.22-250 Remington

Rifle cartridge

The .22 250 Remington is a very high velocity, short action, .22 caliber rifle cartridge primarily used for varmint hunting and small game hunting. It is capable of reaching over 4,000 feet per second. It does find occasional use by women and young children for deer hunting because of its low recoil. Some jurisdictions prohibit the use of cartridges smaller than 6 mm (e. g., .243 Winchester) for deer hunting. This cartridge is also sometimes known as the .22 Varminter or the .22 Wotkyns Original Swift. Along with the .220 Swift, the .22 250 was one of the high velocity .22 caliber cartridges that developed a reputation for remote wounding effects known as hydrostatic shock in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

The .22 250 started life as a wildcat cartridge developed from the .250 3000 Savage case necked down to take a .224 caliber bullet. In the early days of cartridges there were several different versions that varied only slightly from one to the next, including one developed in 1937 by Grosvenor Wotkyns, J. E. Gebby and J. B. Smith who named their version the 22 Varminter. Two years later, in 1965, Remington Arms adopted the .22 250, added "Remington" to the name and chambered their Model 700 and 40 XB match rifles for the cartridge along with a line of commercial ammunition, thus establishing its commercial specification. The .22 250 was the first non Weatherby caliber offered in the unique Weatherby Mark V rifle.

Both the British Special Air Service and the Australian Special Air Service Regiment used Tikka M55 sniper rifles chambered in .22 250 for urban counter terrorism duties in the 1980s, in an attempt to reduce excessive penetration and ricochets.

Typical factory loaded .22 250 Remington can propel a 55 grain (3.56 g) spitzer bullet at 3,680 ft/s (1122 m/s) with of energy. Many other loads with lighter bullets are used to achieve velocities of over 4,000 ft/s (1,219 m/s), while still having effective energy for use in hunting small game and medium sized predators. CIP lists the performance as: Transducer method pressures (energies): max average Pmax = 4,050 bar, PE (proof pressure) = 5,060 bar, EE (Min proof energy) = 2,370 joules

The .22 250 is currently the second fastest production cartridge in the world, surpassing the .204 Ruger, at 4,450 feet per second. but still behind the .220 Swift. It is particularly popular in the western states of the US, where high winds often hinder the effectiveness of other varmint rounds in prairie dog hunting. Many states in the US have minimum caliber restrictions on larger game such as deer, although most states do allow the cartridge to be used for big game.