Parker Hale .250-3000 (.250 Savage)

[branxhunter]

No, I am pretty sure it was not a factory offered chambering for Parker Hale rifles. Read on....
 
I was in a town about an hour and a half north of where I live yesterday for work. There is a shop that sells bicycles, fishing and shooting gear, and I try and call in for a look whenever I am passing through.
 
Among the usual selection of boring new "same-as" synthetic and laminated stocked offerings they had a few interesting pieces; a couple of Brno 601 .308s, an Anschutz 1516 22 mag, a Savage 22lr/.410 combo gun.
 
I spied a mauser actioned rifle in the rack, and saw that the swing tag read .250 CF. When the shop assisstant handed it over for a look it proved to be a Parker Hale 1100 with the beaver tail fore-end. The interesting part was it had a Winchester barrel on it with the chambering marked as .250-3000, also known as the .250 Savage.
 
Now this is a cartridge that is not often seen here in Australia. There must be a story behind why someone chose to rebarrel a Parker Hale rifle (possibly it was originally a .22-250, I seem to remember that the .250 Savage is the parent case?) to this chambering. Perhaps they managed to find a good condition, second hand Winchester barrel which made the rebarrel a cheap option? If only guns could talk.....
 
My reading seems to indicate that the .250 Savage is roughly equivelent to the .243 which is a very popular "do-it-all" chambering for game up to the size of small deer here in Australia. It seems that as a cartridge it is not far behind the .257 Roberts.
 
Anyone out there got experience with this cartridge?
 
Marcus

[22hornet]

I've got no experiance with the little .250 but it is on par with or just slightly behind the .303/25.
The .250 was never as popular as the .303/25 here in OZ but it is still a great little cartridge.
Maybe someone understood that the .250 Savage is a better all rounder for OZ instead of the .22-250.?

[gitano]

Cool!

Paul