Has anyone on here had experience with Bergara’s 22-250s? It is a 1:9 twist. I’m curious what type of rounds people have tried and what they like before just going out and buying a bunch of ammo to test. I bought some 55gr Hornady v-max and 55gr soft points. both of them shoot pretty decent. I would like to try heavier bullets with the fast twist, but most stores are pretty limited with their current selection.
To be honest, you’ve got a bit of an oddball here and you’re not the first one to bring this twist issue up. Bergara is, of course, Spanish, and they have made some rather interesting Euro-style departures from we consider norms here in North America.
The standard twist for the .22-250 is generally 1:12 or 1:14 for North American rifles because of what we primarily use them for–varmints. This twist range is optimized for bullets between 50 and 60 grains, your typical varmint fare.
So…. It comes as no surprise that your Spanish rifle with its faster twist is giving you so-so results with varmint ammo weights. Well, that’s because there ain’t no varmints in Spain except for the ones who steal your wallet on the Barcelona subway.
A 1:9 twist is going to favor heavier bullets that require the faster twist for stability. You will probably see better results in the 60 or 65 grain range, perhaps even heavier.
Which of course is going to produce some headaches for you, because that kind of ammo is not very common factory fodder for the 250.
Now why did Bergara go and do this 1:9 twist? Well, in Spain and in a lot of Europe, they are fans of using smaller bores with heavier bullets for game than we would normally see here in the US. The .22-250 is seen by many hunters in Europe as the perfect medicine for the miniature deer species or mountain species like the Chamois. So it makes sense that they are not interested in highly explosive, lightweight varmint bullets and they make their rifles accordingly.
Bottom line is I’d see what you can get for higher weight factory ammo. But here’s where I give you some potential bad news.
Last I knew–and this could have changed–but there were only a few factory loads at the 60+ grain range and most of these were premium hunting-tuned rounds with spendy bullets. I know the go-to round in Europe was the Nosler 64 grain offering or Winchester at one time had a premium 64-grain offering as well that was very popular. Sorry to say, the 60+ grain factory loads that I know of tended to start at about $30 a box. Ug. But that’s cheap compared to the Nosler offering, which I believe was over $50 a box. Double ug.
But it could be worse. In Europe, the Winchester silver box was going for over $100 per 20 and the Nosler offering was like gold, I think they were going for $150+ a box.
Grouse
