Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 22-250 and IMR 3031

I have established the load for the 22-250 and the 55gr BTSP. That turned out to be 38.5 grains of WW760. I went way back in my records and found that load worked great with my Ruger 77 Varmint so I gave it a shot. Bingo!!! Unfortunately it does not work so well with the 55gr V-MAX, why I don't know. IMR 4064 seems to be accurate but only at pressures that beat these Federal cases up. We are talking loads right near the 36 grain max mark.

I have about 7 pounds of IMR 3031. I have no record of using it in a 22-250. I just wanted to ask if any of you have experience with that. The bullet is fixed, I have 650 V-MAX left.

3031 might be a tad fast for that case and bullet. You'd have some airspace in the case even with a max load. Sometimes that's detrimental, but you can never tell.

I have tried 3031 in the past in a 22-250 and accuracy was good, but just couldn't get the velocity of 4064. I ran them right at book max using Sierra and Speer 52/53 gr bullets. Not exactly apples to apples, but it will work.

28 to 36 grains of 3031, L Rifle primer..

source, Steve's Reloading pages...

data according to IMR's Old Brown Pamphlet, max at 35 grains. with an MV of 3650 fps...

37 grains in my notes shows an MV of 3750 out of a 26 inch barrel Ruger VT.

I use 3031 a lot in the 22.250.

I'm not too worried about velocity. 150fps more or less doesn't make a difference in a hit or miss as long as i know the trajectory and make a reasonable range estimation. I use a Sightron SII 6-24 dot recticle set with the drums at zero for 150 yards. Then with a different load I know how far and which way I'm off that zero in both axis's. Then I just refer to my range card for moa's at longer ranges.

Which reminds me that since the BTSP load is zero'd in I need to get out the chronograph.

I use 3031 in my 22-250. 33 grains and a 55 grain Sierra bullet.

I've used same for last 30 years, also use the 50 grain Sierra lately with same load.

Primer? I have Win, Fed and CCI to choose from.

One of those good things about the venerable 22-250 is its apparent flexibility with powders. Have used a similar load of 3031 (33.5g and 52 gr. bullet) with success. Two of these 22-250s here are much more picky about bullet design/weight - so have a bunch of different .22 pills around.

3031 has always been ok in the 22-250, my only knock on it is that it meters terrible so I always tried to use something else like 4895, or a ball powder.

Dick

CCC LR. Use them in my 270 also.

Or 32.5 grains 3031 and a 52 Sierra out of a flatbolt Ruger 77V.

+1 on this. I stopped using it because of that.

3031 quickly became my favorite powder in the 22-250 circa 1980. The load was 36.3 gr with a Hornady 60 gr sp over CCI 250 primer. The load gave excellent performance in a Weatherby 26 in Varmintmaster and also several years later in a Savage 112V.

I remember trying 4064. 4320, 760, 4350, and 380. None of them would shoot with 3031 for accuracy in that Weatherby. When I got the Savage, my old 3031 loads shot so well, I never tried anything else.

I got a big keg of 3031 ..for cheap...I think a 20 pounder...it was old powder but still good...I burned it up in a few 22-250 s I had for prararie dogs..I worked a load that would shoot in all 3 ...I used a 55 gr bullet...it's about all gone now but it did work fine..