your thoughts... how many rounds a stock Remy 22-250 barrel good for ???

M

Magnum Wheel Man

New member
trying to get a scope test on the new scope I mounted on one of my FIL's old Remy 700 BDL's in 22-250... my 1st try out, I had the wrong ammo ( loaded up specifically for a different rifle, & was grouping about 2.5" at 100 yards ) well I went though the ammo, & found some loads he had loaded specifically for this BDL... however I shot 2 - 5 shot groups, & both were still about 2.5" at 100 yards

I'm going to pull the scope, ( a new Vortex ) & make sure that's not the problem, but it's possible this rifle was part of the group that my FIL used to take out "dogging" it would not be uncommon for him to shoot a 1000 rounds in a week, ( I think he shot mostly 223, but am sure he shot the 22-250 as well )& he often went out several weeks a summer... it's a standard weight rifle barrel...

so any of you guys worn out a 22-250 barrel ??? any idea how many rounds it took ???? this is a 70's era standard weight Remington 700 BDL

I'm going to have my retired gun smith buddy look it over & see what he thinks of the chamber throat, which is what I suspect...

I think he shot this one a lot, as one of the loads I shot in my 1st group ( these were load by him, years ago, before he died ) ruptured the case at the base web...

so... any idea how many reloads a 22-250 case is good for ???

... I haven't shot this rifle, before this year, I'm not much into the over bore hot cartridges, but figured this would be a good fun rifle to shoot out to 300 yards, as long as we already had it...
 
I can't answer all your questions with any degree of accuracy, but I have worn out a 220 Swift barrel, and that's pretty close to your caliber. I think that if your FIL was shooting high volumes of ammo in short periods of time, then the barrel might be gone by now. In my Swift, accuracy started to fall off and I measured the distance to the lands and it had increased. Over time, the previous owner and I had worn the throat a good bit. No way to tell how many rounds went through the barrel. For me, I'll guess at 1000 to 1200 rounds and the gun was 10 years old when I bought it. I can't guess how many time he shot it. But..it was shooting good when I got it. I was loading pretty hot.

So in your case, I suppose I'd get a borescope and look at the bore, or get a gunsmith to do it. Worst case is a new barrel from one of the top barrel makers, and then you'll have a terrific shooter. This sounds like a great excuse to spend some money on a barrel.
 
Too may variables to answer for sure. Some powders will burn more into the throat, some have higher pressure, 40gr vs. a 55gr bullets, etc.

Best thing to do is have someone who knows what they're looking at take a scope to it.
 
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"Worst case scenario"- light bullets with alot of powder behind them at high pressure loads and lack of proper cleaning (or over-cleaning) could cause accuracy to fall off in 2000 rounds or even less. Thats just a guess by the way. I've never actually "shot-out" a .22-250 barrel myself, but I do know their reputation as barrel burners.
 
I have shot out a couple of 22-250 barrels, and quite possibly a third one now. Right around 4,000 rounds was my number, and groups opening happened rather suddenly, within a few hundred rounds from 3/4" to over 2".
 
no idea what the bulk of the rounds were, but the reloads for the BDL, were 55 grain HPBT bullets at 3300 fps ( don't remember which IMR powder off the top of my head, but it is written down with the rest of the recipe, on each box )
 
4000 rounds would be about right but .22-250 is not as hard on barrels as the hotter loads in .220 Swift.

An intensive cleaning might help, as sometimes fouling will result in inaccuracy, but if the throat is gone, the barrel is toast; there is no way to prevent it and no way to stop it.

Jim
 
I have shot out a couple of 22-250 barrels, and quite possibly a third one now. Right around 4,000 rounds was my number, and groups opening happened rather suddenly, within a few hundred rounds from 3/4" to over 2".
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That has been my experience also. I have an older Rem 700 heavy barrel that I bought new around 1974 or so and shot it until 2009. When I was in Illinois, I did not shoot it as much as I did when I moved to Arizona. Anyway, the accuracy in a couple of outings went from ok to awful. So I had a new Douglas SS barrel installed. Shot the gun quite a bit and in less than a thousand rounds, the accuracy just went away. I do not load hot and found it hard to believe the barrel just went away.. I had the action bedded and trued when I had the Douglas barrel installed and assumed it was something else causing the problem.

I had the action checked and nothing seemed out of whack. Had the action screws retorqued and a little more relief cut into the barrel channel. Started swapping scopes and mounts out and it did not improve.

Took it to another gunsmith and found a guy who wanted to swap a new factory barrel off a R700 that had only been proof tested at the factory and installed that.

While waiting for that gun, I also bought another R700 SPS so I would have a 22-250 to shoot. That gun has 30 rounds through it. The old R700 has a new barrel, new HS Precision stock, new mounts and a new Leupold VXIII.

Long story and expensive but the gun does shoot nice now. I don't know how many rounds I can run through it before it goes away again but I think I will be happier with the black barrel over the SS. Anyway, if one goes bad, I have the other. So I can still shoot 52 gr. SMK and 38gr of H380 into nice groups.

Hope your experience is cheaper. . .
 
I guess it depends on what you consider "worn out" to be in your barrel. In 600 rounds, the .22-250 is very, very,very slowly heading South. It might very well be 2k-4k rounds before it quits being sub moa.
 
