60gr Nosler Par in .22-250

I am about to start working on a deer load for bro's new 788 with 60gr Nosler Partitions. I figure there are enough newbys that might benefit from listening to us discuss it while I work up the load, failures and successes.

I shoot 53-55gr in mine over 3031. I have never tried anything heavier in that rifle nor in any of several others I have loaded for, so I am open to suggestions as to what powder to start with with a 60 grainer. I have in point of fact never loaded any bullet heavier than 55gr in any .22cal centerfire so I am out of my comfort zone a bit here. The closest I have come is a loading student testing all the really heavies in his AR and me finding good safe loading data for him. And that doesn't count.

My goto powder isn't on their list, nor several other favorites, but Nosler's website lists a bunch and these are the five from their list that I have on hand:
A2520, RL15, IMR4895, Varget, 4064.

Which one do you think I should start with?
Birdz left me about 5lbs of RL15, he used it like I use 4895. I will probably start there if no one has a better suggestion.

My loading manuals are all in storage now with the rest of my library, so I am a bit hampered in my ability to sniff out potential good loads. If anyone has a different powder you think I ought to try, I'll get bro to cough up the cash for some. Like I need another powder in my cabinet. :mrgreen:

I tend to always start with Varget if it seems reasonable but here it doesn't and it looks like A2520 might be a better choice. That said I don't load a 22-250. Nosler knows what they are talking about and Varget would require almost max to be accurate. If you like RL15 that would be my second choice but you won't see the velocity.

Sounds like good advice KD. For a 150yd deer rifle a few hundred fps will be pretty much irrelevant I think. It's not like bullet drop will be an issue. :mrgreen: You get double or triple the barrel life in a .22-250 or a .220Swift if you back off to a mid table charge too. Varmint level accuracy isn't needed here either, but I am curious as to what the rifle will be able to do with the bullet. I see no reason why it shouldn't stabilize, but some barrels just hate NPARs in larger bores while others do fine. I have a feeling that, like my other 788s, I may have to look long and hard for something it DOESN'T shoot well.

Like Nosler, Lyman always lists the more accurate loads they discovered while testing. Over the years it has been helpful, but only sometimes. I look at it like I would any "pet load": their relative accuracy recommendations for different tested powders are the "pet loads" of their test rifle. The reason I hand
load is to find the pet loads of my own rifles. That does not mean that any given rifle will not agree with either Nosler's or Lyman's recommendations, merely that the rifle in question might not have read the recommendations and as such has a completely different opinion. The only way to know is to actually load and shoot some to see if they agree or not. Their choices will almost always yield a usable load, but you don't decide ahead of time yourself what a rifle will shoot best looking in a catalog or reading an article. You have to ask the rifle, give it some choices, and only a good solid rest and some targets will reveal the truth of the matter.

More than anything else I am just curious if anyone else here has tried such a "re-purposing" of what, to me, has always been strictly a varmint rifle.

True, I don't remember ever seeing anything where someone used a 22-250 on a deer.