What can I say more than the deer I shot with them died and upon dressing them they had about a 2" hole in the ribs and the lungs where turned to mush inside. No exit wound but they were shot in a field where I could see them run for at least 100yds and none made it that far. So Yes I would be very confident to use them again in the same scenario. Would I use them in them in the bush ,never.
22-250 for deer
- Thread starter 6.5x55swm
- Start date
What can I say more than the deer I shot with them died and upon dressing them they had about a 2" hole in the ribs and the lungs where turned to mush inside. No exit wound but they were shot in a field where I could see them run for at least 100yds and none made it that far. So Yes I would be very confident to use them again in the same scenario. Would I use them in them in the bush ,never.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
The 53 gr tsx is a good bullet, but if your .22-250 has a 1:14 twist, it won't stabilize. If you barrel has a 1:12 or faster twist, the 53s will shoot fine. If your rifle has a 1:14 twist, drop down to the 45 gr TSX and you'll be fine.
I have shot several hundred deer with a .222, .223 and a few with a 22-250, your 22-250 will work just fine, with good shot placement, and a well constructed bullet, partion or TSX if you can, but the factory Winchester 64g worked well in a mates 22-250, and seamed to stabilize in a 1-14 twist, shot three fallow deer and two red hinds, with this bullet, on mates farm last year.
take your time, pick your shot, and fresh steaks for supper come fall.
take your time, pick your shot, and fresh steaks for supper come fall.
The reloading manuals might say that, but in my experience, of the 13 .22-250 rifles I've shot/loaded for over the past decade every single one was able to adequately stabilize bullets as heavy as 64 grains without appreciable degradation of terminal performance.
Aside from the Savage, all the others had the slower twist. Over 65 grains and groups started to really open up in the latter rifles, with several showing clear signs of instability and eventually several keyholes.
In practical terms, centrefire .22s are legal to use on caribou in Labrador. Local Innu and Inuit are very fond of the .22-250 and have used it extensively on caribou, seals, black bears, wolves, moose and even polar bear. If they can find it, factory 64 grain Winchester Power Point ammo is very popular and I have seen multiple one shot kills on large stag caribou that were almost certainly larger than the average eastern whitetail in N.B..
I'd still prefer to stick with my .308 Win or .30-06, especially if an ice bear might be in the mix, however remote the chance, but the .22-250 can reliably take caribou sized big game. As such, whitetail shouldn't be a problem if you do your part.
Is it the ideal choice? Obviously not, but with good ammo, reasonable distances and a hunter who has put in the trigger time to hone his shooting skills to where he can place his bullet in the kill zone with complete confidence the risk of a sub-optimal outcome is minimized.
As a handloader, I was able to try a number of different premium bullets. Of these, the two standouts were the 60 grain Nosler Partition and 53 grain Barnes TSX in the slower twist barrels.
wow! You must be several hundred years older than me! I'm only allowed one per year at this time. There was a time a while back where one could take 2 and sometimes even 3, but even at that rate, it's just so hard to believe!
There are places where you can take 10 deer per day... other places where there is no limit... and in cull situations a shooter might take several dozen in a day. I am disinclined to number my game harvests, but it is not hard for me to believe that someone has taken several hundred or even thousand.
well, I had no idea! Where are these places, any in Canada? I thank you kindly for educating me. The old saying of learning something new every day is so true!
That might be a good idea in BC. I'm not familiar with the game laws out there. In NB, if you don't hunt bears, and you were lucky enough to get your deer on the first day of the season (I've done that more than once), then you would have just that one day of the year that you could legally take your 243 out of the house into the field or woods. Whereas with the 22-250, with your standard deer license and a cheap varmint license at the end of February, you can hunt legally with your rifle for more than 300 days per year (most Sundays are excluded). 300 days versus one day. See why the 243 is not such a good choice in NB? Especially for someone who can only afford one rifle?
cdn1canhunt
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- southwestern ontario
Id rather have a hunting partner with a .22-250 that shot it more then once a year before opening day....than the goofs that i have hunted with that had 300 win mags and DID only shot a box of shell through it 2 days before the season and now seem somewhat scared to squeeze of another round from the .300. Not necessarily all about the size of you light saber, often more about how a Jedi wields his !
Holt is correct, this was not in Canada, was in New Zealand, I meat hunted culled goats and deer, part time, threw my late teens and early twentys,
You can hunt deer 24 hours a day 365 days a year, with no limits, tags or seasons. eight types of deer, plus pigs, goats Thar and chamious. There are no natural predators, only man and, 1080 poision.
Have shot upward of 100 plus goats in a day, and over a dozen deer, deer and goat numbers are high in places. last time home there were mobs of 30-50 goats around Taranaki, and seen over 50 fallow deer one evening, while scouting for a buck.
