I am thinking of getting one built from the ground up for shooting 77smk's or heavier.
1)Please talk me out of it because I have too many chamberings already! HA!
I have always been a little confused about the 22-250 action. Do you do a build on a long action? It is too long for a short action... right?
Does Remington make and sell at Brownells a 22-250 action?
What twist rate? I was reading on other forums that 1/8 is just right. But... a 1/7 works very well in a nato-556 for heavy bullets. Does the higher velocity in the 22-250 make the 1/7 a no go for some reason?
AND............
Do you get the chamber and bore chromed to lengthen throat life? Black nitride these days? Or just shoot it to death? Who does the chrome job these days?
What do y'all used your 22-250 fer?
Favorite loads and war stories... I'd like to hear them.
Well, a few answers anyway.
There is no special .22-250 length Rem 700, they use a standard .308 length action. .308 brass is longer than .22-250 brass.
I'd suggest seating one of those 77 grain SMKs as close to the middle of its bearing surface as you can eyeball so that you have the most flexibility to go longer or shorter, then have your gunsmith specify a reamer that causes that OAL to just tap the rifling. This gives the most flexibility in seating depth.
I'd think hard about going with .22-250 AI, not for the velocity increase, but because ye olde .22-250 has a lot of taper and a lot of case stretch. Should save you some trimming.
Twist ... I'd call Sierra and tell them you're waffling on twist. A 1:9 twist will usually stabilize the 75 grain AMAX at .22-250 AI velocity. I would think a 1:8" would be fast enough but ... better to get it from them.
The down side to too much twist can be pressure. Also, some bullet jackets just can't handle the additional stress.
Think hard about how many lands and grooves you want. 3 L&G is popular but when they start to get rough, the jackets on VLDs seem to fail more quickly. Personally I'd look at 5 groove.
I wouldn't chrome it. I think that's a "thing" that was abandoned long ago.
Personally, I'd just shoot it. Don't overheat it. If you're like me, by the time you wear it out, your interest will have moved to something else new and shiny and it'll be time to rebarrel to that instead.
Tom
