Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 250-3000 1-14 twist mistake?

Bought a 250-3000 and then read only get accuracy with 87 grain bullet given it is 1-14 twist. Wanted to use for whitetail hunting. Wondering if i made an expensive mistake given the light bullet needed for the 1-14 twist.

welcome... the 87 grain bullets are fine for whitetails as long as you get the right ones... occasionally you can find old factory ammo in 87 grain or there are still a few makers if you reload.

I've killed with Hornady, Speer and Norma 87 grain bullets. Haven't found a "wrong" one yet. Nuff said.

Thanks!

Nothing I ever shot with a .250 Savage and a 87gr bullet ever needed a second shot.

Ohio,

It's not a weight thing, its a length issue. If you try the 85 gr Barnes, they won't work either. As LBK and Drew say above the non premium Speer, Hornady big game 87 grain bullets work.

You may want to try the Remington factory 100 gr corelokt load and see how they do. They may be OK for you.

I agree with Steve99, try the 100gr Remingtons. I have a 1:14 250 and it shoots them well. On my pig hunt this spring, our guide said the best place to shoot a big pig is behind the ear. I waited till he turned his butt toward me and shot him behind the ear. Little over 100 yards, dropped like a rock, Joe.

Thoughts on speer hot-cor?

That's a good one. Many use it.

Speer Hot Cores are the only 87gr bullet I know of rated by the mfr as a medium game bullet, the rest are rated by their mfr's as varmint. That being said, a bullet in the right place will kill a deer.

Welcome to the forum!

I have good accuracy with 100-grain loads in a 1:14. Here are some pics.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...curacy_with_a_Lightfoot_moun#Post6988601

My .250 F with the 1-14 twist gets along real well with 100 grain Winchester factory loads and the 100 grain Speers.

I usually shot the 87 grain Speers with Reloder 15 and it's MOA or better.

It's all good!

Winchester factory loaded Silvertips 100 grain in 250 shoot well for me in an EG, barrel band, T. Almost out of them however. Seem mild but haven't chrono'ed.

Appreciate the info. Found some remington express 100 grain and will give them a try.

Newbie here w/ my first Savage having been purchased only 6 months ago. It is a fairly minty M99G from 1939 obviously w/ the earlier 1-14" twist. Came to me with a vintage Leupold 4X, D & T'd for Weaver bases, which is the only strike against it as for originality. I've been shooting it a bit to see what it will do on paper and have been more than impressed! The 75 gr. Sierra HP flat base (#1600) just flat shoots in this gun w/ three shots commonly under 1/2" @ 100yds....and this is off-hand!... just funnin'! Best to date is .26" c-to-c. for three. This load came from Lyman's No. 1 manual, published back in the 60's, and is stated as their 'accuracy' load for a 75 gr. bullet @ 2976fps.... propelled with 35 grs. of 4320 and a CCI 200 primer. Mind you, this really is a tribute to the gun, and not to me, as most of you could likely wring more out of it than I'm doing.

More importantly as to big game, it's also shooting the 100 gr. pills mentioned under 1" moa pretty routinely. Even the 100 gr. Nosler Partition is making that, and it doesn't have the greatest rep as an accuracy bullet, according to some.

Point is, OCB, I think you'll easily find a 100 grainer that's game accurate in your slower-twist rifle with a bit of experimenting.

Best of Luck with it,

rob

If you're getting 1" groups from 100gr Nosler Partitions, then your rifle almost surely isn't 1:14" twist. Might want to measure that twist rate.

There's a reason that Nosler puts a note into their reloading manuals that none of their 25 cal. bullets will stabilize in older Savage 99's.

Calhoun,

That is one of the very first things I did upon purchase and it came out @ 1:13-1/2" on a tightly-patched cleaning rod both times. Must admit though, I've only shot two (3-shot) groups so far at 100 yds. with the Nosler...one measuring 1-1/8" c-to-c and the other just under 1" moa. There's always the chance I flinched at exactly the right moment and got lucky!

Reason I first tried the Noslers is that I initially purchased a couple of boxes of factory Remington 100 gr. PSP for the brass. Once having removed the bullets, I got the notion to check consistency of their powder drops and bullet weights. Within one box, their proprietary powder (no clue what it was/is) varied between 35.5 grs. and 36.6 grs. over those twenty loads. As if that wasn't scarey enough, the twenty bullets went from 98.8 gr. to 100.6 gr. I decided then to discard their bullets other than for plinking, redropped their factory powder to a measured 36.0 gr. and seated a Nosler 100 gr. Partition. That's the exact make-up of what I used for these two particular groups. Chances are I just got lucky in a bore that is in just as good a shape as the outside of the gun.

The hole's in the target tell the tale.

Rem. factory 100 gr.'s work fine in my wife's 1939 .250 EG (1 in 14", Leup. 2-7). Noz. 100's not so great, 2-4" at 100 yds. They are .090" longer than the Rem.'s. I handload the Rem. 100's w/ 4320 probably a bit faster (no chrono.). My load P.O.I. was 6" higher at 100 yds. She took her first buck last year and I shot a buck on Oct. 4th with her rifle (both mule deer, both with my handloads). I recovered a nicely mushroomed bullet this year, still 69 grs.

Regards,
Bill

Buying another 250 Savage rifle has never been a mistake or a losing proposition for me; at worst it may have been a learning experience, but it never cost me money.

Some bullet manufacturer still needs to R&D a lead free bullet especially for the older 1-14 twist rifles. Seems like there is a niche that needs filling.