when tested on pigs and coyotes out to 400 yards, has been quite accurate. And no matter what BDC reticle you have, iStrelok has that one in the App. I'm an engineer and all that data is tons of fun. If you don't have an iPhone or iPad, well....go get one. You need one.
 
the 22 250 is the perfect coyote round I think. minimal pelt damage and piles them up where they stand even with a marginal shot, ive seen many coyotes killed with a 22250
 
As had been said by others, the .22-250 is ideal for your intended purpose.
Drop at 300yds is around 5 1/2 '' with a 55gr bullet, assuming a velocity of 3,600fps. Give some consideration to a 4.5-14 scope as it does have its advantages.
 
Correct me if I am wrong....the throat on the .22-250 gets eroded with each and every firing. When it gets eroded far enough accuracy suffers. However if one loads long would that not mititage the loss of accuracy? Of course one could no longer use factory ammo and one might well have to load Single Shot, if the bullets are too long to fit the magazine.
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No, you are not wrong, BUT, there are practical considerations to be taken into account.

Barrel erosion is the classic "downside" to high intensity cartridges. The throat of virtually EVERYTHING gets eroded with each and every firing. IT is part of the process. Firearms and machines, and while very specialized, they do have some traits in common with all machinery.

Those parts subject to heat, pressure, & friction will wear. Accept that. Your barrel is a "moving part" in this sense. Given enough time (cycles of operation -for a barrel it would be rounds fired) you will get wear.

At some point, the part will fail to function to spec. Stuff wears out. now, where that point is, and how fast you get there are widely variable.

What you are shooting, and how you are shooting it plays a big part in the service life of a barrel. So does what the barrel is made of.

And, it is a matter of degree, and personal use that determines when a barrel is "shot out". A group size that a benchrest shooter would throw out the barrel because of can be better than the tightest group a big game hunter ever got...

Lets say, for instance, you notice that after firing 3,437 rnds from your .22-250 that it no longer produces 5/8" groups, now things hover around 1 inch.

Do you think the barrel is toast at that point? Or do you wait until groups open to 1.5MOA ? Or whatever...

You can gain some additional "life" to your accuracy by seating out bullets to compensate for barrel throat wear, but there is a point where this just no longer works. At some point, barrels wear to the point they are no longer good enough for what you want them to do. ALL barrels do this, what varies is how many rounds (or possibly how many lifetimes of shooters) it will take to get there. .22LR barrels last virtually forever. Low intensity rounds, lead bullets, usually last many multiple thousands of rounds (something like the .38 Special might go 30,000rnds) before accuracy suffers to the point where the barrel needs replacement.

Heat & pressure is the enemy. Barrels fired in rapid fire matches "wear out" sooner (fewer rnd count before accuracy suffers).

Rounds with reputations for being barrel burners are high intensity rnds, with large powder capacitiy compared to bore size. Barrel steel has been improved a lot since the early 1900s.

The other thing to consider is how much you will have spent on ammo, by the time you shoot out a barrel, vs the cost of a new barrel (or having the old barrel set back and rechambered..)

Generally you will have spent more in ammo than the cost of the work. Often you will have spent more in ammo than the cost of the entire rifle!

In an imperfect analogy, neither the tires nor the engines of race cars last as long as those on your family car or pickup truck. People accept that these things wear out from use, why can't they seem to understand, barrels do too?
 
You will, in fact, very often spend multiples more than the price of the entire rifle on ammo before you wear out a barrel.

You'd be hard pressed to load jacketed rifle rounds at a cost per shot under about 40 cents.

If that's the case, 2,000 rounds costs you $800. You'd have to be shooting as a top competitor in benchrest competition to notice a problem before 1000 rounds ($400 in ammo) and very few of us would demand a new barrel even in a "high intensity" cartridge like .22-250 before we reached 3,500 rounds ($1750 ammo).

Remember, that's the cheapest ammo you can load. You're not going to be shooting that cheap ammo if you demand exceptional accuracy. You can probably add 50% to those costs for top components.

I load for a .22-250 that is certainly approaching 1,000 rounds if not 1,500. It still shoots 1" or under at 200 yards and that's with a steady diet of 35gr at 4,435fps.
 
Barrels fired in rapid fire matches "wear out" sooner
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Not according to most match barrel makers they're shot from. It's the high pressured long range loads that causes the most barrel wear per shot.

I doubt any .22-.250 starting out with 1/4 MOA accuracy at 100 yards will do that well for more than 1000 to 1200 rounds. If it starts out at 1/2 MOA, it may go 2000 rounds before getting noticeably worse. I've known a few varmint hunters who gave up on the .22-.250 barrels after 1200 or so rounds. But whatever one decides is poor accuracy determines when their barrel's replaced. It'll vary across different folks and barrels.
 
It's the high pressured long range loads that causes the most barrel wear per shot.
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Sure. Per shot. But even "regular" rounds (not overbore) erode the steel, and when things get hot (rapid fire) each round eats just a tiny bit more barrel than when cold. Its a small thing, seldom noticed because most of us don't shoot like that. I have seen it remarked on by match shooters as far back as the 1940s.

Seems they noticed that the rifles that shot the rapid fire strings often needed barrels at a lower round count than those that never shot the rapid fire strings.

An extreme example would be what happens to barrels shooting full automatic.

Not something you are likely to meet shooting a .22-250 bolt gun, just something to be aware of, in general.
 
:p
chipchip said:
Would a 22-250 be adequate for coyotes out to 300yds. Plan on getting a sporter rifle with a VXlll 3.5x10. Thought it would make a good walking varmiter.
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I like to shoot the .22 calibers for coyotes, if the wind is calm!

Your .22-250 with light bullets in the western winds will soon frustrate you! I know from experience!

When I go out onto the deserts and mountains hunting coyotes, I expect shots from 20 to 400 yards. On calm days, my .220 Swift, .22-250 and .204 Ruger are all in the truck. If the wind is more than 15 mph, I take a larger rifle, like the .243 win, or .270 win. The heavier bullets (>100gr) helps me greatly with windage!

As for throat erosion, I wouldn't be worried about it for a hunting rifle. You won't shoot it that much to know it is happening. And besides, if the gun starts shooting 1.5 MOA instead of 1 MOA, POI will still be more affected by wind!

WIND! WIND! WIND!
 
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