Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ruger American .22-250 1 in 10

For those that own this rifle or any 10" .22-250, what is the heaviest or I should say the longest bullet that you have had stabilize well with the 1 in 10" twist?

The loading manuals, even in their .22-250 sections, are showing "will not stabilize in 1:10" or 1:9" or slower" or some such for their heavier bullets. Basically they repeat the same info as in the .223 sections.

I figured the whole reason for a .22-250 with a faster 10" twist was to get those rpm's up to the same speed as a .223 with a 1:8" twist.

Swing and a miss by Ruger.
A 1 in 10 is a bastard twist. It will not come close to stabilizing even at warp speed bullets that a 1 in 8 223 will at sedate velocities.
A 1 in 8 twisted 223 will drill 75 gr. A-max's into tiny clusters at 2700 fps.
A 1 in 10 223 WSSM throws em sideways at 3400 fp.
Sometimes you have to wonder if the spec givers even shoot.

Hornady told me that their 60 grain VMax would work in a 1-10" ROT 22-250. I've shot 60 grain VMax and Partitions and the 64 grain Winchester/Olin PP in a 1-10" ROT 223 WSSM.

My 1:12 savage shoots 60 gr Vmax very well.

Jim in Idaho - waiting on delivery of both 60gr and 68 gr Hornady VMax's to work up loads in my RAR .22/250 1:10 twist.

Funny how this specific rifle was taken 'to the woodshed' when introduced i.e. Ruger misprinted the twist rate (nope - 1:10).
So, if the heavier pills 'keyhole' then the naysayers are correct. Me being an unscientific type expect them to give good results just like the 60gr Nosler partitions did.

IF the RAR won''t stabilize them I can use my bolt .223 to shot them up. Homesteader.

don't believe everything you hear.
we have a 1-10 American,it shoots 62 gr tsx just fine.

I guess I never actually measured this 3 shot @ 100 yard group,but it must be at least no more than 3/4".
Center square is 1" square.

Good enough for some that a 1 in 10 can shoot mid weight bullets.
The 62 gr. TSX is on the edge in a 1 in 10.
Ruger still dropped the ball.
There are a great group of bullets a 1 in 10 won't shoot.
Almost a fast twist but not.

FVA - wanted to try some WW factory 40 grain HP's (they shoot really well in an older M77 (circa 1975) 'Tanger' w/1:14 twist) but would expect them to go "poof" in a 1:10 twist going downrange. Believe it or not factory box states MV is 4000FPS. No barrel length listed however. Homesteader

Had they followed the 223 path and made it an 8 twist, Ruger would be selling a lot more 250's

A 62 tsx at what,3200 fps isnt enough?

ya know with that odd ball twist, I was wondering if Ruger is getting their barrels via Begara.... those Spanish guys twist all of their barrels to 1 in 10, the last time I looked on their web sight, regardless of bore diameter....

gotta be a European thing I guess...few guys I know say it will stabilize the 68 grain Match from Hornady and the 69 grain from Sierra.... their new tipped version might be interesting...

folks still forget the good old Speer 70 SMP, the Sierra 63 grain SMP, the 65 grain SP Sierra.. all three of those are darn good bullets and will stabilize in a one in 12 twist just fine...

Ruger owns and operates a 9 million dollar hammer forging machine.
However,the leading manufacturer of hammer forging machines in the world is GFM GmbH of Steyr, Austria. They not only manufacture hammer forging machines for rifling, but also for forging automobile parts in the European auto industry.

Referencing back to my old Speer #10 manual, it seems the rifle used to work up loads for the 223 caliber was a Ruger mini 14 rifle with a 1\10 twist barrel.
It was also noted a 1\14 twist was first used in the m16, but was changed to a 1\12 to stabilize the long military bullet.

From the 4th edition hornady manual

Seems like they went with the fastest twist that wouldn't turn ordinary bullets into blue smoke at high velocity. The average buyer probably isn't interested in running the long bullets. Most folks shooting those seem to favor the .223. I'm not sure anyone makes a really fast twist .22/250, come to think of it.

Savage and Browning make a 1-9" twist in 22/250. 10 is silly

That sounds like reasonable compromise, I guess. It might still be too fast for some lightly-jacketed bullets.

My late brother had a 200th Anniversary Ruger .220 Swift. Even with a 14" twist, he smoked a few before he figured out what was wrong and went with heavier jackets.

Ok, so a 1-8" twist will not be able to handle about 5 different bullets.

A 1-10" will not be able to handle about 100 different bullets.

I'll take the 8"

Again, nothing precludes a maker from offering both.

This

Nothing except the economics of offering barrel twist options in a $300 rifle. Makes more sense to pick one and sell it.

It's also possible that a really fast twist might run up pressures with factory ammo. Not every one reloads. They're selling a bargain-priced rifle to appeal to and meet the requirements of the average schmuck, not just rifle cranks. If they thought the world was clamoring for an 8" .22/250, they'd build it.

Write 'em a letter.

The world is already clamoring for something different than a 14 twist 22-250.

For sure, they should have just gone with an 8 twist and cornered the market from the get-go.

The world is, they just don't know it.

Don't worry, I expect to see a 1-8" twist RAR soon.

Highly unlikely.

Yep and it should be a 1 in 8 or just leave it at 1 in 12/14.
No issues with increasing pressures of factory ammo developed for slower twists. That ground has been gone over.

hornady says a 1-10 will work with their 68 grain bthp.
also warn against fast twist for some of their bullets.

I didn't get that memo, but I'll take your word for it.

The point is, right or wrong, there's a reason they went with a 10" twist. Could just be some guy in R&D thinks that's the best thing ever. With most companies still making them with 12" twists, Ruger probably thinks they're being cutting edge and reckless. I checked some loading manuals to see what twist they used for the .22//250 and a couple others in that performance bracket and they were all over the place, from 1-8 on a .223 WSSM to 1-14 on some others.

I'd like to know who it is at Ruger that thinks we all want 16.5" barrels on our hunting rifles, even short magnums. Having owned, briefly, an 18 1/2" .308, a 16.5 inch .300 wsm seems like a bad idea, but they pushed that concept pretty hard.

BTW, Nosler's on-line data has a separate section just for the fast-twist (8") .22/250, featuring some of their longer bullets.

The regular .22/250 data was created with a 1-14".