Folks,
I've got two No.1 rifles in .243Winchester and a 1V in .22-250Remington.
One .243 is a 1a the other is an RSI. I've read where some folks use them for long distance. Mine are both 10 twist so bullets over 100 grains don't stabilize. The .22-250 is a 14 twist. Although I haven't tried anything over 53 grains wouldn't you need to be in the 70-grain weight for over 400 yards?
Thank you in advance for your time and help.
Semper Fi,
Soup
You're up against several issues. Not impossible to get by them but no guarantees.
The first thing is probably the rifles. Ruger #1s, beautiful as they are, aren't usually stellar shooters. There are some design issues that work against them compared to a bolt action. The best #1 I've ever owned was a .375 H&H (stainless/laminated) which would go around 3/4ths of an inch with 260 grain Accubonds. Those in varmint calibers, regardless of the rifle's configuration, haven't been that good, maybe 1.5 MOA on their best day and closer to 2 MOA over the long haul. Some would not hold 4 MOA.
Second is, as you've noted, twist.
Now .. "long distance" means different things to different people. Whether a 1-14" twist in a .22 CF or a 1-10" twist in a 6mm CF is good for "long distance" for varmint shooting depends on your idea of "far". Either will work out to .. oh, say 400 yards, maybe more maybe less.
There's been a lot of back and forth farther up-thread about bullets needed for long distance accuracy. I can agree with both perspectives to a degree. The thing the proponent(s) of the faster twists and higher BC bullets fail to remember is that those bullets do not give terminal performance appropriate to varmint use when they arrive. I'll give you a specific example. A good friend of mine built a 1-9" twist .22-250 AI which was very accurate with the 75 grain AMAX bullets. Was not a problem getting 500 yard hits. The problem was about half of the bullets expanded / blew up as a good varmint bullet should and the other half penciled through without expanding 'til they splattered on the rocks behind the varmint. There'd be a bit of blood left by said critter as it crawled off to die. We, as shooters, have a very marked shortage of bullets that have a high BC for fast twists yet still deliver explosive performance at 500+ yard distances reliably.
For varmint use, in a .22-250, "ideal" is driven by selection of bullets, not absolutes for external ballistics. If it was me I'd go with a 1-12" twist for 60 grain ballistic tips or vmax bullets. There are better choices for long range paper punching or whacking rocks, but for delivering explosive performance, I'm not aware of any and I've been doing "the varmint thing" a long time. In practice, with a 1-14" twist, I've had .. I think 8 rifles in .22-250 or .220 Swift. Only one, a custom Swift, would stabilize low drag 55 grain bullets (ballistic tip), the other 7 rifles required 50s for low drag and accuracy. (The 53 grain VMAX needs a 1-12" twist.)
For .243, the bullets that deliver varmint performance with the highest BC would be the Hornady 87 grain VMAX and Nosler 80 grain Ballistic tips. Other bullets with higher BCs are not designed for varmint bullet -like terminal results. Great game bullets don't make great varmint bullets. With those two, your 1-10" twists will do all that can be done. They work at 400 yards. I've never tested them at 500 or beyond.
So .. as a sort of summary .. I think the accuracy of your rifles is going to be the most limiting factor regarding distance, not bullet weight or twist. I expect the available VARMINT bullets to perform well enough within the distance you can hit a varmint reliably with a #1 in either caliber with the available twists.
Tom
