Any thoughts on this?

Without shooting any Hornady Super Performance 50gr. through my .22-250 yet, I have a question:

The best this gun has grouped with factory ammo has been with the Winchester 45gr. HP’s. At 150 yds, the grouping is 1 1/8th inches. They travel out of the barrel at approx. 4000fps, which is the same proximity of the Hornady’s. Even though there’s a 5gr. weight difference, with the velocity being about identical, can I expect the barrel resonance to react about the same as well? Or will the extra powder boost change all that regardless of “end of the barrel” statistics?

Which twist rate do you have? Almost every 22-250 I load for does significantly better with the 50 and 55 gr. The Hornady V-max bullets have been great , but I was forced to look at other alternatives with the high demand on them. I have done 3 of the 250’s with the Nosler Varmageddons 55gr over varget. The sweet part is that on my Howa and a buddy’s Axis, I can swap out either the V-max OR Noslers with the same charge, primer and seating depth and have less than 1″ point of impact difference at 200 yrds. Group sizes are nearly identical at well under 1MOA.
After a couple trips out shooting P/dogs, I have really appreciated the 55gr over the lighter bullets. It is what it is… a light bullet in the wind when reaching out there 4,5, or 6 hundred yards. That little extra weight has made a major difference at longer range

I’m not sure of the twist rate. Being an Axis out of Fleet Farm, I can only assume it’s whatever the most common is. I forget off the top of my head if it’s 1/8 or 1/10 that’s the more common……… or am I thinking Tikka? I dunno…… gottta go catch some walleyes….. be back in a week.

So the Axis in .22-250 has always been a 1:12 twist.

Mine seems to be fine in the range Randy mentioned. I’ve tried 50, 52, 53, and 55 grain pills and they all seem to be fine in terms of 100-200 yard performance in that they are at or near MOA.

Now here’s a reason why Superformance may NOT be the answer for your Axis. I’ve worked up loads with 4-5 different bullets and 5 powders for my Axis. Almost without exception, the best accuracy came from the starting (lowest) powder charge! The harder I pushed them, the more spread out the groups got.

That’s my long way of saying that you may want to try other loads as the Superformance may move you further in the wrong direction.

Velocity is not the end all and be all of accuracy. In many cases, you’re talking only 200 or so fps spread between the starting and the max load. I’d rather have awesome accuracy and a little more drop than I would so-so accuracy and flatter trajectory.

One other thing to watch as regards the twist rate and how it stabilizes different bullets. It will not always be evident at 100 yards that the twist rate is unable to stabilize the bullet. Some loads will seem to shoot fine at 100, but then things fall apart at 200 as the instability really effects the flight.

Grouse

Grouse, I think your heading the nail of my concerns on the head. I am going to try the load and just see what it does. This rifle of mine has made low to no sense all along so I’m disinclined to dismiss an idea without actually trying it.

I should have no problems in testing this load this coming weekend and I’ll just have to let you know how it goes. Thanks for clearing up the twist rate for me too!