Which load is best for my hunting?

Question

i intend to go fox hunting with my recently bought a Howa 1500 .22-250 and was wondering which load is best recommended for foxes? also an explaination on the differences between ballistic tips and standards and hollow points would be great. Any insight on this issue would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Hollow points are best on small animals like prairie dogs,

and wood chucks.

You don't give your 'twist rate.

For foxes, you probably want 55 Gr. ballistic points for larger for penetration.

That 22-250 will push 'em' fast enough.

Answer 2

According to the Winchester Product Service Manual for 2008 it is the 50 grain Ballistic Silver-tip, because it has the highest velocity with the least bullet drop at 300 yards.* 3,810 muzzle velocity and only drops 7.4 inches at 300 yards.* The bullet drop at 400 yards is 18.6....

Answer 3

depends if you mean "load" in terms of reloading and therefore that would mean grains of powder, and in that case it depends on the type of powder, if you just mean what factory ammo is best well then i would go for a ballistic tip, in theory they are suppose to explode on impact, but i shot a fellow deer through and through with a 223 and smashed two ribs, lungs and heart. so don't know what happened there. but they were the same load that i use on foxes and roos, and those things detach limbs, if you want pelts you would have to use full metal jackets to the head, they are designed to go through amour, ect so the expand minimally, there for not causing big exit wounds, resulting in good pelts, hollow point boat tails (hpbt, bthp) are good for longer distances, like over 60-70% of cartridge effective range, so about 280m for 22-250, as 22-250 is good to about 400 - 450m, ballistic tips with boat tails are good for longer distances too, but the boat tails will hold slightly better groups, i use 55 grain hpbt for sighting in then i fine tune to 55 grain ballistic tips. "standards" don't know who told you that, but they could be referring to soft points, or spitzers. if you don't want the fox to get up go for the ballistic tips.

Answer 4

Id keep the loads to Light to Medium if you want to keep the pelt. but if you dont care what happens to the creature then just whack it with whatever you got. You dont want your bullets going a million miles an hour either as the faster the projectile goes it will actualy break apart in mid flight. You want your bullets moving as a solid unit hiting and retaining its weight and energy, Similar to being hit by a car travelling 80km per hr. not fast but enough to kill.

Ballistic Tips - Just a marketing gimik as they dont actualy go any faster then most bullets they have these fancy shapes and names but dont really make a diffrence. It is however the powders they use that push the bullet  

Standards - What do you mean? Military Standard, Hunting Standard, Sportig Standard, Olympic Standard.

Hollow Point - deadly stuff on small game and very accurate. You can also use Boat Tail projectiles these combined with Hollow Points is a lethal mix of accuracy and stopping power.

Dude you sound like you have a good set up,  a 22-250 is a better round the .223. The 22-250 hits harder and flatter and yes has the knock down power for foxes and other small game.

In the future if you decide to upgrade or buy more guns have a look at the .308. This bullet will do the job of many, it is a multi purpose round. Another thing you might want to look at is getting decent optics. I dont know what your rifle wears at the moment but dont be cheap on the glass get the best you can afford but also dont go overboard, all my rifles wear Leupolds, so far i have had 0% failure on any of them and they are value for money.  

Answer 5

Fifty five grain hornady ballistics are a very good choice.extremely accurate fairly rips the foxes.the ballistic tip is designed to  mushroom very easily whereas standards or soft points have a slower mushrooming.we use the 22/250 for foxes and roe and it is an extremely capable round and flatish shooting out to 300yds.