Swift Precision Rifles custom .250 AK calibre rifle

Richard Pope is no newcomer to the gunmaking game, having a solid background in precision engineering and then an enviable career with the coveted Venom Arms Company, giving him a great pedigree when it comes to custom rifle building and re-barrelling.

Richard has now taken the plunge and gone solo with his own company, Swift Precision Rifles, concentrating his time on precision rifle rebuilding and one off specials, plus research and development into action design.

His workshop has humble beginnings, being a converted double garage, but it is stocked with all the lathes, milling, grinding, sand blasting and heat treating equipment you would ever need. Equipment is easy to acquire, the talent to use them precisely is not. But Richard has a knack at turning his mind to any problem the rifle shooter may encounter, and this may require anything from simple machining for inletting and bedding an action, right up to a full blown custom fabrication from scratch.

So if a treasured Rigby rifle needs a new scope mount base, or a custom barrel needs fluting, then Richard is your man. Having now embarked full time, his lead times are good at present and prices are keen but as people realise his talents you are sure his order book will become ever more full.

Recent jobs include rebarelling rifles to standard calibres and some more exotic calibres such as .260 Ackley Improved, small calibre .17 Fireball and 17 AK Hornet to name but a few. However complete custom rifles for stalking, target work or varminting are also no problem.

A rifle for a knifemaker

One of Richard’s latest creations was a full blown custom deerstalking rifle commissioned by world famous custom knife-maker, Alan Wood. Alan is a left hander and likes the milder deer calibres - as do I - that translate in to maximum performance with minimum input. The .250 Ackley Improved calibre was chosen as a cartridge that suited Alan’s needs, so all that was needed was to source the parts!

Every custom rifle has a starting point and this particular project started out with a donor rifle. Alan was keen on a Savage left hooker and as luck would have it, R. Macleods of Tain, Scotland - my coveted source of second hand rifles - had just such a model in stock. Gregor, the owner of Macleods, has a great catchment area for Scotland and many good second hand rifles (as well as all the new kit) passes through his doors. A .243 wood stocked Savage left hander was acquired and soon stripped to its component parts. All that was needed was a discussion between Richard and Alan to decide the best course in which to rebuild it.

Blue Printed Action

No question the action was sound and so this would under go a ‘blue print’ to restore a better than new close tolerance fit between bolt and action body, with silky smooth bolt races and positive bolt lug engagement. What was clear was the need for a new trigger, better bolt, recoil lug and barrel.

Luckily there are several Savage specialty suppliers in the US (Garlands are the official Savage rifle importer in the UK). An American based firm called Sharp Shooter Supplies supplied two bolts, both made from stainless steel, one a standard sporter bolt design and the other a longer more Tactical bolt. The original trigger guard was horrible quite frankly, black plastic and fragile, this was replaced with a crafted stainless unit and just the ticket.

Another part that needed immediate attention was the inadequate standard recoil lug; believe me, a blued bent piece of thin sheet metal is no basis for a secure recoil or bedding aid. So a custom stainless steel over sized lug was ordered from Midway UK .This would allow a better barrel shank union and bedding area to the stock. Midway also supplied a rather good Timney trigger unit that would replace the pre- ‘Accu-trigger’ model that was past its best.

The action apart from blue printing was to be sandblasted prior to an even matt blueing to achieve a tough yet very hunter friendly finish. The scope mounts too were junked and replaced with Weaver style silver alloy types from Sinclair International and a set of low profile Leupold quick release 30mm rings were supplied by The Sportsman Gun Centre.

Stock Bedding

Attention now turned to the stock. A custom Macmillan would have been ideal but lead times were reasonably long so fellow GunMart writer Jules Whicker stepped in - also an admirer of Richard Pope’s work - with a second hand synthetic Savage stock that was a marked improvement on the original wood type. True the stock was a little flexible in the forend region and required a serious amount of bedding to achieve a tension free full bedding block. Luckily this is one of Richards’s fortes and he fashioned twin aluminium bedding blocks (to front and rear) from scratch. The first third of the forend was also filled with Pro Bed bedding material to increase rigidity and the action was fitted into its perfect new bed.

