SmallCaliberCentral

I need a good ball powder for my 22-250 any recomondations

I would try H-380 it was developed for the 22-250, it works great. Bruce hodgden named it H380 because he was shooting bug holes with 38g of it. My savage LRPV in 22-250 loves 38.6g and berger 52g bullets, start at around 38 and work your way up .2g at a time and you should find what you are looking for.

cynergyguy, do you have the LRPV in a 1 in 12 or 1 in 9 twist? I have the the 1 in 9 and wondered how the lighter bullets would shoot. I bought some seconds bullets from Sierra in the 55 grain BK to try.

I have the 1 in 12 I have only tried the 52g to 55g bullets in it and I tried several brands, berger 52 match shoot the best. Hornady and sierra 52 match were good but not as good as the berger.

Thanks, I wondered what you had. If this weather would ever warm up I could get out and try some new loads!

My 22-250 works best with W760. In a 24" bbl I'm getting 3700 fps with a 55 grain Rem HPPL and 42.0 W760. That's a max charge so work up to it. My rifle also does well with H380, but gets better accuracy and higher velocity with W760.

I tried 42.0 grains of W760 powder in my 22-250 Ruger 77. Bob Hagel wrote an aticle in the Handloader magazine (about 1978) with that load. At that load my primer pockets were so expanded that the primers would fall when the cases were picked up. I reduced the load for my rifle to 39.0 grains and have been happy with it since.

Seems like guys have said for a number of years that W760 is is pretty much exactly the same powder as H380. If so, 42 grains would be WAY over the top for a 22-250 load. Without looking on their site, I think Hogdons and my manuals say 38 grains of H380 is max recommendation for a 22-250. I usually load right at 37.

The Lyman 49th edition shows 41 grains of H 380 as a max load for both the 52 and 55 grain bullets albiet 41g is a compressed load. I have loaded H 380 to 39.5 grains safely more than once. I would suggest to anyone either using or wanting to use it to start low and work your way up. It is a really good powder for the 22-250.

I have a 22-250 and I would recomend starting at 35.6 and work up with the H-380 . It is a good powder but in really hot weather it gets hot fast. The Book I'm looking at starts out with a 55gr. bullet at 35.6 and shows a max. load of 38. I hope this helps.

Ihave tried H380 and was less than impressed. The old classic load of 38.0 grains with a 50 grain bullet was the only charge that turned in anything close to what I would call accurate shooting. A guy I work with has used BLC-2 to great effect with the 22-250 perhaps I will give that a try. The only other ball powder I have tried in my savage FVSS is H335 with varmint grenades, while fast, did not shoot worth beans. Don't really understand why you would want to use dietier ball powders anyway. I have had excellent results with IMR 3031 with 40, 50 and 52 grain bullets. This powder with sierra 52 HPBT Match bullets allowed the savage to shoot into the 2's for the first time recently. I prefer hodgdon's extreme powders as our load work done in the heat of summer for the -35+ cold of winter. Nice to know that you are getting in the cold what you are getting in the heat.