When I lived in S. Ca, I belonged to a Predator calling club. There were perhaps 20 of us that had the 22/250 AI. We all hunted out of our trucks, so weight was no issue at 10-11.5 lbs.

I had a heavy rig that I used as a chuck, p. dog, and coyote rifle with a 27" Hart, 1-12 twist. I shot the 50's at 4150, 55's at 4050, and the Berger 65 at 3700 fps. These loads shot very tiny groups. Also, these loads were about the same with the other guys rifles. There were perhaps a dozen of us that used the AI with Win 760 and a couple of others that used H380 and H414. In those days, H414 was a touch slower than Win 760.

Later on, I built another rifle, it was a re-chambered Remington factory barrel with about 4 threads cut off the shank, and the 55's were unreal accurate at 3850 fireforming. I killed in the neighborhood of 45-65 coyotes a Summer in Az while they were caught out in a field that was being irrigated. The coyotes were trying to catch gophers that were crawling up on the dirt mounds. Obviously, gohpers can't swim.

In a 27" barrel 22/250 AI shooting the 65g Berger at 3700 fps(current 60g berger with more lead in it), the killing power of this round was on par with the 25/06...big holes in yotes!

I never trimmed a case on the AI.

If you are having a custom gun built on a short barrel rig, consider the standard 6/250, which is just a 22/250 necked up. It is a lot better cartridge than the 22/250, giving almost identical velocities as the 243 with 10.0g less powder.