Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 22 inch 22-250 best powder for velocity

Recently got a rem lvsf with 22 " barrel . Could anyone give me any ideas on best powder for 52 grain bullet. I'm hoping to get the most velocity I can with this shorter barrel.

Either H4895 or Varget would be my choice.

I'd reach for 3031....

CFE.

Barrel length isn't going to matter, what's fastest at 26" will be fastest at 22".

My last .22-250 thrived on slightly excessive amounts of Varget. Its predecessor lived on H380. Both choices were made based on accuracy, not velocity. Doesn't matter how fast you miss.

Tom

No particular powder will help with speed in a short barrel that i know of.
IMR4064, IMR or H 4895 usually gives good accuracy and good speeds.

My current favorite load for 52 and 55 grain bullets is 34.5 gr. of IMR4895

Im getting 3573 fps out of a 20 inch barrel with a 55 grainer with IMR4895

How many grains are you using Ingwe?

36.0

IMR 4064 or Varget

My other 22-250 likes 4064...but Ive never clocked it.

I recently tried 36.0 grains of IMR 4895 with hornady 55 SPs and got sub .75 MOA 5 shot groups but the bolt opened hard and the case heads had ejector marks in them.

34.5 gives me under half MOA and a little over 3600 in a 24" pipe

Goes to show that all barrels are individuals

Yep. And I knew it was a red-line load....

4064 has always been a go to powder for the 22-250 as far as I have been concerned but I am liking 4895 lately, or I guess I should say the 22-250 I'm using the most likes it.

One of these days I want to try some ramshot big game if it ever shows up locally again

33.8 IMR 3031 with 55 vmax works well for mine. Getting 3500 and some change.

222ND,

I tried a bunch of powders in the .22-250 a year or so ago, and my rifle just happens to be a Savage with a 22" barrel. CFE223 turned out to be the velocity champ with the approximate bullet weight you're interested in, with 40.0 grains getting 3951 fps with the 50-grain V-Max and 39.0 grains getting 3801 with the 53 TSX. Accuracy was good with both loads as well.

That 50Vmax is packing the mail! I wonder what that powder would do in a Swift?

Tried the CFE223 in the Swift and the accuracy was nothing to brag about , Rel 15 is the powder for the Swift

Roger that. I tried RL15 with moly'd 50's a few years back and didn't get the magic speeds everyone was claiming. Speed's not everything, but it IS called the Swift.

I've run 3031 with 55's in several '250's. One was a 26", the others 22".

The last one clocked at 3,580 "something" with 35.5 grs 3031 (Sierra 55 BTHP) in a 22" barrel and shot great.

Had good luck with RL15 and the 52 A-Max in a 24" that clocked 3,620-40, but I don't have the exact charge in front of me.
The 3031 load shot better.

I'm not trying to but into the OP but does anyone know of a rifle that has a fast twist in the 22-250? I want to run some 70-80 grain bullets.

Mine loves max load of Varget with 40gr BT's. I plan to try some 4064 with 50gr BT's here soon and see how those do.

I asked the same question on another site but didn't get a answer but it's my understanding that Ruger makes the American Rifle model with a 1-9 twist in the 22-250

Since this came up, I had an opportunity to try some AR Comp in my 1 in 7 twisted 22.250...it gave some very impressive velocity increases.... especially with the 53 V Max, with its high BC resulting in a pretty flat shooting combo.... with stellar accuracy.

CFE223 has beaten everything else for velocity in my 22-250 using 55 gr. ballistic tips. It's very accurate in my rifle also.

Varget and the Hornady 50 gr V-Max

Haven't used a lot of powders in the old .22-250.. Started with 4064, but switched to H4895 because it shot more accurate, was faster, and easier to drop.. Bought 11 pounds of 3031 at a very good price so I have been shooting it.. Never check the speed on it, but the H4895 was quite a bit faster than 404.

I have shot H414 with 55 grn Ballistic Tips at 3700 fps with great accuracy.