Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints 250 Savage Varminters

Having a surplus of 22.250s at the moment, I was debating on taking a Ruger 77 Mk 2 Sporter and change the barrel to a 250 Savage in a heavy magnum contour to use as a walking varminter...

I have never worked with the 250 Savage cartridge.. It is something I don't need as I am deluxed out on the 223, 22.250, 243, 6mm Rem and 260 Rem calibers...

I just thought it would be fun, going 'retro'... and using some of our great 75 grain V Max and 85 grain Ballistic Tip bullets..

So if there are anyone using a 250 Savage for varmint work, it would be great to hear you share your experiences...

the older I get the more "older" cartridges are appealing to me...

on a Model 70 action, thinking about doing the same thing with a 257 Roberts chambered barrel...

cheers
seafire

Seafire: I have done some Varminting and Hunting with a couple of 257 Roberts Rifles in the distant past. One was a Winchester Model 70 (pre-64 vintage) and the other an early Ruger Model 77.
I once took a fellow along on a Prairie Dog Safari that only owned two Rifles - one was a Savage Model 99 in 250 Savage.
He had a blast with his old Savage and factory shells but he took a GREAT liking to one of my heavy barreled bolt action 223's for "serious" Prairie Doggin.
The reason I hesitate anymore on Varminter Rifles in calibers larger than 24 are the same old ones - heavy recoil, quick to heat barrels and the noise factor. Even with my 260 Remington Model 700 VLS Varminter I notice the Colony Varmints are less "tolerant" of the muzzle noise and the impact noise of the bullet than when using the smaller calibers.
For Coyotes the 250 Savage ought to be a dandy cartridge - its the Colony Varmints useage where I would "feel" over-gunned with it.
I encourage you to get after one though!
Remington made a 700 Classic here a few years ago in 250 Savage and in caliber 257 Roberts several years prior to that - I see them for sale from time to time in sport shops and at gunshows. 24" medium weight barrels these were.
Best of luck if you decide to go with one of the 25's.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

What he said.

Also, the 250 savage is a great as a crossover coyotes-to-deer light rife.

I expect that brass is easy to make from 22-250 cases if you have tons laying around also.

Go for it.

BMT

I've had fun with one for a couple years. It's a heavy barrel, shoots 75 grain bullets into tiny groups and there's virtually no recoil with the heavy rifle. I was having fits with the chronograph the day I had it out with the 250 but the ones that registered were about 3300 fps. My rifle is a SA Remington in a McMillan varmint stock. A pound to two lighter and it would be much better. I'll get load data when I get home tonight. Ward

I grew up in a family of 250 SAvages users, they are all rancher types and all used the 99 Savage for everything..I shot many deer and elk with the 250 Savage early on, so it was a natural progression of my gunnut experience to finally build a 250 Savage varminter...Like always I fell in love with it and used it for years on varmints. I then tried the 25-06, 243, 6mm Rem., and the 250 AI..In the end I went back to the std. 250-3000 as the better balance of range and recoil and wind bucking ability as the best of the litter..Today I still use it and my other favorite the 6x45 on a L-461 Sako action..

It's probably not any better than the rest, I just liked it more and still do...

I was in a gunshop today and handled a custom Springfield
03 in 250 Savage with a bull barrel, I figure it was from
the 30s or 40s.

I think you'd get along real well, though I wouldn't go with the heavier barrel myself. The little Savage does great with sporter weights till you get into the high volume scenarios,even then I'm not sure you'd gain significant shots between cool downs. The older stuff is gaining favor here as well. I shoot two 250s, a 257 Roberts and a 25-20WCF. My son has a 257, a 300 Savage and is looking at building a 300 H&H. Still can't dig to the bottom of the freezer so it must not be handicapping us.

I have an older Ruger 77 with a heavy Douglas barrel in 250-3000 that I put together in 1992. It works fine and is easy to get MOA or better groups at 3200 fps with the 75 grain VMax or Sierra HP bullets. I prefer a little more speed in most of my .257" bore rifles, so I'm much more likely to shoot the 25 WSSMs or 25-284s. Shorter/lighter rifles, like the Ruger 77 RSI, Savage 1920, and Winchester 70 Lightweight Carbines fit my idea of "ideal" platforms for the 250-3000 better than a heavy barrel varmint rig, but different folks, different folks.

I also have a Savage 99 in 250-3000 that was put together from parts. The barrel is a recycled Ruger 77V in 25-06 that was cut back to 23". Despite the relatively poor trigger, this rifle will shoot consistant sub-MOA groups with a variety of loads. There isn't anything wrong with the 250-3000, as long as you accept the limits of a 46 grain capacity cartridge don't push the pressures so as to make it perform beyond its safe ceiling.

Jeff

As I've written before, the main reason I built a 25-308 was because I couldn't find a 250 Savage bolt gun anywhere. With only four grains more case capacity, it acts exactly like a 250AI if I lean on the powder measure handle a bit: 3400 fps with the 75 VMax or HP. If I choose to reform military brass, I can use book 250 Savage load data and get book results. Very nice, indeed.

I don't use it for colony varmints, but can attest that a coyote hit amidships with a 75 VMax abruptly becomes a "split personality". I leave the graphics to your imagination.

I no longer hunt big game, but carried that rifle on one of my last mule deer hunts, stoked with plain-Jane 100-gr softpoints, and knew that if I pulled the trigger, I'd be unpacking my drag rope in short order.

When I was a poor lad in school, one rifle was it for my budget. That was a 700 classic 257 Roberts. Killed countless prairie dogs using 75 grain HP Hornadays. A couple years later the 250 Savage was introduced in the 700 classic and I really wanted one to reduce the powder usage and recoil a bit, but the dealer wouldn't allow me much for the Roberts as it was too odd to sell. Well, that was the point of owning them over a 243. Anyway, Shooting Times had a great article about the 250 Savage around 1984 and I recall them getting close to 3400 fps with the 75 Hornaday HP and loving it's performance. I would think that would work just as well today.
dan

I have a Savage 99 that I've used for coyotes and used to load for my X's dad, he had a custom mauser with a med weight Buhmueller barrel. I loaded 60gr spire points for him to hunt fox. I've been working with a 25-204 that would match 250 Savage factory ballistics great deer rifle but too heavy handed for coyotes (fur hunter). I'm having that barrel rechamberred to 250 Sav and another 25-204 made configured a little different.

erich

My first 250-3000 was a Mod.20 hand-down from my Dad in 57. Shot many, many chucks and fox with it, also my first few deer. I still have that rifle. Sence then I`ve added 4 more, three in the AI version. 1x10 twist. My walking varminter is a 700SA, McMillian stock. Weighs bout 7.5 lbs. All bullet weights shoot very well, up too 115-120 pills. I find the 87 grn Nos. tough to beat, and just knock snot out of rock-chucks.
Longest shot this summer was a lazed 667 yrds. 108 grn JLK.