Buy an 80's Remington 700 BDL Deluxe 22-250 or buy a New Savage or ?

[OLD-skool454#3]

BDL with unknown round count in excellent condition or buy a brand new modern 22-250?

[RAMCLAP]

It's highly unlikely that someone put enough rounds through a hunting rifle to have shot out the barrel. Though it is possible. But a 700 BDL is a classic firearm and I'm old school. Remington.

[bigbossman]

22-250 is a bore/ throat burner. I'd be careful about buying a used one with an unknown round count.

[Tank 57]

I have the exact BDL you describe. Varmint rifles often have a higher round count than most hunting rifles. Would carefully check the bore. If good, would buy another one without hesitation.

[OLD-skool454#3]

The bore is perfect at least to the naked eye, sharp, clean...no signs of pitting or fouling. The stock does have minor signs of handling in particular on the underside of the stock. I understand that the 22-250 barrels are only good to about 1000 rounds before accuracy starts to deteriorate.

[OLD-skool454#3]

Think I will pass on it being that there is no round count history.

[ar15barrels]

The bore is perfect at least to the naked eye, sharp, clean...no signs of pitting or fouling. The stock does have minor signs of handling in particular on the underside of the stock. I understand that the 22-250 barrels are only good to about 1000 rounds before accuracy starts to deteriorate.

Look specifically at the shape of the lands in the throat.
They start out nice and square and as the barrel is shot out, the lands get rounded off and then work their way forward a couple inches before the barrel will stop stabilizing bullets and the bullets start tumbling.
If you have nice sharp square edged lands in the throat, then the barrel is very low round count.

[OLD-skool454#3]

From what I was shown, it looks to be in perfect condition and as you mentioned square. It is more for nostalgia and occasional coyote control so not a caliber that is a must have right now. I do have .223/556, .308, 6.5 creedmoor, and a .338 Lapua Magnum. I was just thinking I could reload for it rather cheap compared to the others and I like the idea of having classic wood/steel rifles. It would certainly be cheaper for me to buy a Savage or some other off the wall brand of 22-250 which may even offer better accuracy than this Remington BDL ever did, but I just feel I would not enjoy it much and would eventually have buyer's remorse. The BDL itself would cost me about $1,300 +/- a few bucks and not so sure it's worth it for it just being 22-250... Thing is, I keep reading praise after praise of how flat this caliber is, specifically with the Remington 700's. AR15, with the Marlin 39A Golden you gave me good reason to buy it and I did, but it's a .22 and I can find multiple uses for it.

[Trapper]

My concern would be with the 1:14" twist rate and lead free ammo. Savage and Tikka offer rifles with a faster twist rate to take advantage of heavier projectiles

[OLD-skool454#3]

You bring up a great point that I had not thought thru. Now that you mention it, lehigh defense and their lead free projectiles cmes to mind...I will research this, thank you.

[Sydwaiz]

My concern would be with the 1:14" twist rate and lead free ammo. Savage and Tikka offer rifles with a faster twist rate to take advantage of heavier projectiles

Tikkas are still 1:14. I have one in 22-250. That said, I would buy the 700 over the Savage and rebarrel it for heavier bullets.

[OLD-skool454#3]

I've been doing a lot of research and thinking about the 22-250 and my options. I have decided to buy a Tikka T3X 22-250 Super Varmint. A friend of mine told me they have one that just came in at their store. Yes, it is still a 1 in 14 twist, but I have settled on 40-53 grain projectiles. I have already ordered some Forster, Redding dies, and an LE Wilson inline seater. Going through my manuals, I already have a couple different powders I can use and am buying a few more next weekend. I own two other Tikkas...a T1X .22 and a T3X CTR in 6.5 Creedmoor so adding another Tikka felt like the right thing to do. I've yet to see/handle the Super, but am told it is an awesome rifle and one of the favorites amongst the employees. Although I really liked the Remington BDL, I am pretty happy and excited about the Tikka knowing I'll have a zero round rifle to start with.

[Imageview]

Can always swap the barrel on the tikka if you can’t get bullets you want to stabilize. I’m tempted to rebarrel mine in 6.5 Swede.

[OLD-skool454#3]

Yeah. Going with the Tikka or a new rifle for that matter, I can learn and enjoy the caliber for a while before having to rebarrel it unlike having bought the used BDL and not having any idea how many rounds before rebarrel. Imageview, may I ask what caliber your Tikka is currently and why 6.5 Swede?

[Fjold]

I built a Savage so that I could change the barrels by myself. I went with a tight neck 22.250 with a 1:10" twist. Later Randall re-chambered it to 22.250 AI, my only regret was not making it with a 1:8" twist rate.