Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Short barrel 250-3000

Guys I ended up w/a short barrel .250-3000 and am thinking on an 85grainish bullet. Don't want to shoot the 85gr Ballistic tip but am thinking about the TTSX, Hornady, Speer, or others. I love the old 90gr TSX but can't find a box anywhere. Doesn't take much to kill our 110-150lb bucks here in Texas. Any experience would be greatly appreciated. powdr

Pictures please sir.

I used an 18.5" M77 RSI... back then, imr4320 and 117-120's. Now I'd go Varget or RL15.

powdr,

So what exactly are you asking? I've had five .250's with 20" barrels.

the old 87 gr Speer hot core. Killed a truck load of bigger deer than that with them

I'd go with the 100 grain bullet of your choice and kill lots of deer and hogs with it, but that's just me. For Hill Country deer, I'd use a BT or an AB and call it good.

Actually, with the .250 I don't think it makes a heck of a lot of difference, because at short-barreled .250 velocities just about any bullet will act civilized. I've used everything from the 87 Hot-Cor to 115 Partition in my 20" rifles and they all killed deer nicely, without any penetration or expansion problems. Which is the big reason the .250 has always had a good reputation.

That is a rifle that has ALWAYS been on my short list of desired rifles...it has a cooool factor off the charts...

I inherited an old short barrel '99 and was just thinking about shooting a smaller/shorter bullet due to the 1-14 twist. I had heard the 100gr Hornady or Speer might work but wanted some shorter versions to pick from. Thanks guys...just looking for some first hand experience from you guys. Had one of the first Ruger RSI'S in .250 when I came out of the Army(1972) but only shot 100gr silver tips. powdr

I bought Remington 700 classic rifles in 250 savage for my two boys long before they could use them. Had them both cut to 21 inches. In the beginning I tried several bullets and they all worked. All we use now is the Sierra 87 gr. and either 4064 or H414. It kills everything- Just trust me. I have seen probably 90-100 deer plus ground hogs, turkeys, crows, foxes. It kills far better than it should. This is not a two hole bullet but they do get it all and it does the job.

Sea, I got mine in 1990, an old tang safety. Great little rifle that was ideal for the woodland whitetails I was shooting then. To me the 250 Savage is just a terrific round that kicks less than any other BG round I've used, while delivering excellent results.

Some day I'm going to build one, perhaps a Kimber 84M with nice wood. Twist it to 1-9" or 1-10" and load 115 Ballistic Tips.

H4831sc works well with the heavies too.

with the 1-14" twist, youre "stuck with" 87 g boolets. I like the speer hot-cor.

I'm up to 3 .250's now, including an 18.5" Hawkeye RSI. Here's what I usually do:

87 g boolet, 35 g H4895
100 g boolet, 34 g H4895

Vargit does well too.

1-14 twists will stabilize some (not all) 100-grain bullets just fine. Probably the most reliably stabilized is the Speer 100-grain Hot-Cor, but the 100-grain Hornady Spire Point Interlock will also work in many--as will the 117-grain Hornady roundnose.

The only 1-14 .250 I've owned (and have probably had half a dozen) that would' stabilize the 100 Speer was an old 99 that, as it turned out, actually had a 1-15 twist. This is because old 99's were rifled with sine-bar machines where the twist was widely adjustable. That rifle was probably made on a Monday or Friday.

Mine are all 1-10" twist, and they all seem to shoot the 87's into smaller groups than the 100's, for whatever reason. I've never tinkered with the 115-120's. I'm usually loading the 87 g hot-cor, the 100 g sierra prohunter, or the 100 g hornady spire point.

I use 100grain bullets in mine.

While Eileen and I have taken quite a few varmints and big game animals with various .250's, my favorite .250 story happened maybe a dozen years ago. She had a new custom .250-3000 built on a short 700 action with a 1-10 twist Hart barrel by Charlie Sisk, and we went to one of the big prairie dog shoots Ramshot Powder used to host every year to publicize their then-new powders.

The Sisk .250 shot 75-grain Hornady V-Maxes VERY well with TAC, so Eileen took it along and killed quite a few prairie dogs with it the first day. On the second day our hosts had devised several rifle games, to be shot at the range at the company headquarters. The first one was a stuffed toy prairie dog filled with a mixture of black powder and large rifle primers, placed around 350 yards from the firing line. Everybody would get ONE shot, and the first person to blow up the prairie dog won a prize.

Since Eileen was the only woman shooting, and all the men insisted she go first. The Ramshot employee who'd just set up the exploding PD had to run to the restroom, and did because it was pretty windy and he was sure it would take a while for anybody to win.

Eileen and I talked the shot over, guessing at the wind--and of course at her shot the fake PD went WHOMP and soared into the air about 15 feet, trailing white smoke. The guy heard the explosion from inside the restroom and came running out, asking what had happened. He didn't even get to see the smoke!

My youngest son is absolutely enamored with the .250-3000

Several years ago I built him a semi-custom on a Rem 700 (1:10 Lilja) and he's used the 87gr. HotCore and 80gr. TTSX with excellent results. However, his little rifle absolutely loves the off the shelf Winchester 100gr. Silvertips. Consistently shoots them under MOA. That's about all he really uses in his .250Savage these days. He even killed a cow elk a few years back with that combo.

Like Brad, we've toyed with the idea of building a .250 Savage on a Kimber Classic Select or even a Super America. I might have to do that this year and present it to my boy for this upcoming deer season.

This past season was my first year hunting with the 250 Savage. Killed 3 deer that were drt. They acted like they were hit with a bolt of lightning. I was impressed! I use the 80gr TTSX's and a stiff charge of 4064. Gun is a Savage Model 16, with a 22" barrel.

HeavyBarrel

Well, you may have a short barrel, but your 1 in 14 twist should limit you to 90 gr or less bullets.

Recently had a 250 Savage 1 in 11" twist barrel put on a 96 Swede action. I'm using 90 gr or less bullets. Might want to try either Sierra 70 gr blitz kings or 75 gr Hornady Vmax. Decent accuracy with them in my 250S with a fair number of different powders used.

With a 1 in 14" twist, I'd heavily suggest the 87gr Hot Core. TTSX and Ballistic Tip will never work due to the length. For 100gr I'd go with Mule Deer's recommendations since I haven't tried them personally, though the one time I tried the 117gr round nose in an early 99 it hit the paper going sideways at 100 yards. That gun shot other bullets fine, but I've avoided the 117gr since then.