Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 22-250 A.I.

Want to build a 22-250 AI with a fast twist tube to handle the 75 grainers. Build it on a long or short action?? Whats the opinions on feeding, etc?

Can't think of a single reason to build on a long action. Feeding has never been an issue on the few I've played with.

Build it on a short action and not look back. There is no reason to build on a long action!

Rem 700 SA is just right. No reason to do it in a long action.

If you just want to shoot 75grainers you can get by with a 1-9" twist but all mine are 1-8" twist. A short action works perfect but does not feed as well as standard 22-250.
fairly slow powders work best with 75grainers+ like H4350, IMR4831 or RL19.
The biggest factor in this chambering and twist is barrel selection DONT,DONT,Dont let anybody talk you into a 3 groove barrel go with a 5 or 6 groove.
Also brass varies quite a bit in 22-250, Winchester and Remington brass is several thou. smaller in the web area than Norma or Federal brass so check the reamer spec's before chambering.......In the next few month's Lapua is going to be coming out with 22-250 brass, if you can wait build a reamer off this superior brass.
B

would love to hear the problems youve had with 3 groove barrels.

thanks.

The 3 groove barrels work well in smaller case and slower twist applications, for example a 3groove works awesome with a 223 AR 1-7" twist shooting 75gr V-Max. and a 22-250A.I. shooting 55gr V-Max with a 1-14"twist also shoots awesome, but if you switch things up and shoot a 22-250 A.I. with a 1-7" twist and 75gr V-Max you will get bullet blow-up several hundred rounds earlier with a 3 groove than with a 5 or 6 groove.
B

Short action is plenty long enough. If you are building on a long action go 22/6mmAI.

My non-AI works perfect with the 75gr. Amax at COL=2.600", and with the 70gr. TSX at COL=2.455". I'm running a 24" Krieger 8" twist. No problems at all with COL vs. magazine. And the 70gr. TSX works great for Alabama whitetails.

DW

You could get by in TN too....grin.

Hey guys, I'm just starting to work up loads for my 22/250A.I. I have some 75 gr. Hornadys and was thinking IMR 4350 or 4895. My barrel is 26" with 1:8 twist. Where should I start ? I started to load 38.0 gr. 4350 but now wonder if it's too hi to start. Would appreciate your advise ! Charles

charlie358, I'm in the middle of doing the same thing myself. I'm using H4350, and started at 38 grains and am up to 40 now. I think 40 was a little warm for my particular gun, and am dropping back to 39.5 grains and going to play with OAL. FWIW mine's a 1 in 8 Douglas. No chrony though.

Pac Nor 3 Groove barrels have been super accurate and fast in two 257 Weatherby's and four 7 STW's for brothers and I.

Billygoatgruff, I sure appreciate the post ! I had used "load from a disk" and worried I didn't have the water capacity correct. It said 38.3gr. of IMR 4350 was an 86% density load and their best choice. Looking through the manuals I couldn't find a 75 gr. bullet load in the 22/250 A.I.I did find 4895 and it's load mirrored the l.f.a.d. info so I thought it should be under max in the A.I. I believe I will load a trio of 37.5 though. Being careful ain't a bad thang ! Thanks again, Charles

Charlie, I'm running a standard 22-250 and with 75gr. Amax pushed out to .030 off the lands, I can run 37.5 of H4350, but it's a touch warm. My load is 36gr. with the Amax, and 36.5gr. with the 70gr. TSX. Just a point of refernce for you. That's a 24" 1/8" Krieger.

David

Short Action, Both of my 22-250 Ack are built on the Left Hand 700 SA

Hey ya'll, don't know how to explain this, but today I got out the chrono and fired off some loads. First was 37.5 gr IMR 4350 and I just had the target set at 25 yds. for an aiming point. That load showed an es of only 16.97fps and an sd of only 9.27. Not bad; but vel. was only 3126 av. On par with data though. I next shot 38.0 gr. and one went through the target sideways ! That load read an av. speed of 3148 but spread was 58.31 and sd of 30.36. All six shot had "comet tails" on the target. Temp. was cold at 37 degrees. Weird, huh? My twist is an 8 and I have a 17 barrel from the same maker and it shoots well so I'm not thinking of problems with it. I recon I just ain't gonna run these 75s as I don't think I can get the speed I want which is closer to 3350 or maybe 3400. Whatcha think ?

I'm running 42 grs. H4350 behind Moly'd 75 gr. A-max's for 3300 out of a 22" barrel.
I"d check your twist with a cleaning rod/patch.