Love At First T A Quarter Bore Love Aff
preferred cartridges. For most, the 30-06 Springfield, 270 Winchester, or even a 7mm Remington Magnum are favored … and for good reason. But I don’t fall into that crowd. I have never been one to follow the masses, especially when it comes to shooting. My favorite car- tridge is the little 250-3000 Savage, and you’re about to find out why. Summer of ‘99
A I fell in love with this cartridge
while on a coyote hunt with my oldest brother, Trent. He has an old Savage 99 chambered in 250-3000, which is his “go to” gun for coyotes. On this particular trip, we were having one of those days we just couldn’t get a coyote to come in to the call. The sun set and a long, hard day came to an end. There still were no coyotes in sight, so we decided to take out our frustrations on a few small rocks on the side of a hill, located about 200 yards across the little valley where we were calling. Trent asked me if I wanted to shoot his gun, and I jumped at the chance. It was love at first trigger pull. It seemed like the 87-grain Sierra Varminter bullet hit its target in an instant and the small softball-sized rock exploded in a puff of white dust. The first thing I noticed was the almost complete lack of recoil
Bullet
s shooters and hunters we all have our favorite guns and
rigger Pull:
air With The 250-3000 Savage Member Clinten Neff
and the fact that I was able to keep the target in my field of view through the scope, a quality that I really like with a coyote gun. The second was the speed. I was amazed that this relatively small case was capable of producing such performance. After shooting Trent’s gun a few more times, I exclaimed that I had to have one, and the quest for my very own 250-3000 had begun. On the way home Trent gave me
a little background on the cartridge and how it almost has disappeared follow- ing the advent of the 243 Winchester. In fact, the cartridge is so obscure that at the time of this writing the Savage American Classic is the only factory- produced rifle chambered in 250 Sav- age. My goal with this article is to pique a little interest in this fantastic old cartridge and perhaps convert a few shooters into the quarter bore fold. The PaST and The fuTure The 250-3000 Savage of the Savage
99’s day is not the 250-3000 of today. With the development of newer and better powders, primers, and bullets, this old cartridge is capable of great and wonderful things and is no longer hindered by the 1:14" barrel twist found on the 99 that limited bullet choices to weights of 100 grains or less. Today the 250 Savage is a much more lethal and well-rounded cartridge suitable
250-3000 Savage Ballistics Chart Powder Charge
85-gr. Nosler BT 100-gr. Sierra MK 115-gr. Berger VLD
36.0 gr. IMR 4064 34.5 gr. IMR 4064 32.2 gr. IMR 4064
The author’s 250 Savage chronograph data 243 Winchester Ballistics Chart
Bullet Powder Charge
85-gr. Sierra Varmint 43.5 gr. IMR 4350 105-gr. Hornady A-Max 40.2 gr. IMR 4350 115-gr. Berger VLD
38.0 gr. IMR 4350 Remington Model 788 243 chronograph data
Velocity 3,150 fps 2,870 fps 2,746 fps
Velocity 3,383 fps 3,052 fps 2,786 fps
for anything from coyotes to mule deer. The 250-3000, much like the 243
Winchester, makes an excellent choice for new shooters or youth and female hunters who typically don’t like a lot of recoil. The recoil is so tame on the 250 the best thing to compare it to probably would be the 223 Remington. Another advantage of this cartridge is that it is not extremely loud, allowing you to shoot in the field comfortably. Its mild report and light recoil, coupled with its ability to shoot a 100-grain bullet more than 3,000 feet per second, make this little cartridge a sweetheart all the way around. miSS elizabeTh
To stay true to the cartridge’s
roots, I decided to build my 250 on a Savage action. As luck would have it the local pawn shop had a Model 110 chambered in 270 Winchester on sale for $250. It wasn’t a bad deal and would make a great starting point for my proj- ect. The wood was in great shape, other than a few minor nicks and scratches, and had a nice deep stain to it, so I de- cided to keep it rather than go through the trouble to restock it. I did get rid of the factory recoil pad and installed a nice, slim Pachmayr pad just to tie it all together and make it a little more pleasing to the eye. Trent bedded the action and floated the barrel for me and installed a Rifle Basix trigger to give me a nice, crisp trigger pull at 2.5 pounds. We then mounted and headspaced the barrel I purchased, which was a 24" Adams & Bennett barrel from Midway in a factory contour with a 1:10" twist. I was a bit skeptical of the Adams & Bennett Barrels because of the simple reason we all know you get what you pay for. Turns out it probably was the best $130 I ever spent. The barrel shoots beautifully, and for the price I must acknowledge is of the highest quality and exceeds all expectations. I topped it off with a Nikon Buckmaster 6-18x40SF scope, which really accents the rifle well with its sleek lines and
www.varminthunter.org Page 161
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212