Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Favorite bullet for a 250 Savage

100g NBT shot well in my 700 classic. And that 700 had a horribly pitted barrel when I received it.

Worked for the two deer I shot with it.

I had built a 250-3000 on a Sav bolt and it doted on 100gr Partition, 117 RN's and 75gr HP's(for coyotes, not fur friendly). I traded it to a fellow that needed a deer rifle for his daughter. So when a deer hunt was coming up in 2005 I decided to build a modern version of the 250 and built a 25-204, I was looking seriously at the 257 Kimber when 204 brass was released and realized the the 204 brass had already done all all the forming work to make a 257 Kimber clone brass. With velocities very close to the 250 Sav. it has become my favorite deer rifle. Out of a 21" barrel 100gr NPT at 2800+ fps, 85gr NBT 3000fps and 75gr V-max at 3150 fps. I have a good stock of 257 X-bullets but haven't shot them at anything other than paper.

The 100gr NPT is my favorite for deer as they can run big where I hunt. If I every get an antelope tag it will be the 85gr NBT.

2005 deer, my biggest with the 25-204

A lot of logic there. I don't resist "modern" bullets in the .250-3000, I simply have no use for long/heavy VLD's in the two .250's I have. For me, 200 yards is a long shot, 300 yards virtually unheard of, so the old tried and true 87 Speers work just fine and are way cheaper. I'm as loony as anyone else when it comes to rifle experimentation, but I have a pile of other platforms to mess with in that regard and view the .250's I own as companionable deer rifles, comfortably secure for that purpose with old proven bullet technology.

I'm down to my last four boxes of 87 Speers, I guess I better add them to my "be on the lookout" list in the near future.

The 100gr. Winchester Silvertips worked great my son's 250-3000

For the 250-3000 cartridge my go to powder is H4895. There is some IMR4895 on the shelf but the groups just aren't as tight or my aim is getting lousier with age. There is a sweet spot around 34-35 grains in both powders with a number of bullets and load combinations.

For bullets there is a stock pile of Sierra 90gr Blitzkings and 90 gr Gamekings which print to the same point of aim with my Savage Model 14 American Classic. These bullets shoot well out of my Savage lever guns and Model 1920/26s too. The Sierra bullets proved the most accurate.

The Hornady 75 gr V-Max printed well at the range and were quite accurate and effective on varmints. Remington Core-Lokts shoot close to MOA.

Played with Barnes TSX and TTSX 85 gr and 100 gr bullets with good results but, I'm still having a challenge finding a monolithic lead free bullet for the older 14" twist rifles. There are 150 or so rounds of Barnes 75 gr XFB in reserve but then again the pressures created by the solids may be too high for century old rifles, and I haven't found an accurate load at this time.

So for most 250-3000 rifles in my collection of 250s it's H4895 and 90gr Sierra's of one ilk or another.

For the last year or so I have been using Hornady 117gr. RN with 41 gr. of H4831sc in my Ruger M77. I haven't taken a deer with it, but it works great on hogs.

Deer run big where I hunt too, but I found the Speer 87 gr HotCor can handle them.

Is that 90gr Sierra a HPBT and if so are you using it on deer?

I've used it to hunt deer with several .25 calibers.....it's a very good bullet for deer in all my quarter bores but never used it in a .250 savage.

The Sierras are a Gameking:

https://www.sierrabullets.com/product-tag/gameking/?filter_diameter=0-257&query_type_diameter=or

But no, I have never used these 90 grainers on deer. Varmints - ground hog, fox, coyote...

Give CFE-223 a whirl with 87's. Astounding in my rifles.

100 grain Partition. No need for anything else