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Hi,

I'm about to purchase a .22-250 for foxing with - currently use an AR type rifle but don't like the noisy straight pull cocking action - especially at night when you can hear a pin drop. Also the AR feedramps are somewhat sharp and damage the ballistic tips.

Anyway, I've been looking at the Tikka T3 rifles, seem very well made - smoother bolt action than any Remi 700 (which I was originally looking at buying), however all the UK models are only 20". That's 4" less than what most of the ammunition manufactures use as a test barrel length for their published muzzle velocities. According to my calculations that could mean as much as 200 - 250 ft/sec drop in muzzle velocity - thus negating one of the key benefits of moving to this much faster round.

Is there anyone on here that has such a rifle in 22-250 and has chrono'd it with a 50gn factory load? Just wondering what the actual MV drop was.

Cheers,

Chris

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Hi

Not sure what range you plan to engage Charlie from (I only shoot paper these days), but some very basic sums suggest that at 100 yds that velocity drop will move your point of impact about 4/5 of an inch. There may be bigger things to worry about.

yours

Iain

The standard field widths where I shoot are 250 yards, so I seem to find that most of my shots are at this distance, however I wont engage anything over 350 yards.. I was more interested in finding out what the actual difference in MV is with such a short barrel.

Cheers.

Welcome to the forum Chris.

Closest we have is a 22-6,5x47 which is not really a 22-250 so I ran the numbers through Quickload which if nothing else will give a vague indication.

With a 24" barrel and 50 grain bullets a quick load gives 3836fps and dropping to 20" gives 3654fps so an MV drop of of 182fps. I am not sure Charlie is going to worry about this out to 250 yards as the round will still be travelling at around 27-2800fps.

The only local 22-250 shooter I know is shooting with 20" ish barrel and suppressors with factory ammunition and I doubt he has ever bothered to chrono it.

You will lose velocity with such a short barrel. However, it'll still kill foxy nice and dead. Personally, I'd not bother with it because you will, as you say, lose the main benefit of 22-250. If you know your distance, 350 yards is easy enough with 223.

of course, you could, if you don't mind the paperwork, get a 243 - much better in the wind and still driveable at around 4000 fps with a 20-inch barrel.

The drop off isn't too severe, and only slightly detrimental to that 'laser beam' zero hold over that this calibre is famous for. Looking at using the Hornady Vmax 50gn 'Superperformance' , quoted at 4000ft/sec in a 24". I'm guessing that these will actually run at 3800 or there abouts. That's roughly 1/4" more drop at 200 yards, and 1/2" more at 250 yds. However at 300 yards the total drop is about 6.5" - but that's only 3/4" more than if the bullet was running flat out at 4000ft/sec - and judging the difference between 5.75" and 6.5" at 300 yards is near on impossible!!

If you know what the drop-off is, then why ask the question?! With a short barrel on such a lot of powder, you will lose velocity, and I would be surprised if that load is doing 3800fps.

But here's a thing, you have clearly decided anyway, so just get the gun, and go shoot foxes with it! You'll need to check your drops anyway so it doesn't really matter.

Don't get cocky, (forums... jees), think about it..... I didn't know the drop off until 'ovenpaa' very kindly gave me the MV loss due to the shorter barrel, according to Quickload - which is an application I don't own. Hence my original question!

And still not decided, but if the figures are correct, or near enough, then I'll perhaps take a gamble.

AT, the load I based it on was 37.8 grains of RL-15 so quite stout but still under the Pmax of 58740 PSI listed in QL. If you have any other barrel lengths in mind let me know and I will see what QL says. It is not perfect however it is a good starting point to work with,