Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Who uses a 22-250 for deer

First I hope this don't end up in a pissing match about using .223 cal. cartridge for deer hunting.I just interested in who hunts deer with 22-250 and how it works for them. In my area the blacktail average between a 100 to 125 lb's and it's legal to use a .223 Cal. centerfire cartridge to hunt deer with.So I'm going to use my new Winchester model 70 FW in 22-250. I have Sierra 63 gr.,Nosler 60 gr. Partition,Winchester PP 64gr.,and Barnes 53gr TSX bullets. I think any one of those will work.Thanks

Yer good to go.

You are certainly good to go. Make sure your twist rate will handle those pills you mentioned. This was a 22-243 middlestead with 55 gr NBT. Just behind the shoulder, passed through. 6th deer taken with it last year. Belonged to a friend, he parted it out and i snagged the bbl.

Ive used mine to take a few deer with Federal premium 60gr Partitions and killed an antelope doe with Winchester whitebox 45gr HPs. This barrel is slowly losing accuracy so if/when I rebarrel it, Im going to go faster twist. This one has 1-14". I loaded some 53gr TSX for it and couldnt get it to shoot worth schit. Didnt try real hard but my 243 has kind of taken the 22-250's deer hunting spot the last couple years.

Works great on deer from my experience. I use the 60 grain NPT and shoots fine from my 1-12.

I shoot the 63 grain Serria bullet in my 220 Swift and it works great on whitetail deer. Choose your shots and you will do fine with your 22-250.

The ROT of your barrel will be your only limiting factor. The only deer that I've shot with .224" bore rifles have died quickly with an application of 60 grain Partition or 64 grain PP from 1-14", 1-12", 1-10", and 1-9" ROT 22-250s and a 223 WSSM.

Jeff

The Winchester model 70 has a 1-14" twist. What bullet weights will that support best?

I would try the 64 grain PP, Midway sells them in bulk lots, they come in pale blue boxes, Winchester/Olin brass, the primer of your choice, and Varget.

That said, Kevin Petrzilka took a 203 4/8" B&C buck in 2010 with a 1-14" ROT Remington 788 shooting 55 grain BTs.

Me, I like 60 grain Partitions, but they shoot better (4 me) in 1-12" ROT or quicker twist barrels.

Jeff

My 1-14 twist Rem 22-250 will not shoot the 60 GR NP. Could not hit the 4' target till I got about 30 yards away and they keyholed at that distance. 1-12 223 does fine with same bullets. Std 55 gr shoots around .5" 5 shot groups more often than not. How does the 64 gr PP do in 1-14 ?

With a 1 in 14, you will probably need to stay light or they won't spin fast enough to stabilize. Try the heavier ones out, but if they punch rectangles in your targets instead of spheres, they are tumbling because they aren't spinning fast enough.

I've killed deer with 50 and 55 grain Nosler BT's out of the .223 and .22-250, but I stick with neck/head shots. I think that little Barnes tsx will be your best bet - excellent penetration, won't fragment, and should stabilize nicely.

the 53 TSX will for sure work in that twisrt, as will the short fat 63 Sierra..NPTs might not...if you are rolling your own also try 50 gr TTSX...

I have killed a bunch with a 14 twist using Speer 70 gr round nose at about 3200 fps in the 22-250. The 64 wim PP works well in a 12 twist. I hear the Barnes bullets work well in slow twist tubes!!

I've killed a pile of deer, including a 190# 8-point this past season, with my Savage 16 22-250. I load the Barnes 53 grain TSX on top of 38 grains of Varget in Winchester brass and CCI 200 primers. In my 1:12 barrel I'm getting consistent 3/4" groups, complete penetration on ALL shots and lots of dead deer. I've never been able to get a TSX to stay in a deer. The buck mentioned above was shot through BOTH shoulders (complete penetration with a quarter sized exit wound) and dropped as if it's legs had been snatched out from under it. I wouldn't hesitate to take any shot with my 22-250 using the Barnes TSX that I would with my 25-06. The only issue you may have is stabilizing a 53 TSX in your 1:14 barrel. The TSX, being a monolith, are long for their weight. You may need to drop down to the 50 grain. But, it should perform just as well as the 53.

My Tikka 1-14 does not like bullets over 55 grains and is really better at 50. The 53 tsx I use for deer is accurate enough for my use (1.5) but will not, or rather I can not, make it into a bug holer like I can lighter bullets.

BCR- try the 50 gr TTSX....

I'm going to as soon as it gets to where I can do some serious accuracy shooting. I sprang for a box of them just before Christmas.
What powder you use?

36.0 gr 4064 in one rifle, 36.0 gr IMR 4895 in the other...

pic for BCR....

Nice rifle, BCR.

One more data point: My 14" twist, 225Win M70 shoots 63gr Sierras into very small groups. The Power Points won't do better than 4".