Hi Guys,
I'm not be posting at the 24HourCampfire any more and haven't for several months. Some highly prejudiced, bigoted, ignorant buttheads attacked my Catholic faith, so I left. After seven years and 5200 posts, my cyber-home is gone. Enough of that, let's talk .250 Ackley ... on my NEW cyber-home, hopefully.
I did an article for Varmint Hunter on the .250 Ackley rifle that John Lewis of Carolina Precision Rifles built for me. The full article is in an article back in 1996, I think.
Basically, the rifle was built on a Remington 700 BDL action. Stainless actions did not commonly exist back then, so after John blueprinted the action, he had Marker Machine Works hard-chrome all of the action parts. The barrel is a three-contour Schnieder stainless, cut at 22-inches. The rifle wears a 3.5-10X40 Leupold in Dual Dovetail mounts and rings.
The stock is a McMillan Remington Classic painted black, as all synthetics were done in the mid-90s.
The rifle came with the error that often comes with Carolina gunsmiths who learned from Kenny Jarrett; long headspace, so that factory ammo would not fire in a consistent fashion. I later had a local gunsmith shorten two threads and rechamber the barrel to a .003" crush with the case shoulder.
I made a distinct error in introducing the rifle to the household. My wife saw that it was a cute little thing and asked to see a cartridge. That was a real screwup because the rifle became "HERS" in about two heartbeats.
That fall, she proceeded to kill the heck out of a few nice mule deer and a great antelope. The deal was sealed ... HER rifle was the .250 Ackley.
So, other than working up all of the data for the article and gutting all of Karen's critters killed by the rifle, HER .250 Ackley has found a home. At this point, I've been married to the lady for over 45 years and to take the rifle back would risk divorce. Hey, I value her more than any darned old rifle, so the .250 sticks with the rightful owner ... HER.
Bear in mind that Karen shoots two rifles, so she hasn't poached my herd terribly. If critters are small, say up to the size of a coyote or bobcat, she kills them with her .223 Ackley. Bigger critters die to HER .250 Ackley.
We've only used a single load in HER .250 Ackley for the last ten years or so. Please bear in mind that the .250 is a wildat and a load that is super safe in HER rifle might be dangerous in another. This is the load:
100-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip with 44.0 grains of H-414. Winchester case and Winchester WLR primers. The muzzle velocity is 3,083 fps.
I might make a note here that for the first several years, Karen used the 100-grain Hornady Spire Point Interlocked to kill her big game. The bullet worked in a superb fashion and we were both delighted with it. The Ballistic Tip is also a tough, accurate bullet that penetrates well. Frankly, they both work wonderfully and the rifle shoots both of these excellent bullets to the same point-of-impact.
Trust me, this load clobbers big mule deer, large whitetails, antelope and the occasional cow elk like the Hammer of Thor. Whenever I hear Karen's single shot, I know that meat just hit the ground and I'd best hurry over there to gut whatever critter she's just murdered.
Lately, because of the horrible quality of domestic .250 Savage brass, I've switched to making cases from virgin Winchester .22-250 brass. I use a Redding .250 Savage FLS die that has been fitted with one of Reddings loooong tapered expanding plugs that runs neck from .22-to-.25. Heavily chamfering and lubricating the inside of the neck greatly aids in mantaining concentricity.
So that's pretty much it. The .250 Ackley is a wonderful cartridge. I wish I owned one
Steve Timm
PS. I'll drop in a few photos of critters that Karen has made dead with HER .250 Ackley. Enjoy