Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 250 Savage twist rate on custom barrel

Hello all, Looking at a custom barrel from Match Grade Machine (MGM) for my Encore (yes, I know this is the Savage Collector's area). I figure, since this is Savage caliber specific, I'd start here... I know the factory twist rates were originally 1 in 14 for the caliber and they switched somewhere in the early 60's to 1 in 10 twist rate..MGM offers 1 in 7, 1 in 7.5 and 1 in 10 as options, If I went with a 22-24" barrel, my thinking is 1 and 10 is more than adequate for any factory weights. But, if I ordered 1 in 7.5 twist, that would work with any of the factory and also, custom heavy/long .250 cal bullets, as well, being a single shot rifle? If anyone has some thoughts, please give some insight...this is a just for fun addition on the Encore I have, not for any specific need or reason, thanks

Asking because I don’t know. Can too fast a twist create an issue with short bullets? Would an 87 gr. Hot Core shoot OK in a 1 in 7.5 twist barrel?

Well, it's an interesting direction to take the Ol' 250 Savage, You will be adding new information to the cartridge conversation by pushing into the the long/heavy quarter-bore bullets. As You are already aware that your decision is about choosing which bullet you want to use. I think the 250-3000 has the potential to be a very precise cartridge, but the long distance bullet selections have all been developed in other calibers.., so, I say go for the 7.5T and teach us something new about the 250 Savage!

My personal "fun" 250 load uses the 75g v-max, and is a LASER! (in both 14 and 10 twist barrels) ..., that always gets my eyebrows some excersise, and keeps me in with some of the speed-freak conversations, but ultimately is remains a very viable, (fun) coyote hunting rig in the 99

It's always good to remember that the 25-35 WCF has been stabilizing 60-117g bullets through 10-twist barrels for a long time, but modern 25-35 and European 6,5x52R have settled on 8 twist

HMMM, I'm going to follow this. Might be interesting in my Contender. I have a 14" bull barrel in 35 Rem, 10" Standard barrels in 45 Colt, 9MM, and 22 LR. It would be a nice tweener.

Rule of thumb: better to over-twist than under-twist. Over-stabilizing is a far lesser sin than under-stabilizing a bullet.

Begs the question though, re: really heavy bullets in a .250? The claim to fame of the .250-3000 has always lain in its barnburner performance with "light" bullets. Don't view it's early-mid 20th Century performance goals with 21st Century eyes. Asking it to perform with heavy ones is to call upon its marginal case capacity to drive them fast - within the limitations of the 99 action, which ain't in the same league as modern bolt guns and their .25 and 6.5 systems operating at 10-15K psi higher than an old sleepy 99 can tolerate. IMO even slinging 100 grainers out of a .250 is borderline performance-wise, regardless whether the bullet is stabilized or not. Speed kills. Chamber a new high strength bolt gun in .250-3000 and give it a fast twist and load the snot out of it with 120gr. bullets and watch it sing (as long as the brass holds up) right along with all the other new "wonder cartridges". But to what end? The 87 bullet at 3000 fps has been turning in sterling performance for 109 years - what exactly do you intend to accomplish? Shooting game animals at 400-600 yards where a heavy bullet with wonderful BC shines (if you can start it out fast enough so it enjoys sufficient terminal velocity for clean kills, which, again is kinda tough to do with an old Savage lever gun action)? Inside that distance, at typical woods or across the occasional pasture distances, the old tried and true 87 out of a Savage .250 will serve (better than) A-ok.

If scratching a rifle-loony itch is the goal then "hold MacDuff, and damned be him who first cries hold enough", but to pry the hoary old pet into running with the big dogs of the 21st Century is to tilt at windmills, IMO. The big limiter is the brass, which was never intended to operate at astonishingly high pressures.

Some info in this post: https://www.shootersforum.com/threads/250-savage-117-grain-bullets.26600/

Thanks for the thoughts

The OP is shooting an Encore rifle.

I don't believe 250 Savage brass is any weaker than say 22-250 brass.

the wisdom of age and experience.

norm

i have a 25 Creedmoor which is basically the same as a 250 Savage i used a fast twist 7 1/2 my 25 Creedmoor rifle shoots super , i also have a fast twist 257 Roberts 7 1/2 twist that also shoots fantastic ,stay with a fast twist barrel.

I shoot 117 grain Hornady spitzers out of my Savage 110 WLE in 250-3000. They shoot and group very well, 1/2 MOA group size. I would not go any faster than a 1 in 10 twist since
you are limited to bullets less than 120 grains in .257.

It's not just weight. The shape of the projectile matters when it comes to required twist. If the OP wants to experiment with a modern VLD design a bit more twist is in order.

Bigbuck, From my years of ballistics shooting at Barnes Bullets and experimenting with fast twist barrels, unless you are only shooting the heavy for caliber bullets, like 133gr Bergers, you will not have the accuracy you are looking for with 100gr and lighter bullets. The only saving grace is the fact there isn't enough case capacity in the 250 to overspin lightbullets in the 7.5 twist that could cause the bullet to come apart before hitting a 100 yd target. It boils down to use. All around hunting, stick with 1-10, LR heavy bullets only 7.5. Just my 2 cents.

Thank you for the thoughts, guys