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Perhaps a re-chamber job??

Magnum Wheel Man said:
I'm going to have my retired gun smith buddy look it over & see what he thinks of the chamber throat, which is what I suspect...
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How good a buddy is your gunsmith friend? If the rifling is not too bad, perhaps he could re-chamber for a .22-243 which would clean-up the chamber nicely & perhaps give you another 1,500 rounds or more. Since this is a factory sporter barrel you probably can't set it back enough for a re-chamber to .22-250 again due to the barrel taper. If you paid a gunsmith that wasn't a friend full price it probably wouldn't be worth the labor cost on a shot-out factory barrel. I hope it goes without saying, as you progressively shoot out a barrel, you need to seat the bullets out further to keep the bullet to rifling relationship working for the best accuracy. Normally a slight increase in powder charge is also required over time. I shot-out a Rem 700 BDL factory .270 Win rifle some years back. It got to the point that with the bullet just barely seated in the case, the ogive wouldn't reach the leade. Amazingly, seating the bullets in the case as long as possible but still magazine feed produced 2" groups (or better) all day long at 100 yds without fail. I don't have an exact count but that .270 easily had excess of 10,000 rounds through it. I rebarreled it later to a .270 again with a SS Hart & it is the most accurate rifle I now own.

FWIW...

..bug
 
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Got 3630 out of my BDL first barrel,Lite hot loads really ate mine up may have ran her hot a time or three.Got almost the same count with a 25-06 Ruger.So round count,heat,time between shots make a difference just don't know how much.
 
heat
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I have talked to more than a few gunsmiths and they tell me the same thing. Too much shooting at one session and getting the barrel too hot is a barrel killer.

I think they are right. Another thing one of the smiths who worked on my gun told me was that H380 is NOT the powder of choice in Arizona heat. He does not like it at all because he says it is very sensitive to temperature. A good load for winter will be a high pressure load in summer. I don't remember any warnings about that in my load workups and have seen no signs of high pressure. My load has been 38 gr. H380 and a 52gr SMK for several years. I think I might go back to IMR 4064 and IMR 4895.
 
They are definitely correct about heat. You can destroy a .257 WBY in less than 100 rounds. I saw a knucklehead do it. He literally fired 100 rounds in 10 to 15 minutes. It was quite hilarious really. You could smell the stock cooking. Trying to zero in a new rifle. He knew nothing about rifles, but thought he knew everything. I learned a long time ago to let know it alls find out the hard way. Shoot, crank scope, shoot, crank scope, shoot, crank scope, every shot. It took about 10 rounds for him to get on paper, and by then there is no zeroing a sporter weight .257WBY because its all over the place. He probably would have shot 200 rounds if he had them.
 
no idea how rapid my FIL may have shot the rifle in the past... my intention of use, is to put it in a group of rifles that I relaxingly shoot 50 - 300 yards... I may shoot 5 rounds at a target, usually pretty slowly, often pulling the spotting scope over & finding my shot, if I can't see it in the scope ( trying to determine the difference between the house flies & the holes :o ) I typically leave the bolt open, so I get some air exchange through the barrel, & then drive my old Mule down to the target & change out paper...

... so I'm pretty easy on guns... once I get it shooting better
 
"Worst case scenario"- light bullets with alot of powder behind them at high pressure loads and lack of proper cleaning (or over-cleaning) could cause accuracy to fall off in 2000 rounds or even less.
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Add shooting multiple rounds in a short period of time to the mix and you've got a recipe for much less than "even less." I've got close to a couple of thousand rounds through my No. One Ruger, chambered in .220 Swift, with no evidence of accuracy deterioration (yet :eek:). But most of my shooting has been at woodchucks, with shots fairly interspaced. It might be a different story if I was pounding out a couple hundred rounds during a Rosebud praire dog afternoon...
 
I just passed the 3000 round mark with my .22-250 Model 700 SPS Varmint and it is still grouping as well as it did when it got its Timney trigger and Bell and Carlson stock. It averages just under 0.5 inch groups at 100 yards with its favorite hand loads.

Mine really likes 40 grain and 52 grain bullets and it thankfully shoots most accurately when the velocities are in the middle of the powder table.
I've tried about 6 different powders but mine has shot most accurately with Reloader 15.

I hope I get at least another 1000 rounds through it before the barrel starts to degrade.

As for case life for reloads, I have gotten about 15 with Lapua cases.

After trying Remington cases when I got the .22-250, I found that the necks got weak after about 8 reloads and accuracy suffered a bit. I switched to Lapua. They are more expensive but they seem to last longer and I have no complaints with the accuracy. Standard deviation measurements through my Oehler Chronograph with the Lapua cases are in the 7 to 11 range depending upon the powder and the bullet combination.
 
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I guess I got over 5,000 rounds out of my 22-250 before accuracy dropped off rather quickly & I had it rebarrelled. This rifle had been an accurate gun for 20 years where over a month it went from under MOA to 2.5-3 inch groups at 100 yards. Tried cleaning, different ammo, tightening everything & even a different scope to no avail. Eventually had it rebarrelled and its back to shooting 1/2 inch groups.
 
over a month it went from under MOA to 2.5-3 inch groups at 100 yards.
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That is just how mine went away also. There was no gradual opening of groups for me. One day it worked fine the next day it didn't.
 
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