22-250 Free Bore

J

johngfoster

Guest
How much free bore is too much?

Just got a factory new Remington 22-250. Took it out to the range and was lucky to get one 3-shot group under 1". The others were about 1.5". Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed. I was shooting Hornady factory 55gr VMAX ammo, which I'm told is good stuff.

Well, today I decided to load up some of my own, but before doing this I wanted to check how far out I would need to seat the bullets. I got an OAL gauge by Hornady with the "modified" 22-250 shell that attaches to the gauge. I was very surprised to find that for my chamber, max COL was 2.505 (touching lands) :eek: This doesn't leave much neck to hold the bullet. I checked with some 50gr VMAX and I think it would be a stretch to use them. Forget about 40gr VMAX. :mad:

Tonight I loaded up some 55gr VMAX with COL of 2.485 (0.020" off the lands). We'll see if this makes much improvement to the accuracy. Overall, I'm pretty disappointed in Remington. This really is shoddy QC. I have a mind to send the rifle back, but I don't want to be without it for another 6-8 weeks.:(
 
IMO, many of the factory chambers have excessive freebore for lawyers. Lawyers like to look for things to bring class action suits over. By having excessive freebore much of the chamber pressure spike is prolonged and peak pressure is somewhat reduced. Making products idiot proof takes some additional thought.

Your 1.5" groups is normal for Big Green (the one that ships their guns in big green boxes). That is their factory spec for a varmint rifle. I recently borescoped a new Big Green 22-250 barrel that had rifling on one side of the chamber neck.
 
.22-250 freebore

Welcome to the world of factory rifles. Shoot the existing barrel out and then have a custom barrel set up and chambered for the bullets you want to shoot by a reputable smith. A word of caution if you follow this advice:

You'll never go back and you may just get bitten.

The performance and accuracy you will get out of a custom barrel will surprise you.

Chino69
 
johngfoster said:
How much free bore is too much?

Just got a factory new Remington 22-250. Took it out to the range and was lucky to get one 3-shot group under 1". The others were about 1.5". Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed. I was shooting Hornady factory 55gr VMAX ammo, which I'm told is good stuff.

Well, today I decided to load up some of my own, but before doing this I wanted to check how far out I would need to seat the bullets. I got an OAL gauge by Hornady with the "modified" 22-250 shell that attaches to the gauge. I was very surprised to find that for my chamber, max COL was 2.505 (touching lands) :eek: This doesn't leave much neck to hold the bullet. I checked with some 50gr VMAX and I think it would be a stretch to use them. Forget about 40gr VMAX. :mad:

Tonight I loaded up some 55gr VMAX with COL of 2.485 (0.020" off the lands). We'll see if this makes much improvement to the accuracy. Overall, I'm pretty disappointed in Remington. This really is shoddy QC. I have a mind to send the rifle back, but I don't want to be without it for another 6-8 weeks.:(
Click to expand...


Which model remington was it? 700 adl?
 
The rifle is the model 700 VSF. I was under the impression that Remington (Big Green) gauranteed accuracy of less than 1" out of the box. For the money I paid, I should have gone with a Savage.
 
I have a mid 80's Savage 110V in .22-250 that has the same problem. I wanted to shoot Sierra 52 gr Matchkings but there was hardly any contact area between the neck and the bullet when seated to within .005 of the rifling. I had to use the Sierra 53 gr Matchkings as this was a flat base bullet and not a boat tail. That gave me a sufficient amount of contact area but I would have wanted more. That's the benefit of a custom barrel. You tell the gunsmith what OAL you want.
 
Just because your rifle doesn't like one load or bullet tells you only one thing. It doesn't like that combination. There are hundreds if not thousands of combinations you haven't tried yet. I always figure if it shoots factory into 1&1/2" I can probably find a combination that will shoot half that or less. I think if it goes bang Remington thinks they have done their job. They sure ain't going to gaurantee you can shoot under an inch at 100yd. Kenny

JerrySharrett, Do you meen there was rifling showing on one side in the chamber where the neck of the case would be? Just curious
 
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