I did think about adding that info, but figgered the red deer and fallow deer comment would have been enough.
.222, .223 are in common use, as 100 plus round are lighter, than .243 308, less noise, more rounds in the mag, and less recoil.
I normally hunt with a .2506 .260, or 7x57, now but still take the sako vixen .222 out every now and then.
Well ,many bang flops I've had were double lung hits and I've shot at least 150 head of assorted big game over the years myself and finished off many for others.You won't be getting an exit wound with a .22 centerfire usually on chest shots.The lungs and heart pour out like one big clot.No revelation the 25 yard dash/dirt nap is self explanatory and obviously not a bang flop.Dead is dead.The .220 Swift electrocuted deer where they stood every time with the Norma 50gr at 4110 fps.You mileage may vary.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Yep, the .22-250 is a popular cartridge with the locals here as well. Personally I have a low tolerance for slow twist rifling in rifles chambered for modern cartridges, a fast twist shoots short bullets as well as the slow twist barrel does, and shoots long bullets that the slow twist barrel won't. A fellow I worked with asked me to load some ammo for him, and I told him if he was going to use it for caribou he should use a game bullet rather than the 55 gr Remington bulk bullets he preferred. He agreed to try them, and that's when it was conformed to me that the 53 gr TSXs make big groups and I saw that all of the holes in the paper were elliptical. Yes it was an old Savage 110 .22-250. Back to Remington 55s he went. Oh well . . .
I bet your slow twist barrels are 1:12 not 1:14, and the 53s are actually marginal even at that; drop the temperature, or the velocity a bit, and stability goes out the window. Last winter I did a stability test with a number or .224 bullets from a number of manufacturers shooting at 5, 10, 15, and 20 yards with my .223s. My 1:7 shot everything regardless of the temperature, or the length of the bullet. But my 1:12 produced keyholes as close as 5 yards. Some would keyhole, then straighten out a bit by 10 yards, then keyhole again at 15. I urge you to perform a similar test shooting 53 gr TSXs in a slow twist barrel in the cold.
Now if the bullet produces marginal stability in air, what happens when it impacts a denser than air medium like a caribou? The bullet precesses (yaws) because all bullets do to a certain extent, but the bullet fired from a slow twist barrel doesn't have the gyroscopic stability to recover, and the bullet tumbles through the game. Nathan Foster is of the opinion that 55 gr FMJs fired from 1:14 twist AR-15s are good killers on small to medium sized game, as their tendency to tumble causes a great deal of damage, and he highly praises Norinco's ammo for duplicating this phenomenon; stable in air, but unstable in tissue. But when you're spending nearly a dollar a piece for TSXs, you might as well use the 45 gr version to achieve the optimum performance they're capable of producing on game, when fired from a slow twist barrel.
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The 45gr tsx is pretty impressive, and digs hard for such a light bullet. Pulled this one from a big muley that likely would have been a bang flop, had the hill not been so steep. As it was, it was a bang-tumble-roll-tumble-flop.
160+ yards, both shoulders. Internal damage was impressive.
RememberTheSomme
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Nova Scotia
Pastway this post of yours turns the lights on to me now completely why I really couldn't understand why N.B. hunters have such a hard on for the 22/250 over the .243Win as a dual purpose cartridge. Thank you for this informative info.
prairie lover
CGN Regular
- Location
- southern MB
friend I occasionally hunt wit has an old 788 in 22-250 and tats all he ever used. I have seen half a dozen deer shot with Remington 55 gr sp, factory loads. every one exited. shot through the lungs right behind the shoulder. And it amaized me how fast those deer went down. usually in 10 yards. I shot a 7mm wsm and have had deer go 40 yrds shot through the lungs.
he also told me that once upon a time he tried factory loaded hornady v-max, 55 gr also and they grouped poor and the deer shot in the chest with them were never found. shoot something that will penetrate and it will do fine.
if you reload a 55 gr sierra gameking spbt will stay together and penetrate. as will a lot of other bullets.
he also told me that once upon a time he tried factory loaded hornady v-max, 55 gr also and they grouped poor and the deer shot in the chest with them were never found. shoot something that will penetrate and it will do fine.
if you reload a 55 gr sierra gameking spbt will stay together and penetrate. as will a lot of other bullets.
Not sure on all the areas here (BC), but I can shoot 3 deer here on the Island. 2 bucks and a doe or 2 does and a buck, which ever way you want to work it. You can go to the Queen Charlottes and shoot 15, there are other islands that also have high limits. I can also go to the mainland and shoot Whitetails.
I'm not sure if Looky is typing a stutter or if this is some type of Lookanese that I don't understand. Anyone able to clarify?
