I would recommend you not even consider loading a 250 grain. If for silhouette as mentioned above a 200 would have been superior or even the 180s used. For hunting it is a useless excercise in futility. It will not expand past 50 yards if even there..
To each his own, I was simply recounting my own experience. Be that as it may, I killed a nice bull moose fifteen years ago with a warmer-than-the-silhouette load pushing the same Speer 250 SP. Expansion in an Alaska bull is less important than penetration, and the bull died quickily enough - for a 1200# moose that is. You don't shoot moose with a handgun much over 30-50 yards either - bow range. The 250s were rather handy on the IHMSA rams at one local range where they were set full-footed with the ever-present wind on their backs. Never lost one with the 250s, while others shooting .44 mags and .30-30s lost about
40% of those they hit. Nope, 180s would not have been "superior" for me....I lost several myself.
Futile is as futile does I guess, and the 250s weren't futile by any means. They are certainly not for everyone and I'd not use them on smaller game, but plenty of HHI hunters used non-expanding bullets on big game (I'm not talking
deer here) for years with similar results...the 275- and 300-grainers in the .375 JDJ come to mind. Tough bullets seem to work okay on the big boys....at least so experience says. If the 250 seems too heavy for you, try the Speer 220 FN, it will expand better in lighter game. Or wimp-out and use a 200 grainer...... :wink:
Actually today I usually use a 150 CoreLokt in this cartridge on Texas or Alaskan deer. Launched at 2330 fps it expands well yet penetrates plenty on these small animals. I've had good luck with the 200 RNCL too, and the 180 Speer accounted for a handful of Kodiak Island deer from my barrel too.