Savage 12FV 22-250 55gr Varmageddon FB Tipped

Hi everyone. First time posting but I searched and prolly went 50 or so pages back looking for info to no avail.

Question is:

Has anyone gotten this bullet to spit out of a 12" twist, 26" length 12fv or similar savage to any luck? My friend gave me some of his ammo with this bullet but he has a different twist and I don't know what was going on but they were going every which way out of the barrel. Seriously they were just spinning wherever they wanted (6" plus any which way direction). And that really bummed me out because I think the bullet would do great on prairie dogs, which is the main purpose of the rifle. I shot some Wolf Gold also that day and got about a 1.5" or so group @100 yards.

I'm quite new to the reloading side of things but was looking for a couple of starting points to try. The powders I have available as of now are:
1. Varget
2. IMR 4064
3. H380

It will be going mostly in Winchester brass or once-shot PPU brass from the Wolf Gold. I also have Winchester LR primers.

I would prefer to use IMR4064 if possible. Also do I find a powder charge and then start playing with overall length? Because just today I did the whole "sharpie a bullet and push it in the rifle to see lands length(proper term?)" and it was WAY longer than the SAAMI OACL listed on Nosler's website. A little guidance and some rough starting data would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Side note: my new favorite gun @ http://imageshack.com/a/img743/5193/XYKloM.jpg

Varget and IMR 4064 both good choices for the 22-250. I have no experience with H380 so I can't comment there.

I like to work up a powder/bullet combination first and then play with seating depth. Changing seating depths is more of a fine tuning deal.

I did some testing today and came up with a max length of 2.505" after 10 averages of pushing a bullet in an empty case. To find my powder combo should I load to 2.50" and once I dial in a round, then play with backing off? Or perhaps start at 2.495? This is all very exciting, being a surveyor and son of an engineer, building and testing and keeping excel sheets is very fun to me. I might be kind of weird.

Going off your numbers, I would start with the 2.495" and then change if I found a load showing enough promise to warrant. I have used this bullet in several rifles and have several buddies that shoot them and we have all had great results.

Varget is my go to for anything based on the 22-250 or 308 family of cases. My 22-250 loves Varget and 55gr Sierra's or V-Max's. Haven't had any issues stabilizing them in the 12 twist I used to have (was a 12FV) or the 14 twist I have now.

Sorry I can't speak for the Varmageddon bullets specifically but I think you will be fine. As said above I'd too go with the 2.495" and start working up your charges til you find the potential sweet spot and then start playing with your depth.

The .22-250's claim to fame was a 55gr bullet propelled by H380, it's certainly worth experimenting with that combo.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BarrelBurner

The .22-250's claim to fame was a 55gr bullet propelled by H380, it's certainly worth experimenting with that combo.

---

Yep. I think H380 was for 38.0 grains of powder in a 22-250 if I recall. You should have no prob with the 55gr in a 12 twist. I shot mine yesterday with some 60 gr and have shot 62 out of it also. I use varget, 4064 and h355.

I was shooting those bullets with a 24" 12" twist and they were alright with 35.5 grains Varget with a 40thou jump (about 1moa). I have had much better luck with the Sierra blitz kings than the Varmegeddons. I couldn't keep them in one piece with the 8" twist.

My FVSS loves Sierra 55 grain game kings (1365) over 36.0 grains of Varget and CCI 200 primers. This is my go to load.

My experience is that if a 0.224 bullet is really shooting poorly, changing the other components won't fix it. First find a bullet that shoots MOA or better with the first load you try and then adjust powders and seating depths to dial the group size down further.

There are likely many bullets that barrel will love. Don't waste time with the ones it doesn't like.