When Guns & Ammo started this column in June 1995, the first cartridge covered was the .22-250. This load's history goes back to the 1920s as a wildcat number, but it didn't become a factory cartridge until Remington took the plunge in 1965.

The lineup of bullets used by the author (left to right): Barnes, Berger, Hornady, Nosler, Samson, Sierra, Speer.

Converting a wildcat to a factory load usually opens a large can of worms. Until relatively recently, the wildcatter had no practical way to measure pressures. Oh, sure, he could measure case-head expansion, gaze knowingly at primers and mumble about how easy the bolt opened.

A common method of arriving at the maximum load for a wildcat was to keep increasing the charge until the primers fell out when the bolt was opened. Then the "conservative" wildcatter backed off about a half a grain to establish the maximum load.

Both things have changed for the better since those "fly by the seat of your pants" days. With the instrumentation available today, we know that the working pressures developed that way were well into the mid- 70,000-psi range. Every load was essentially a proof load. And, yes, those pressures really did produce great performance numbers.

The factories, on the other hand, did have pressure-measuring instrumentation and some industry standards that they had agreed to follow. As a result, the factory version of any wildcat typically fell about 200 fps slower than the original wildcat claims. The .22-250 is no exception.

Illustration courtesy Hornady Manufacturing Co.

That said, Remington's factory .22-250 is no wimp. It's a screamer and only a few fps slower than the legendary .220 Swift. Winchester's .223 WSSM beats it by a little, but the .223 WSSM hasn't been in the field long enough to develop any real history.

After the original .22-250 column came out in June 1995, we added a second set of loads in December 1998. This month I'm going to do things a bit differently. In order to demonstrate the wide variety of combinations now possible, I selected seven bullets: six 55 grainers and one Barnes 53-grain bullet (the company doesn't make a 55-grain version). There are about 35 powders that will produce satisfactory results in the .22-250 with 55-grain bullets. I wrote each powder on a slip of paper and put them all into a hat. For each bullet I picked three powders out of the hat. Now, you might argue that this is a terrible way to select a load, but I wanted to show that there are lots of different ways to kill the cat besides kissing it to death.

.22-250 LOAD DATA*
BULLET	BULLET WEIGHT (gr.)	POWDER	PRIMER	CASE	START LOAD (gr.)	MAX LOAD (gr.)	MAX. MUZZLE VELOCITY (fps)
Barnes TSX FB	53	Vihta-Vuori N135	CCI-200	Federal	31.0	35.0	3,800
Barnes TSX FB	53	Alliant R1-15	Win. Large Rifle	Frontier	32.0	35.5	3,850
Barnes TSX FB	53	RamShot X-Terminator	Federal 210	Remington Peters	31.0	35.0	3,850
Berger HP-Moly	55	Winchester 748	Federal 210	Winchester	33.0	38.5	3,800
Berger HP-Moly	55	Hodgdon Benchmark	CCI-200	Federal	31.0	35.0	3,850
Berger HP-Moly	55	IMR 4895	Win. Large Rifle	Frontier	32.0	36.0	3,800
Hornady SPWC	55	Hodgdon H380	Win. Large Rifle	Remington Peters	35.0	40.0	3,725
Hornady SPWC	55	Hodgdon Varget	CCI-200	Federal	34.0	38.0	3,850
Hornady SPWC	55	IMR 3031	Federal 210	Winchester	32.0	36.0	3,825
Nosler Ballistic Tip	55	Norma N-201	Win. Large Rifle	Winchester	30.0	34.0	3,750
Nosler Ballsitic Tip	55	RamShot TAC	Federal 210	Frontier	30.0	34.0	3,775
Nosler Ballistic Tip	55	Accurate 2460	CCI-200	Federal	30.0	34.0	3,775
Samson FMJ	55	Vihta-Vuori N550	CCI-200	Remington Peters	35.0	40.0	3,850
Samson FMJ	55	IMR 4002SSC	Win. Large Rifle	Winchester	36.0	40.0	3,775
Samson FMJ	55	Winchester 760	Federal 210	Frontier	36.0	40.0	3,675
Sierra GameKing	55	Accurate XMR4064	Win. Large Rifle	Federal	32.0	36.0	3,750
Sierra GameKing	55	Vihta-Vuori N540	Federal 210	Frontier	34.0	38.0	3,825
Sierra GameKing	55	Accurate 2230	CCI-200	Remington Peters	30.0	34.5	3,800
Speer Spitzer	55	Alliant R1-7	Federal 210	Winchester	26.0	30.0	3,675
Speer Spitzer	55	RamShot Big Game	Win. Large Rifle	Federal	35.0	40.0	3,825
Speer Spitzer	55	Alliant R1-10	CCI-200	Remington Peter
*Figures taken from a 25-inch pressure barrel

The maximum loads shown for each powder-and-bullet combination are right up close to the SAAMI maximum average-pressure limit of 65,000 psi, so they don't leave a lot on the table.

About 50 years ago there were relatively few powders available to the reloader. He was lucky to find one "perfect" powder for any cartridge and bullet weight. Today, with more than 120 powders available for retail sale, the problem isn't in finding the best powder but in deciding which of several to use. The answer is that if more than one powder can produce the results you want, then it doesn't matter which one you select. So how does that relate to the loads listed here?

Accurate recipe: A 55-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip in front of 33.1 grains of Accurate 2460 (muzzle velocity: 3,700 fps).

Nearly all these powders yield velocities in the 3,800-fps range, plus or minus a bit. Now the decision is reduced to which one you prefer or perhaps which one you happen to have on hand. You can use any of these powders with any of the bullets listed (or, for that matter, any 55-grain bullet), but you must remember one very important thing: If you change anything in the load listed--bullet, case or primer--you need to drop back to the starting load listed for that powder.

Bullets have different constructions, so they change pressure levels. Cases have different internal volumes, and that changes pressures, too. Different primers will certainly change pressure levels. It may seem overly cautious, but always start any new load with the starting-level charge and carefully work up from there.

Primers need special mention. At this writing, in some parts of the country primers are in short supply. All the loads listed used standard primers, but since you might have a problem finding them I decided to check out what substituting magnum primers would do in these loads. For this caliber and bullet weight, magnum primers don't make a lot of difference, but if they make any difference at all, it is to increase pressures a bit. If you have to use magnum primers, drop the maximum loads by a grain.

The .22-250 richly deserves its popularity and classic status. It may be the best of the vintage long-range varmint cartridges, producing flat trajectories and wonderful accuracy. What more could you ask?

WARNING: The loads shown here are safe only in the guns for which they were developed. Neither the author nor InterMedia Outdoors Inc. assumes any liability for accidents or injury resulting from the use or misuse of this data.