Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 250 Savage w/14" twist, deer load?

Just yer average 99R, 24" barrel with 1/14" twist. Loads w/Hornady 75gr HP shoots great; .75"-1.25" groups @100yds all day long. Trying to come up with a deer load using 100gr bullets with no luck. Nosler Partitions, Hornady SP Interlocks, PRVI PSP's, loaded w/different powders, low and max loads out of loading manuals, all suck. Nothing works; can't hardly keep 'em on cardboard @100yds. Moved target in to 50yds and can't hardly keep group on paper. No key holing; just LARGE groups. Apparently I need the 87gr bullets for this rifle. Do NOT want varmint bullets. What is a good 87gr bullet suitable for deer? Thank you for any help!

Speer hot-cors.

An 87 grain bullet will kill deer size game till the cows come home. 13 grains in bullet will mean absolutely nothing to a deer laying dead on the ground. As I have said before. I use the 87 grain Hornady spire point with NEVER a failure of any type. I have 600 or so Speer 87 grain hot cores to use when my Hornadys are gone. So I will at some point, make the switch. Best of luck with your shooting.

LBK do you know if the older Speers that don't say Hot Cor but just 87 grain spitzer are the same as the Hot Cors?

To add to Roy's question...
Are the new deep curls OK?

Sh*it.........I lost my reply.

So again. To answer your question. No I do not know for sure. There is a phase in Speer's manufacturing process where they do something that bonds the core to the jacket. Someone more versed in Speer bullets will chime in, hopefully.

Welcome, Gerry. It's all about the length of those 100grain bullets. Length, not weight determines whether a certain rate of twist will stabilize a bullet. Search for a 100grain bullet with a round-ish nose and a length approaching that of the standard 87grain spitzers, and you should then have a bullet that will at least give you decent accuracy. Or just follow these other fellows advice and load 87 grainers and go forth and slay deer.

I fell into a small stash of old 75grain .228" bullets for the HiPower recently. They are a blunt round nose design, and their length is actually a skinch shorter than the 70 grain Speers that work so well. Accuracy with them is exceptional in a rifle that is notorious for inaccuracy with "modern" 70 grain spitzers, due to their relatively short length. I wish I knew who made them so I could scout out some more.

Have you actually measured your twist? Could be it is even slower than 1-14. Those barrels from the "olden days" were done on Pratt&Whitney sine bar machines which depended as much on the operators skill as well as his attentiveness to give repeatable results. We all know what happens in shops at 3:20PM on a Friday afternoon...

87 g Speer hot-cor is the way to go. I shoot 'em in a 10 twist ... magical little projectiles.

Roy, odds are that those old Speers are standard cup and core and would do well on deer. Probably won't do as well on average as the Hot Cores, which should hold together better to get more penetration.


Brian, the only Deep Curls I see in 25 caliber on Speer's site are 120gr, which will NOT shoot in old 99's due to the length. I did get confirmation from Speer that at some point they plan on all Hot Cores being replaced with Deep Curls, and if they produce an 87gr Deep Curl then there's no reason it should be any longer than the current Hot Core and should be fine. Won't know until it happens tho.

Thank you Gentlemen for your responses; you gave me what I was looking for. Y'all are my Brothers!
I did pick up a box of Hornady 87gr SP this morning and promptly went to work on a suitable load. And,yes, I had already measured the barrel at a 14" twist. Everything fell into place with the 87gr bullet and I quickly moved the target out to 100 yds and promptly started plunking them tiny bullets into the target center in 1.5" groups which will do nicely for now. I went with a 2.555" COAL for starters. That put the bullet all the way into the case neck for a solid cartridge. Setting the bullet any deeper would only take it into the "combustion chamber". I most likely will fine tune it later but I needed a good load quickly to take to the U.P. Leaving Monday for a Hunting Trip with some old comrades. Love me them old firearms to hunt with too. I always take the .300 Savage I picked up some 30 years ago and look forward to spending some time in the woods with the "new" 250-3000 now too. Guess I'll leave the 45-70 home this year. I'll take a Model 12 or maybe a Parker or Elsie along for some grouse hunting before opening day.
Thank you all again for pointing me in the right direction

Gerry

Good luck Gerry!