Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 22-250 Rem factory ammo

Is the Remington 55 grain SP a decent deer bullet?

Been looking for a few boxes of factory ammo to use for deer out of a 14” twist and that Rem is literally the only box I’ve seen in weeks.

Some time back in the late 70s, a cousin of mine bought a 22.250 as a rifle just to play with.

He lives in West Virginia, on like 5 to 10 acres... First year he had it, the wife's family came as always to go hunting in WVa... they were from there, but her brothers had all moved down to Fla, and came back to hunt each season. They were having a bad season, not seeing many deer. Gloria was washing dishes and saw a large buck into a couple of apple trees up in the corner of their property. When every one got back and skunked for like the 5th day in a row, Gloria told her brother that there was a dead deer up under one of the apple trees... brother tells her husband and Ben asked her what she had shot it with, because he and her brothers and nephews had all of his rifles out. She said that 22 caliber one he bought over the summer.. the 22.250.

Ben asked her where did she shoot it at? She said in the head, aimed at the eye and it dropped. They sent one of the 12 yr olds up to look by the apple trees to see if there was a dead deer. He came back with his pants on fire telling the adults there was a real big dead deer up there. The casually walked up there, still not believing she killed one with that 22.250. Got up there and found it they did... and it had been shot right in the head....right in the eye.....

From that time on, the only rifle Ben used for deer hunting was that 22.250. And the only ammo its ever been fed is Remington Factory 55 gr SP.
Been is 72 now... he told me he quit hunting in 2020. Showed me a huge head mount over the fire place in the family room.. said that was the last and biggest deer he ever shot.. and shot it with the 22.250. Mounted it and decided to hang up deer hunting, due to dealing with arthritis...

That rifle has not shot just one deer every year he's owned it tho...he has always gotten an orchard permit also annually since the mid 70s. On that permit, one can shoot up to 25 deer a year, but no one ever really counted. He just bought one a year for $2.00 from those days. His two step sons, grew up pretty much on venison and pork, all wild game. To those boys, beef " taste funny"....IN high school sports, they would stop at McDonalds on the way home and his boys just ordered fries and a coke... Coach asked Ben were they vegetarians, NOPE they just grew up on venison and pork.. and beef taste funny to them.. so they'd have a second dinner when they got home.

All these years they have harvested a deer about every 2 to 3 weeks since the mid 70s., that has declined to one a month or so, since they boys are married and moved away.... but they are raising one grandson, who has Downs Syndrome.

I was just down there in June, and Benny told me the one in 2020 was the last "hunting" deer....the rest are doe or bucks, doesn't matter on the orchard permit..just dinner deer Ben calls... but shots have always been under 200 yds, and Ben said its always been, one shot, down they go and they expire while he is getting his gutting knife out...

It has certainly worked for him.. and so has that 55 gr Remington Ammo....for 40 plus years...

Dad bought a WBY V-master in .22-250 soon as it was available. IIRC, there were two Remington factory 55s - the SP and the power-lokt HP (PLHP).

You would not confuse them, the PLHPs were varmint grenades. We also used the 50 gr versions loaded to well over 4000 from a 40x Swift, and 3900 from our .22-250s. Nothing else tried was less likely to exit a woodchuck. Pulped. The PLHPs were also exceptionally accurate, more than the 55gr SP, and matching the Sierra 52s and 53s on paper.

But PLHPs were about the last thing I'd try on deer. The 55 gr SP was another matter, about like the 55gr Sierra and Hornady. Killed my first several deer with that rifle and various 55s, then the 63gr Sierra, eventually the 70 gr Speer. Never saw any difference in performance.

Any ammo is the best there is, when there is no other. Lots of that going on these days. It sounds like you’ll be fine . Deer die pretty easy when shot through the ribs.

🔝Bingo. Use what you can find, place your shots well.

That means no shoulder or raking hits with the HP.

I have taken several with neck and straight side to side just behind the shoulder hits.

I wouldn't care to hit a big heavy deer in the shoulder with the 55 gr sp as they usually don't exit a coyote.

The Federal Nosler Parts or Hornady Interlocks go through.

Same gun here. Exit wound shown here, through both shoulders, Hornady Interlock 55 or 60.



I saw a dead shot rancher shoot a big muley buck at 75 - 80 yds on his ranch from a rest while we were coyote hunting.

Broadside standing shot hit it in the ribs behind the shoulder with a 45 - 50 gr Winchester 4000 fps bullet. Can't remember if it was a SP or HP. Deer almost went down but caught itself and was in the brush. He never found that 28 inch big buck.

Absofugginglutely, although I thought he said they were SPs. Either way. Keep them out of the steaks, guts, and what passes for heavy bones. I feel the same about some “deer” bullets I’ve used.

My late friend had great performance out of Hornady 55gr SPs w/o cannelure. Stem to stern on a couple of does. Others here have repeated that tale IIRC.

High shoulder + Big Green 55-grain SP = DRT with ol' 788.

In 2007 went on a month-long "cull" hunt in South Africa on a huge ranc, with a dozen other guys. One of the PHs did commercial culling every year in Namibia, mostly for springbok. The rifle he used was an old Sako, with a suppressor around 15-18" long. (Unlike the U.S., you can buy 'em for no more than $200, in any gun store.) It was on its 4th barrel at the time, and had killed around 12,000 springbok (about the size of pronghorns), along with a bunch of other animals.

One day, after he'd seen my hunting partner and I shoot, he suggested we use the rifle the next day. We killed several springbok out to 500 yards--but my partner (a retired Army sniper instructor) also killed a medium-sized kudu bull that needed taking down. He shot it it running, in the heart, at around 75 yards, and the bull ran another 75 yards and stopped, wobbling, when a second shot put it down.

The ammo we used was the stuff the PH preferred--Winchester factory with 55-grain softpoints, basically the same thing as the 55-grain Remingtons--a typical cup-and-core. He owned a big sporting goods store in Kimberley, and could get it wholesale. Last time I corresponded with him the rifle had gone through a couple more barrels, and killed a few thousand more springbok, along with other stuff.