22-250 - Which one ?

by **HoyBoy53** » Sun Mar 27, 2011 2:10 pm

I'm interested in buying a rifle in 22-250 caliber. I'm not what you'd call a gun expert by any stretch of the imagination. There are so many rifles to choose from I'm totally lost on what buy.

I want to use it for hunting anything from squirrels to coyotes.

I intend to reload my own rounds. I'm either going to want to use peep sights or mount a scope on the rifle. I would consider new but I don't want to overlook any older rifle with a good reputation for consistent accuracy that I might look for used. I'd like to hear any and all recommendations.

by **robalan** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 10:51 pm

If you don't mind a single shot the Thompson Center Encore is really nice. You can buy it as a rifle or pistol. I bought the gun and several barrels. You could get that 22-250 for the coyote and the 22LR for the rabbits and squirrels. The accuracy is pretty amazing!

by **DoubletapMag** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 10:11 pm

How about the Ruger M77 Mark II, 935 dollars and a true factory precision rifle. We also have a Savage Model 11 and Weatherby Mark V and the Ruger is the middle ground in price and out shoots the Weatherby consistently. The ruger is just that much smoother operating, the trigger, bolt and safety are all superior. I base my statements on the results of a dog shoot

using the Weatherby and Ruger.

The Rest of the Story

We completely destroyed a small dog town at 325 to 475 yards with one. Most demanding shooting opportunity I've ever had, due to a 15 mph diagonal headwind that masked our shooting quite a lot, eventually though the pups were the only one's left above ground and the Hornaday V-max rounds were just blowing them into little pieces that flew everywhere. Using the Weatherby it was hard to keep the correct overhold and windage due to the hard trigger break, I was missing half my shots. Once we switched to the Ruger and figured the exact lead and drop we were getting head shots with the aid of the Milldot Reticle. There were two shots taken at 400 and 425 yards on a couple of ground squirrels that we must have missed due to the dope at that range. If we had hit them there would've been a mist of squirrel burger in the 24 X Binoculars we were using for spotting, but alas there was not. I just wish it was a .308 so I could use it to attempt to get a buck at the 550 to 625 yard limit of my rangefinder.