250 Savage new tricks for an old dog

I am going to indulge myself here and ramble on a bit about a cartridge I have always admired but never until now have had the opportunity to become acquainted with the 250 Savage.  I don't want to turn this into a history lesson on the cartridge because it becomes a bit boring and the history of the cartridge is easily available if anyone is interested in that.  I will say since I admire his work so much that the cartridge was designed by Chas Newton and is only one of many he designed for Savage.

If only fate had not dealt Mr. Newton a very bad hand and he had been allowed to flourish in his own pre Savage business the shooting world would surely have benefited. For instance if we look at what is today perhaps currently the most popular rifle cartridge  in new rifle sales the 6.5 Creedmoor what we are actually looking at is with very slight modifications to case shape is the 256 Newton a cartridge commercially available at the time Mr. Newton had his own business about 1912.  History really does repeat itself.

Actually what Chas had intended was a cartridge closer to the 250 Savage when he designed the 256 Newton.  The issue arose  when he imported some Euro 25 caliber barrels for his project.  What he received were not our standard 25 caliber barrels but instead 26 caliber.  Not to be deterred by minor issues the 256 was born and though way ahead of its time in 1912 really didn't catch on until recently with the 6.5 Creedmoor.

Anyway I want to focus on the 250 Savage and a gorgeous rifle I have acquired for the cartridge.  The rifle I bought outright about a year ago for such a low price I am still in disbelief  but until now have not invested any time in becoming acquainted with it.  This rifle I will venture a guess of being between wars vintage somewhere in the 30's.  If you can access any photos from that time period from ballistic pioneers like Ned Roberts, Phil Sharp, Harvey Donaldson and other of the time that were leading the pack in ballistic advancements you will see the type of rifle I will describe.

The rifle is built on a large heavy laminated stock with very straight lines with no drop at the comb but with slight cheek piece.  It has a long 28" fairly heavy tapered barrel.  The forend tip for the last 4: length has what was popular at the time a barrel harmonics dampening device built into the stock  These can also be seen in some of the early photos as mentioned.  In essence it is a steel ring around the barrel that had four spring loaded detents that contact the barrel.  There are two accessible from the top and two from the bottom of the stock.  Each is click adjustable for the amount of pressure each exerts on the barrel.  This system popular in the 1930's is one indicator of the vintage of the rifle.  Another good indicator is that the rifle is built on a 1916 Oberndorf receiver fitted with a double set trigger system.  

An additional indicator of vintage on this rifle is that it has been fitted with a very early Griffin & Howe side mount also from the 30's.  The fact that this thoroughbred target rifle is chambered for the 250 Savage is in itself another indicator of vintage since the 250 Savage pre dated most other target cartridges of the time pre-dating even the 257 Roberts by 19 years.

The rifle as I received it was D&T for the type of return to battery scope of the day with two holes on the barrel and two on the receiver ring but none on the receiver bridge.  That was one of the reasons I set the gun aside until I had more time because I had to D&T the receiver bridge for modern scope mounting.  After a sufficient procrastinating period I now have a modern picatinny base mounted with a scope that can exploit the potential of the rifles full potential accuracy.

Interesting to me was that when I tried to measure the rifling twist rate each time I got 1/13".  When Savage came out with the 250 they gave it a 1/14" twist so finding 1/13" seemed strange. In comparison the 25-35 Winchester was brought out with a 1/8" twist but was intended for the long 117gn bullets while the 250 was built around an 87gn bullet. Having a 1/13" twist makes sense because it will be more flexible with bullet weight/length but still far less torquey than the 1/8" of the 25-35.  Thinking on it I am good with the 1/13" twist

.Starting off in the loading adventure for this rifle I first wanted to see just what the rifle was capable of with jacketed bullets of the type it was intended for.  Judging from the quality of craftsmanship and condition of the rifle it came as no surprise when 5 shot 100 yard groups with the Hornady 75gn V-max bullets with little load tweaking hovered in the .3" area. Very satisfying!

That settled on to my purpose for the rifle developing cast bullet loads with 200 + yard capability in exterminating gophers from my pasture.  This is a road I have just begun to travel down but so far with little effort that simple goal has been achieved.  This vintage target rifle is now a preferred fixture in the reapers roost and is performing admirably even to 300 yards if the wind is being kind.

One load of I hope many more to come but one started with is using the 80gn Ranch Dog bullet over 10 gn of Hodgdons American Select powder. So new is this load that I have not yet chronographed its velocity and will not even venture a guess . What I can say is that at 100 to 150 yards the huge meplate of the Ranch Dog bullet has devastating effect on gophers.  Still quite effective to beyond 200 yards but the ballistic drag of that wide flat nose on such a light weight bullet is becoming very noticeable. Not so much on terminal effect but because of the very high lag time of a bullet shedding velocity so quickly the wind plays havoc adding acute curve to the trajectory.  Shoot this type of load for awhile and you become quite tuned to slight wind changes and their effect on drift.

So anyway just thought some of you old dogs might enjoy hearing how this old dog 250 Savage is learning new tricks and likely as not will end up teaching its old dog new owner a few tricks too.