22-250 For long range target shooting

rascal1

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Hey guys, looking for some feedback. I want to get into target shooting and finding a calibre that my wife can shoot that will still satisfy my long range interest. I have access to a 1000 m range and was wondering if a heavy factory barreled rifle in 22-250 would be good enough for that range or do I need to at least look at a 243?

Needs to be reasonably low recoil for her and still satisfy my requirements. Some input from you experienced guys would be greatly appreciated. I am not a hand loader as of yet so factory ammo is my only option at this point.
Cheers
 
For factory offerings you’re best to go with 6mm Creedmoor. There won’t be many options for factory 22-250 shooting heavy match bullets to get you out that far. I have shot my 22-250 to 1065m but I handload 75gr A-Max at 3285fps.
 
22-250 has enough to make 1000y. Needs to have an 80g or better bullet, maybe 90g, depends on the weather and elevation of the range I can get a 223 with berger 80g to stay supersonic at 1000, the load is warm, and 30 inch barrel. To shoot 90 g bullets you will need a 1/7 twist.
My recommendation for a 22-250 at 1000 would be 80g berger with a 28 inch barrel 1/7 twist
 
22-250 has enough to make 1000y. Needs to have an 80g or better bullet, maybe 90g, depends on the weather and elevation of the range I can get a 223 with berger 80g to stay supersonic at 1000, the load is warm, and 30 inch barrel. To shoot 90 g bullets you will need a 1/7 twist.
My recommendation for a 22-250 at 1000 would be 80g berger with a 28 inch barrel 1/7 twist



Thx. My thought was a 26 factory Remington varmint barreled rifle for now. So limited to lighter bullets as a result. Could re-barrel later I guess if I get into loading my own ammo. Maybe a 243 would be a better starting point. A heavy rifle should make it easy for wife to shoot?
 
Thx. My thought was a 26 factory Remington varmint barreled rifle for now. So limited to lighter bullets as a result. Could re-barrel later I guess if I get into loading my own ammo. Maybe a 243 would be a better starting point. A heavy rifle should make it easy for wife to shoot?

A factory Remington with a 1in14 twist isn't going to get you anywhere near 1000 yards with anything it's capable of stabilizing. Well, the projectile will travel that far but good luck shooting with any precision/consistency.

If she's going to be shooting long range why not invest in a cartridge that is intended for long range shooting?

As others have suggested, take a look at the 6mm Creedmoor. There are decent factory ammo offerings available. Recoil is low (perfect for the wife).
 
Just as a side note, I have a 6 creedmoor as my main competition rifle. I have used it to successfully shoot and hit a full size ipsc at 1 mile in Competition.
 
A factory Remington with a 1in14 twist isn't going to get you anywhere near 1000 yards with anything it's capable of stabilizing. Well, the projectile will travel that far but good luck shooting with any precision/consistency.

If she's going to be shooting long range why not invest in a cartridge that is intended for long range shooting?

As others have suggested, take a look at the 6mm Creedmoor. There are decent factory ammo offerings available. Recoil is low (perfect for the wife).

She isn't going be be getting into long range shooting really. I am trying to get her into shooting period. So I need something she can shoot once in a while that won't beat her up and something that I can use for long range shooting if possible. Ideally a more suitable long range cartridge would be the choice but don't want 2 rifles for the range. I have plenty of hunting rifles but they are not suitable for her to shoot. Might just put her behind my AR 15 and focus on getting a good LR rifle for just me. 22-250 sounded like a good starter at the time.
 
243 is great too but the factory bsrrrl prob isn’t made for the long heavies. If I had 6mm I’d shoot the long sausage bullets. Same with 6.5 and 7mm.
 
A factory Remington with a 1in14 twist isn't going to get you anywhere near 1000 yards with anything it's capable of stabilizing. Well, the projectile will travel that far but good luck shooting with any precision/consistency.

+1, you'll need to research projectiles and barrel twist rates to make an appropriate cartridge selection. You'll need to handload; I've seen shooters at the range with capable rifles and cartridges unable to make 400m hits on steel with factory ammunition. That said, it could have been related to lack of experience in addition to poor factory rounds.

The 22-250 and 243 are both hard on barrels if you intend to shoot frequently. The 243 with match projectiles and a fast twist barrel is a legitimate long range cartridge. Personally, I wouldn't even look at the 22-250 as a fast twist .223 will do everything it can for less money. Maybe you're looking to buy one rifle to target shoot and hunt whitetails? People in New Brunswick can't get enough of the 22-250. What do you already have that you can get started with?
 
+1, you'll need to research projectiles and barrel twist rates to make an appropriate cartridge selection. You'll need to handload; I've seen shooters at the range with capable rifles and cartridges unable to make 400m hits on steel with factory ammunition. That said, it could have been related to lack of experience in addition to poor factory rounds.

The 22-250 and 243 are both hard on barrels if you intend to shoot frequently. The 243 with match projectiles and a fast twist barrel is a legitimate long range cartridge. Personally, I wouldn't even look at the 22-250 as a fast twist .223 will do everything it can for less money. Maybe you're looking to buy one rifle to target shoot and hunt whitetails? People in New Brunswick can't get enough of the 22-250. What do you already have that you can get started with?

My hunting tools are covered, .300 Win Mag A bolt for Moose and Elk. 30-06 Bar for deer . Just need a range gun.
 
There's a 22 Creedmoor thread you should check out. 88gr ELD-M should easily go 3200 fps. I've got my 1:7 barrel blank, Hornady dies, and 6mm Creedmoor Peterson brass. I just have to get into the garage and get machining on the barrel. Barrel life is in the 1000 to 1500 round range. I also got a couple hundred 77gr Barnes LRX bullets. If it was legal on deer in Alberta, it would make a dandy prairie hunting rifle. Better trajectory than my 200gr 300 Win Mag with minimal recoil.

For factory ammo and long barrel life 6.5 Creedmoor is probably your best bet.
 
You might want to read this twice...

You can shoot to 1000 yards with a 223 but as suggested above.. you need a fast twist barrel like 1:7 or 1:8 and you need to run heavy VLD bullets.

Browse around the Sierra bullets web site and look at the G1 BC for .224 bullets and you will find the answer.

The G1 BC works like this... comparing 2 bullets... one with a BC of 0.200 and one with a BC of .500

If you fire both bullets at the same muzzle velocity... the 200 yard velocity of the 0.200 BC bullet will be the same as the 500 yard velocity of the 0.500 BC bullet

The same for wind drift...

The wind drift in MOA of the 0.200 BC bullet at 200 yards will equal the 500 yard wind drift in MOA of the .500 BC bullet.

So... to shoot long range is less about initial velocity and more about how slowly the bullet will loose velocity.
 
Get a factory 223 with an 8 twist. Inexpensive to shoot, deadly accurate, and will shoot at distance much better than a slow twist 22250
 
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