Nosler 22-250 35 Grain Pelt Damage?

Johnnyote

New member
Does anyone know what the Nosler Ballistic Tip Varmint Bullets 22 Caliber (224 Diameter) 35 Grain Spitzer Flat Base Lead-Free will do to fox or bobcat pelts damage wise. I want to load some for my howa Ranchland Security 22-250. I have read that it has a 1-12" twist rate. I was hoping someone may have used these to predator hunt with and could tell what they will do. Any help would be appreciated.

Regards
Johnny
 
I cant give you any actual field experience but a 35g bullet moving at 22-250 velocities cannot be pretty on a fox/cat.
 
Ive used a 40gr vmax and it was fine. never exited. small hole in and nothing out. Ive switched to a 50gr nbt this year so i will have to wait to see about that.
 
If you're worried about pelt damage, you can load them down at the lower end of your load chart & see what happens.

Somewhere in the low to mid 3,000's should do the trick.

Start at the low end & go from there.

Best of luck, Lee
 
Originally Posted By: markleyIve used a 40gr vmax and it was fine. never exited. small hole in and nothing out. Ive switched to a 50gr nbt this year so i will have to wait to see about that.

The 40gr VMax did not work so well... these are entrance wounds.

IMG_0293.jpg


For me as it was very unreliable. Sometimes it would do fine but sometimes it would do this. These were traveling at 3400fps.
 
I guess we will just have to see. I bought a box of 50. I will load some up this weekend. They are non-lead to begin with and they are fragmenting. I will let you know. Thanks to everybody for the input. I never would have though the V-Max would have left an entrance wound like that. Thanks for the pics Venatic.
 
Originally Posted By: venaticOriginally Posted By: markleyIve used a 40gr vmax and it was fine. never exited. small hole in and nothing out. Ive switched to a 50gr nbt this year so i will have to wait to see about that.

The 40gr VMax did not work so well... these are entrance wounds.

IMG_0293.jpg


For me as it was very unreliable. Sometimes it would do fine but sometimes it would do this. These were traveling at 3400fps.

Ive had that happen alot with 55gr vmav the dreaded splash! Those shots look fine to me thats why i switched to noslers and i havent had that happen since ive had neck shots with splashes as big as softballs on coyotes.
 
This one was shot behind the shoulder and this is the exit hole.
These 3 bobcats were all shot within a few hours of each other along with one more that flopped around and took off never to be recovered. I switched back to the Sierra Blitz-King 40gr which has been a good performer for me in this caliber.....221FB.


IMG_0298.jpg
 
Why shoot a 35 gr Lead Free bullet out of a 22-250 unless you have no other choice?

Sorry about that I just had to ask. I live where I have to shoot lead free bullets at squirrels, predators and big game. For big game Lead Free Bullets are not too bad. But for 243 caliber bullets and smaller lead free bullets suck.

For squirrels we have done pretty good with the Hornady 35 gr NTX and the Nosler 40 gr BT Lead Free bullets out of 223s. Out of a 22-250 I wouldn't want to shoot any predators with any 35 to 40 gr bullets, lead or lead free.

The BC on the Lead Free Bullets are very low. The Barnes 36 gr Varmint Grenade Bullets have a .149 BC, the Nosler 40 gr Lead BT bullet has a .221 BC.
 
derbyacresbob.... No real reason I want to other than hoping I could load them down slow enough that they would enter before they fully expanded and then not exit. What twist were using on the .223 with the NXT's and how was the accuracy. There was alot of reviews on Midway about how well the bullets performed accuracy wise out of 22-250's. So I just figured It would be something to try. I know the 55 gr and the 40 gr kill the pelts on entry. I know absoloutly nothing about what I am doing. I am just now really getting into reloading and predator hunting. I have been hanging out on here for a year or so and have learned tons from everyone. Maybe the only way to not kill the pelt is to drop down to a .17. The closest thing I have is a red rider. Thanks for the input. It is always easier to learn from other peoples experience.
 
Johnnyote, when I used to be able to use lead bullets out of my old 22-250 I killed a bunch of coyotes with Sierra 55 gr BTHP bullets and the Hornady 55 gr V-Max bullets and never had a splash or large entry hole. These bullets were loaded pretty close to maximum loads and I didn't get very many exit holes on coyotes.

In the 22-250 you may be better off loading a tougher, heavier bullet with a higher BC so you will have a nice 22-250 load.

I just looked in my Barnes Reloading Manual Number 4 and the slowest minimum load for their 36 gr Varmint Grenade in the 22-250 is over 3826 fps, all the other minimum loads were over 3932fps with one minimum load at 4002 fps.

If you use a 55 gr lead bullet with a much higher BC and load it at a medium load around 3400 fps to 3500 fps you may do less damage than a lightweight varmint bullet doing 3800 fps.

If you want to shoot 35 gr bullets you really don't need a 22-250, you can shoot 35 gr bullets over 4000 fps out of a 223 Rem.

The best Lead Free bullet I have used so far on coyotes out of my 1-8" twist 22-250 and RRA AR-15 Upper with 1-8" twist has been the Barnes 55 gr MPG bullet.
 
I have never had surface splash with nosler ballistic tips.

If all you are hunting is cats, range should be fairly close.

You may want to look into Blue Dot loads with 40g speers at 3100 fps.

Cats, foxes, and rabbits are all soft skinned and tear up easily.
 
Has anyone shot a small animal with the 36 Grainers from blackhills? Maybe I should just load them up and use them on non fur game. Keep the skunks thinned out.
 
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