Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Reloading a 250 Savage 1-14" Twist

100 grain or heavier bullets never shot well in the older Savage M99s I have owned in the past. Recently a campfire member suggested a 100 grain Speer HotCore so I bought a box and I am pleased with the accuracy - 1.25" @ 100 yards. I checked the bullet out to 300 yards and it stabilized.

The length of the Speer is .940", the length of a Sierra ProHunter is .960. The Speer shoots, the Sierra does not. There is not much difference in length. Is there some dynamic going on here besides certain rifles prefer certain bullets?

Yes, length, duh.

You might be surprised how well that bullet isn't stabilized when you shoot in typical cold weather hunting weather vice summer.

Try the 87 Hot Core, it works well in a lot of slow twist barrels and I've had great performance on some nice sized whitetails.
The 100 isn't quite as accurate in my rifle, but did drop a cold weather doe at 200 yards for me.

Yeh, I agree length has the most to do with it. I am just curious why a .020" longer bullet (Sierra) would not stabilize, it seems such a small difference when compared to the length of the Speer bullet.

I have no fear that the Speer bullet will not stabilize in cold weather as Mule Deer advised it shoots well in most 250s. If anybody would know, he would. Would not surprise me that Mule Deer put a 1-14" twist Savage 99 and cartridges in the freezer then shot the loads to look for signs of non-stabilization.

He'd need to refrigerate the air between the rifle and target.

Ole, the 87 grain Speer's have always shot well in the 1-14" twist 99s I have owned and I have taken some nice whitetails with it. I have no complaints, just curious to try the 100 grain Speer on whitetails this fall. Something different to think about and experiment with...all part of tinkering with rifles.

Yeh, that too.

In these two bullets, it is the length, and that the core is evenly despersed through the jacket.
If the longer bullet, Sierra, was a HP, it would shoot too, cause the CORE length would be shorter, or the same size, as that of the Speer.

Can the Sierra be shaved a C-Hair to make it equal to the Speer? If I knew, I wouldn't ask...new to reloading, so please give me a little wider berth...that is how we learn...asking questions, no matter how stoooopid they sound! Thanks!

Can it be shaved? Yes, obviously it can. The question is whether somebody is good enough to shave it down absolutely consistently between a lot of bullets to keep the accuracy and POI the same.

And it will obviously drop the weight, so how far off of a 87gr bullet will you end up with?

And, lastly, is it worth it? Here's the construction of a Sierra Pro-Hunter:





Definitely nothing fancy in that bullet design. Maybe you could get away with it by just filing the lead off the tip?

If you were going to put the effort into it, a premium bullet might make more sense.

Rory...sounds reasonable to me! Also, by filing tip, wouldn't that drastically [bleep] with the aerodynamics whereas shaving wouldn't so much? I see there is not much to shave, and I am not intending to shave one...just through it out there to see what reloaders think...again, I am new and not in tune to what can or can't be done to a projectile on a consistent basis.

Filing the tip won't effect the aerodynamics one iota at the distances a .250 will be used. It may represent the ability to use a batch of bullets one has that won't shoot well otherwise. The caveat is that you have to come up with a way to consistently remove the exact same amount on each one. A file trim die is the easiest and quickest.

In reference to a previous statement regarding core construction/weight/hollow pointing, etc. vs. pure length of a bullet: nonsense. It's all about length, period, when it comes to to whether it'll stabilize in a given twist. All the other stuff will obviously effect performance -both accuracy and terminal performance- but not whether the rifling is spinning it optimally or not. HP'ing won't matter a tinker's damn. It'll still be too long.