Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 250 Savage Loads

JB and everyone else, what are your favorite 250 Savage loads? My rifle is a NULA model 20 with a 1-10 twist.

Would like to know also some lower pressure loads for the older 99,s.

For deer I like 87-90gr bullets with some IMR-3031 powder.For varmints I like a 75gr ballistic tip or V-max with the same powder.

I used to load for a 700 Classic in .250 and had some +P loads I've since lost, dammit. Any help there? Looking to shoot Speer 100 grain hollowpoints, and seem to recall having them stoked with about 39 grains of H414 but darned if I want to just load 'em up and try my luck ... Anyone savvy?

I load any of the 100 gr bullets with 35 gr of H4895. Using the current Hodgdon data this is over the max, but by my Hodgdon manuel from 2000 it was the max. Nosler #3,4,and 5 list this load as well as Barnes #3. I always get 3000 from the 22" barrel of my NULA model 20.

I had best luck with R15 and 100 grain Partitions. Won't give charge as rifles vary. Some of the new stuff might work well too. I would look at Big Game for starters. I rarely shoot mine anymore- made it for the kids to shoot cow elk with and they are all bigger than me now- graduated to 308s and 260 Rem...

I have two standard 250 Savages, both bolt rifles.
Below are pix of groups shot with them.
The bullet I used for the test groups was Sierra's 90 gn HPBT.
However, in three rifles chambered in 257, I've gotten exceptional accuracy with Speer's two 87 gn bullets, the TNT and their SP Deer bullet. I'm sure those two bullets would shoot well in a 250 Savage, I just haven't tested them in that chambering.

Don, I have loaded a lot of the 87 grain Hornadys and that has proven to be a good javelina bullet for me and exceptionally accurate. I have stuck with the 100 grain partitions for deer and elk. Never recovered a single bullet and never lost a single elk!

The 87gr Speer Hot Core and H4895 work beautifully in my older Savages with 1 in 14" twist. Can hit that 3000fps mark quite easily, and given that it's Nebraska I like the increased temp. insensitivity of H4895. November can be anywhere from 10 below to 65 above.

Going to be working up loads for NBT's and Partitions in a newer bolt action.

For my Savage 16 I'm useing RL-15 with Hornady 75 gr. V-max or Nosler 85 gr B-tip. With the Sierra 117 gr. Pro-hunter, I use H-4350.

In my NULA 250 Savage, I use 36.0 Big Game with a 100gr Sierra Pro Hunter for 1/2 to 2/3 inch three shot groups.

This is a JB load and is a quick killer, and almost recoil free.

Glad to hear from other NULA 250 Savage guys.

Steve

I tend to use 100-grain bullets in the .250, and have found a bunch of different powders will shoot them well, including RL-15, Varget, Big Game and either of the 4895's. Another good one I just tried a couple months ago is Accurate 2495, basically another 4895, but the latest version is really nice stuff and produced the best accuracy in my rifle.

After trying a bunch of different stuff in the .250 over the years, I have come to the conclusion that just about any 100-grain bullet at 2800 fps or so is perfect, just as Charles Newton intended when he designed the round.

Is there something on the label to distinguish the latest version?

Don,
Have you tried 100 grain Sierra Pro hunters and 38 grains of Win. 760. That shot really nice in that rem Classic for me. --- Mel

M99 EG 24" bbl 1-14 twist

100gr Speer HotCor over 34 grs IMR4064 R-P case, CCI primer 2800fps

87gr Speer HotCor over 34 grs IMR3031 same case and primer 2925 fps

Case life is 4 reloads.

My case life is about 4 X also. Have 2 99,s with large diff.in chamber size. I try and resize case to individual chamber, get longer usefull case life. The 250 case likes to stretch!

Loading Winchester brass gives me 3 or less loadings in the EG. I do partial size cases, also.

My wife's 99 likes 100 gr. Sierra's on top of 33.0 gr of IMR 3031. Don't know the velocity, but it shoots 3/4" groups at 100 yards.

mathman,

You could ask Western Powders, but my understanding is that it's real recent. I got mine direct from them in June. Good stuff.

But all of this is real rifle-loony, incremental stuff. The "old" 2495 is very good powder as well.

87 gr hornady Imr4350 r-p hulls and fed primers seems to work well in my 99 EG. Can get 1" to 1 1/4" groups with open sights pretty consistently.