.22-250 in the hay fields today.

[ColtRevolver]

Today I sat glassing the hay fields looking for a groundhog. Came up dry. Figured I would because it was very windy.

I carried with me a 30 year old Remington 700 BDL Varmint Special in .22-250 wearing a 4-16 scope.

It was loaded with a 55 gr Hornady SPBT over 35 gr of Varget. The load chronographed 3400 fps. Not the fastest, but very accurate. It should be easy on the barrel. The gun will shoot 5 shots at 100 yards that you can cover with a dime.

 

[jkingrph]

I have a similar set up except my Varmint is a 1970 vintage, making it 50 years old, and is .223. I was a young USAF officer and got that caliber so I could shoot some military ammo, and at least get brass. Mine had a 4-12 Redfield scope, but my eyes got to the point where I just could not focus it, so replaced it with a side focus Leupold 6-18 dot reticule.

 

[ColtRevolver]

I believe yours has the barrel tapped at the rear for a barrel mounted scope base. Mine does not. I believe those screw holes were not put on after the early 80s....I wish mine had them. I have a Unertl and a Redfield 3200. One of those would be on my gun.

 

[DocPapi]

I have a 12 year old single shot T/C Encore in .223 with a custom bull barrel that will put five holes in about the same size pattern. It wears a 4x14 Leupold scope. I've taken many a prairie dog with that setup. Fun rifle to shoot also. There's something very satisfying meditative about the slow one shot, one kill process. At least until the tail whirs like a helicopter or I see the red mist. Then my heart races just a bit faster...

 

[OkieStubble]

Today I sat glassing the hay fields looking for a groundhog. Came up dry. Figured I would because it was very windy.

I carried with me a 30 year old Remington 700 BDL Varmint Special in .22-250 wearing a 4-16 scope.

It was loaded with a 55 gr Hornady SPBT over 35 gr of Varget. The load chronographed 3400 fps. Not the fastest, but very accurate. It should be easy on the barrel. The gun will shoot 5 shots at 100 yards that you can cover with a dime.

View attachment 1080753

View attachment 1080754

Is that caliber getting harder to find, or do you reload it?

 

[ColtRevolver]

I handload for it. I bought 400 of the bullets like in the pic. They group fairly well. I recently bought 500 Hornady 55 gr VMax. I can probably work up a even more accurate load if I put the time and effort into it.

 

[Bhugo]

That is one beautiful rifle!

 

[ColtRevolver]

Thanks. It's kinda sad that Remington dropped the BDL Varmint Special from production 25 years ago.

 

[jkingrph]

I believe yours has the barrel tapped at the rear for a barrel mounted scope base. Mine does not. I believe those screw holes were not put on after the early 80s....I wish mine had them. I have a Unertl and a Redfield 3200. One of those would be on my gun.

You are correct, the barrel is drilled and tapped for a scope. If I had one of those scopes I would use it.

 

[Ad Astra]

It's a great round, for sure!

And a beautiful rifle. I, for one, love the white line spacers: classic 1970s.

AA

 

[Bhugo]

It's a great round, for sure!

And a beautiful rifle. I, for one, love the white line spacers: classic 1970s.

AA

Those white spacers really look great to me too!

 

[Earcutter]

Nothing more interesting than an accurate rifle. Especially a good looking one.

 

[RandyC]

No Remington 700 but I've got an early 50s Model 70 in 219 Donaldson Wasp. It's wearing a 16x Lyman Super Targetspot.

Eventually I'll swap it for this 12x Unertl, planning a 22-250 on a Mauser 98 action for the 16x.

Sent from my LM-G850 using Tapatalk

 

[oc_in_fw]

That is some shooting.

 

[ColtRevolver]

RandyC,

Nice rifle and glass

 

[RandyC]

RandyC,

Nice rifle and glass

Thanks!

I hope when I get time to finally shoot it more I can get it shooting little tiny groups like yours. I've only put a few rounds through it and it shows promise but I need to put in the work.

 

[ColtRevolver]

It took a little bit of work to find a load. The first 55 gr I tried wouldn't do better than 1 to 1.5 inch. They were cheap bullets intended for blasting out of a AR. I didnt expect much better results.

The load that shoots groups like that took a little bit of trial and error, but it came around. That bullet is a Hornady. I got them on sale for $7.99 per 100. I bought 400. I am set for a long while...lol

 

[RandyC]

The data I got with mine was for 50 and 52gr Sisk bullets. They've been out of business for a bit. The brass in the loaded rounds I had to take apart at the store to bring home because they didn't want to let reloads out the door were formed from 219 Zipper brass. 30-30 is the way to go now.

My Hornady book has data and I've got a few things to try.

 

[ColtRevolver]

Yeah, I did a quick look for brass and saw a retailer selling brass for that rifle. It was formed from .30-30 brass.