Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Best 22.250 deer bullet option....

Back in 78, I killed my first mulie with my Wea mk V Varmintmaster 22-250. I considered the 60 gr Honady spire point the best bullet available at the time. It always shot well for me with 34.3 gr IMR 3031 in two different 14 inch twist rifles.

Today, I would opt for a 50 to 55 gr monolithic bullet for the same job, or better yet a new barrel with a faster twist.

64 gr.ww.

Hornady 55 grain spire point with cannelure works well enough.

The 63gr SMP continues to impress me. It punches far above its weight.

In my opinion there are lots of good choices, but would not dare to download any of them. With such a low mass I think you need all the velocity you can get, specially since they lose it so quickly, given their low BCs.

In a 1:14" barrel I have had good success 50gr Barnes, 55 and 60 gr Hornady SPs, 55gr Wincehster SP, Sierra 55gr GK, and 63gr Sierra SMP, the latter being my favourite.

chamois

+1 63 Sierra is all you need.

53gr. TSX

60gr. Hornady Spire Point

The 22-250 is the most underrated deer cartridge in the world.



Dave

55 Sierra Gameking SP. Tougher than you would think, shoots through our Missouri deer with lung shots at ranges from 20 yards to waay out there and deer generally DRT. The 63 Sierra gets a lot of praise but I have never used them.

I wouldn't be scared of a 45 or 50 grain Barnes either.

I use 70gr Speers in my 1:14" A-Bolt. They are semi-spitzer so are short for weight. They shoot into 1" with regularity and work well on deer. 60gr NPs did not shoot well in same rifle.

I had the same luck with 60 grain partitions in a 1-14" twist .22-250. Barnes didn't do well either. I found success with the 55 grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw. I don't think those are available anymore.

Speer's 70 grain semi-spitzer stabilized in a couple of standard (1-14") twist .22-250s for me. Others have reported good results with the Sierra 63 grain semi-spitzer. I've also gotten good accuracy with the 64 grain WW powerpoint .. a pretty tough bullet.

My first choice would be the 64 grain power point. If those don't work, I'd try the lightest X bullet, 70 grain Speer, and probably 55 grain flat base hornady soft point.

G'luck!

Tom

I've never had any problems taking deer with the 55gr SP at high velocities. From 223Rem to 220 Swift, MVs range from 3210 to 3860 in my rifles. I'd load them up to full speed and go slay some deer!

Thanks to all for Great input!

Not a deer...but a 55 Grain Hornady SP...




This is a deer, 55 Gr. Hornady..

This.

An accurate 55 grain soft point out of a 22-250 is a HELL of a deer killer!

nice piggy ingwe!
where did you poke him with that 55?

63 grain Sierra, 64 grain Nosler Bonded, or 70 grain Speer.

See this post...

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/11592741/Re:_Calling_all_stunt_shooters#Post11592741

Fixed the link so it'll light up and open with a click.

If you cut the link to include the first big number, eliminate the rest, it'll work like this.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/11592741

My son wanted to use his 22-250
On deer so I got him 40gr GS Custom mono metal hollow points he shoot 2 deer 1st at 170 yards bullet entered behind front shoulder took out 1 lung exited just in front of hind quarter traveling through about 20" of deer. Deer traveled about 45-50 yards went down.
Second deer was at 217 yards and bullet was a bit backf for my liking complete pass through deer traveled 30-40 yards sat down on it rear like a dog and waited for the neck shot to finish it.
These bullets are moving at 4200 + fps.

It bears repeating that the 60 grain Partition is pure deer poison. If you don't handload, the factory Fusion fodder is equally wicked.