Any thoughts on the 250 Savage?

CBA Member

Webley posted this 10 May 2013

Well, I have no experience with one, but I have secretly yearned for a Savage 99 in .250-3000. Good luck!

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99 Strajght posted this 10 May 2013

I have been shooting the 250 sav with cast bullets for a long time now. I have tried both the Saeco 100 gr. and the RCBS 120 gr. 14 gr. of 4759 works well with both bullets. I have used up to 16 gr. of 4759. 10 to 14 gr. of 2400 also works. A few years ago I shot a nice deer with the 100 gr. bullet. It works.

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Standard Member

Chargar posted this 10 May 2013

I do believe it cast bullets are the order of the day in the 250 Savage, I would go with a 1-12 twist barrel.

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 11 May 2013

for gilding the lily, contact jim borden ...borden rifles ... i believe he has the reamer for a * 250 hunter * .... a match dimensioned chamber for br score shooters ... extra accuracy ...with a little luck, of course ...

i have a timney trigger on a 788 in 223 ... heh heh, shoots about 1/2 moa with j.bullets ... it's stuck on, tho, can't get it off ( heh heh ) ...

ken

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CBA Member

delmarskid1 posted this 11 May 2013

i have a timney trigger on a 788 in 223 ... heh heh, shoots about 1/2 moa with j.bullets ... it's stuck on, tho, can't get it off ( heh heh ) ...

Yes Ken I have an '03 with the same problem. The silly thing is stuck at about two pounds damn the luck.

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grouch posted this 11 May 2013

I don't have a 250, but my 257 Roberts does very well. I'd suggest sticking with a 1:10 twist barrel though. Grouch

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Ed Harris posted this 11 May 2013

My feeling with cast is that fast twists are more versatile than slow, especially with subsonic small game or gallery loads where you might otherwise run into bullet stability issues. Some of the best cast bullet results I've had in the .25 cal. were in an old gent's 1894 Winchester 26” octagon barrel levergun with Marbles peep in .25-35 Win.

That gun had an 8” twist and got wonderful accuracy with the RCBS 25-85CM plainbased bullets down to the lightest charges which would exit the barrel, about 4 grains of any pistol or shotgun powder you can sweep up off the floor.

5 grains of Unique, PB or 7625 approximates .25-20 ballistics with an 87-grain plainbase. The .250 Savage is a bit larger capacity, so you should use these as minimum starting loads and increase a grain or so for best accuracy. In the .25-35 case the fastest plainbase cast load which shot well was 7 grs. of #2400 for 1420 fps. The .250 Savage case is enough larger that velocity will drop a bit to be a good full plainbased load. About 10-11 grs. of #2400 should be OK in the .250 for about 1600 fps with a gaschecked bullet.

73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia

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Chargar posted this 11 May 2013

I suppose we all come at the 25 caliber twist question from different perspectives.

I got my first Winchester 92 in 25-20 in 1961 and have never been without one since. Today I have a Winchester 92 and a Remington 24 (pump gun) in 25-20.

From day one I have only fired one bullet and that Lyman 257312 which weights in at 90 grains and is a gas check bullet. In the 25-20 I shoot that over 9/4227 for about 1.8K fps. When 25-20s were all the vogue, the standard twist was 1-14 or 1-16 depending on make. IIRC both the Winchester and Remington have 1-14 twists.

In the 60's John Wooters came up with a great wildcat round he called the 25 Copperhead which was nothing more than the 222 Remington opened up to 25 caliber. A year or two after John wrote about his rifle, I had the fellow in Houston (Jess Stark) who made Wooters rifle make me one on a Remington 722 action and I used a 1-12 Douglas barrel. Again I used 257312 but bumped the velocity up to around 2,000 fps and it was deadly in coyotes, jackrabbits, javelina and like south Texas critters.

Accuracy with the Win. 92 is about 2 MOA and the Remington a little larger coming in at about 2.5 MOA. The 25 Copperhead could be counted on for 1.5 MOA or smaller depending on how much coffee I had and how well I had slept the night before.

So, if I were looking to build a cast bullet 25 rifle in 250 Savage I would do the 1-12 twist again. I would want to use 100 plus grain bullet at 1.8 to 2.2K fps.

Now if a fellow is looking to build a rifle to throw bullets at softball speed, then perhaps a faster twist is the way he would want to go. Therefore a fellow should choose his twist depending on what the end purpose of the rifle is to be.

If I wanted a rifle for my lady to shoot bugs, bottle caps and the like I would hunt up a high grade rifle in 22 Long Rifle, but to each their own. I fired small bore competition many years ago and have a great appreciation for what a good rimfire will do out to 100 meters or so. The shutzen boys in New Braunfels shoot regular 100 yard matches with these things and that is a ton of fun.

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tturner53 posted this 11 May 2013

The .222 Remington is a cool old caliber. IIRC you can form brass from common .223.

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