Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ruger 77 Ultralite 250 Savage

well I bought a Ruger 77 Ultralite 250 Savage. Looking for loads for whitetail. Looking forward to shooting this on coyotes also Should be a fun gun

I usually start with H4895 and a 100 gr. bullet. I've had very good luck with the 100 gr. speer and around 33.0-33.5gr. of 4895 for around 2800 fps. This is the load I use in my Savage 99. Since you have a bolt gun, you can load a little hotter if you want. My RSI will take 35.0 gr. with no issues. My current preferred load for my RSI is the Hornady 117 gr. RN with H4831, as it is a tack driver. If you want to drop down to 87gr. bullets for he dual purposes mentioned, I've had very good luck with the speer bullet over 35.0 gr. H4895 or 36.0 gr. RL15, or the Sierra 90 gr. HP over 34.5 gr. H4895. Any of these will do a little over 2900. Hope this helps,

Old70

I've had two of these; still have one. old70's experience with the cartridge is similar to mine. The Hornady, Speer, and Sierra 100 grain SP flat base bullets and H4895 work well. A couple of other good ones are the Sierra 87 grain SP and 90 grain HP, again with H4895.

I've tried other powders including Varget, Reloder 15, H414, and IMR4064. They will often work fine, but I've found no single better powder than H4895 for the 87-100 grain bullets. My work with bullets heavier than 100 grains in the .250 has been very limited, but some old notes indicate good accuracy with IMR4064 and the 117 grain Hornady round nose, chronographed muzzle velocity around 2,500 fps.

Considering the very slender contour of the barrels, these rifles can be surprisingly accurate.

Good score there Mr Duck. My 250 is a 700 Classic but Id jump all over an Ultra-light 250. I have one in a 25 Bob, sweet. I always look for an RSI too. Great day when you snap up a find like that.

always wanted an ultralight in 250/3000 , congrats on the find...

I'd bump up the 85/87 grain loads a tick and run 80gr TTSX at 3200fps

Although your Ruger 77RL has a 1-10" ROT, I prefer to shoot lighter bullets in my 250-3000s due to their smaller case capacity. I like either the Hornady or Sierra 75 grain bullets for varmints and the 87 grain Hornady and Speer, HotCore and TNT, for an all around bullets. I have found that the 87 grain bullets will shoot to approximately the same POA, so I can shoot coyotes with the TNT and deer with HotCores without having to re-zero.

I don't think that I've owned a 77RL in 250-3000, but recall that the wife of one of my favorite gun sellers, the late Bill DeVeux of Norwich, VT, shot a 77RL in 250-3000. Bill shot a deluxe grade 722 in 257R that I lusted after when I was a kid.

In my 700 Classic it's no problem to closely approach 3000 fps with 100 grain bullets. This is with several powders and no capacity issues.

Remington 700 Classics were cataloged with 24" barrels, while Ruger 77RLs were cataloged with 20" barrels, so I was thinking that 3000 fps might be a push in the Ruger. 3,200 fps with the 75 grain Sierra HP and Hornady VMax is probably doable in a 20" barrel and doable at below maximum pressure levels.

I was thinking that the 250-3000 has a smaller case capacity relative to most of the other .243" and .257" bore rifles that I shoot; 243, 25 Souper, 257 Roberts, 257AI, 25 WSSM, 25-284, and 25-06.

If I was moved to shoot deer with a 250-3000 with a 1-10" ROT barrel, I think that I'd opt for the 80 grain Barnes TTSX to maximize the speed and penetration potential, 'cause I like speed and penetration.

I'm sure a 20" would lose a bit. I'd still like to see the deer I wouldn't want to shoot with a 100 grain Interlock or Ballistic Tip on top of a full load of H4895 though.

True, but there are many roads that lead from here to there. I just prefer to shoot lighter bullets and gain a little speed in the process, but the majority of my 250-3000s are of the 1-14" ROT variety from Savage and Winchester.

75gr Vmax/80gr TTSX swapola wouldn't suck.

I have killed a "boat load" of whitetails, a couple of pronghorns, a mule deer and an elk with the older 100gr Nosler SBBT loaded in front of 38.7 grains of WW760 (or H414). Chronographs around 2800-2850fps. Works for me but am running low on the Noslers so I may go to the 80gr TTSX

I like all of the 250s that I have but think the Ruger ultralight and the RSI were two of the best factory 250s ever made (the 1899F is a good one too ) - IMHO.

PennDog

Pretty cool rifles...

A co-worker shoots one, and does just about everything with it.

I never could understand why Winchester/USRA made the one year run of 70 Lightweight Carbines in 250-3000 with a 1-14" ROT in 1986/87.

I forgot about that one 260Remguy - if the twist would have been 1:10 that one would have been right up there. Always though that the Weatherby Whitetail Hunter would have been up there too (the stock wasn't "right" though ). I even bought a Weatherby Varmitmaster to make a 250 on that action - still in the works

PennDog

It's pretty simple, really. Winchester, and most other larger scale gun makers hire marketers, engineers and machinists, instead of shooters.
If someone makes a marketing decision to produce a rifle for a Savage cartridge, why look further than
Savage's specs for things like twist rate?

It's totally asinine, but the lack of knowledge on most shooters part ensures that it doesn't affect their bottom line.

Thanks for info. Looking at scope options right now.

FWIW have Leupold 2-7X compacts on the two RSIs and a Leupold 2.5-8X on the Ultralight (the way I bought it).

You will like this rifle a bunch SLDUCK!

PennDog

Savage finally changed the ROT in their 250-3000s from 1-14" to 1-10" in 1960.