Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Recommended Blue Dot Load: 22.250

This came from a suggestion from a forum member off another site, that I suggested several years ago, for his Swift...'

I decided to try it in one of my 22/250s today... this is going to be that rifles new standard load...

this turned out pretty darn cool... actually got this suggestion from a Canuck on the forum... that he loads in his 220 Swift..

I spend more time with the 223s, but this proved pretty darn sweet in one of the old 22/250s...

18.5 grains of Blue Dot
40 grain ( choice of VMax, BlitzKing, or Ballistic Tip.. or Sierra 40 grain HP)...
Large rifle primer...

Same loads with the 36 grain Varmint Grenade by Barnes and the 30 grain Berger HP Varmint also are awesome.. for accuracy and velocity...

Brass also was easily neck sized.. and in fact didn't need necksizing AT ALL..neck springs right back into place, meaning low pressure..shoulder didn't move forward at all also...

Need to try and shoot photos of the targets to display accuracy potential... which was excellent...

also need to rechronograph... MV was running in the 3900 fps range.. I need to reverify that after loading up some more...only had two rounds left to chrony...

loaded up some more this evening to retest...

however this is going to be the new dedicated load for at least one of my 22.250s...

cheers
seafire

Am I reading that right? 3900fps?

yeah, you are reading right...

however before you take that to heart..

those were my last two bullets that I chrono'ed... and even I think that is a little optomistic...

So I have loaded up somemore and plan on getting time today or tomorrow and going out and chronographing those again..

My chronograph might have either been on drugs, or thinking it was a liberal politician come election time again...

however in a 223, with those 40 grain bullets, and a load of 14.5 grains of Blue Dot, those are yielding some impressively high velocities...

with the 30 grain Berger HP, which is as long as the 40 grain Blitz King, V Maxes, etc... the 223, with that bullet and a nice charge of blue dot is getting 3800 fps....

What I have planned to chronograph, and is already loaded from last night...

is 40 grain V Maxes, Sierra 40 grain HP, 40 grain Ballistic Tip, 36 grain varmint grenades, and the 30 grain Bergers...

all using the charge of 18.5 grains of Blue Dot...

that is below what I list as max charge.. however the temps are also running over a 100 degrees here as normal for this time of summer.. so I don't want to push the max charge in this kind of heat with a really fast powder...

another cool thing about these loads.. when reloading the cases last night.... they had not expanded enough upon firing to even need resizing.. all I had to do was deprime and reprime them...

That can be a handy feature for those of us that might go out in the field for a couple of days and reload our shot ammo after dinner, or while taking a breather and letting the barrels cool and letting facial muscle relax after getting scope squint from 3 or 4 hours of shooting....

another guy on another forum is going to try this out in an XP 100.. it ought to be intersting to see his results..

Awesome, thanks for your research and effort!

Hi Seafire


What fraction of the case does this load occupy?

Pardon my paranoia, but I was always leery of a load that could be doubled and not overflow a case.

I do know that many have loaded thousands of such loads, and I do not criticize them -- just wondering for my self!

John

37 grains of BlueDot overflows my .22-250 cases by a noticeable amount. (That's a double charge of 18.5 grains.)



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John,

That is why I ALWAYS recommend the procedure of charging a case with powder and THEN seating a bullet BEFORE going on to the next round...

this will eliminate a double charge occurring...

With these loads in several of my 22.250s, I am not loosing sight picture within the scope during recoil.. it is reduced enough you won't loose it, especially with the 40 grain bullets...

It just takes discipline, just the same as it does when one is loading for a hand gun round...

Seafire makes a great point. It is very easy to load a double charge of BULLSEYE in many handgun cartridges - heck, some will take a triple charge. Yet, no one seems overly worried about blowing up a much weaker handgun with even faster powders. Handloading takes dicipline and attention - those who are not willing to pay the price should take up....bank robbery or....hammock napping.


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