The synthetic stock had a reasonable grey/black finish but lacked that custom look, so Hydrographic were employed to put a custom coated pattern to the Savages exterior. After much discussion Hydrographics worked a fantastic two tone graduated grey to gun metal finish with a splintered black pattern applied on top. A final layer of highly textured almost wet rubberised finish was applied that gave the feel of a Hogue stock without the possibility of dirt ingress.

The Perfect Barrel

The final and perhaps the most crucial part was the barrel choice. Get everything else right then bodge the barrel and all your hard work would be for nothing. Pac-Nor barrels from Oregan are good performers and so were chosen for the job. Either a pre-chambered or post reamer barrel could be ordered, and Alan opted for the former. Richard Pope is more than adept at barrel rechambering but it would be interesting to see how good this manufacturer pre-chambered barrel would be. This meant the choice of length, style, throating and twist would have to be considered.

I like this part, as I usually know exactly what I want, but Alan needed good ballistics and accuracy with a slim profile (for weight reduction); and it also needed to be able to shoot a range of bullet weights… so this did cause a little consternation.

Being .25 calibre (.257) the super efficient .250 AK cartridge would handle 100 grain bullets as its main diet so a twist rate of 1 in 10 was chosen that could handle all viable .257 bullets. A slim profile sporter barrel of only 20 inches was deemed suitable and to further reduce weight yet add that custom look, five deep flutes were added. To this precision barrel, Richard would screw cut the muzzle and added an invisible thread protector.

Improved Ammunition

Ballistically the .250 AK Improved looks a winner and was one of P.O. Ackleys best loved and most efficient “improved” rifle cases. The parent case was the venerable old .250 Savage case which later became more widely recognised as the parent case for the excellent vermin and fox .22-250 cartridge.

The original case holds nearly 45 grains of water whilst the improved case with its straight walls and 40 degree shoulder angle holds 51 grains of H20, an increase of 6 grains and a big improvement.

However Alan wanted a short barrel for moderator use, so it would be interesting to see how this Wildcat performed in a 20 inch barrel. I was experimenting with getting the load right, and the Quickload ballistics program predicted 2924 fps and 1898 ft/lbs from a 100 grain bullet with a payload of 42 grains of Vit N150. A standard .250 will shoot the same bullet out of a 24 inch barrel at 2850fps so nearly the same; so barrel length may be an issue here, we will see.

As always you need to fireform the brass with a wildcat load. The .250 AK was easy, I used 30 grains H380 and Speer 100 grain bullet to fully form the brass into that beautiful sharp shouldered square body look. This yielded 2070 fps and shot an unimpressive 1 inch, so I ploughed on until 24 cases were formed.

Next I tentatively tried a few differing powders and loads to get a sense of the cartridge. A load of 33 grains of Reloder RL15, a favourite, gave 2626 fps velocity but only 1532 ft/lbs energy, so not deer legal yet, although extremely accurate with three shots through the same hole at 100 yards - a good fox load then.

Keeping the same load but switching bullets to a Hornady Interlock raised the velocity up to 2711fps but the bullet was seated deeper due to the differing ogive.

An increase to 35 grains RL15 and the Speer 100 grain bullet yielded 2705 fps and the Interlock 2740 fps and still not quite enough on the energy front.

I therefore increased to 37 grains giving 2847 fps but 38 grains gave an impressive 2955 fps and 1939 ft/lbs with good accuracy from that short 20 inch tube but this was the top in terms of pressure for this rifle. I also tried 38 grains of Vit N140 that pushed a 100 grain Pro Hunter bullet at 2858fps and 1814 ft/lbs energy but this was hot so I switched to Vit N150, a bit slower to see if I could improve on things a little. With 38 grains of Vit N150 and a Sierra Pro Hunter 100 grain and Federal Match primer, pressure was milder, but it gave a good velocity of 2879 fps. I topped out at 40 grains of N150 with a velocity of 2976 fps and 1967 ft/lbs with good accuracy and good pressures.

With the load sorted I switched bullets to hone in on better accuracy, Prohunters gave 0.75 inch groups with 3007 fps, Interbonds gave the same accuracy but 3042 fps. The best however were the Speer 100 grain Boat tails with an OAL of 2.5785 inches, which shot 0.35 inch three shot groups at 100 yards with a velocity of 3007 fps and 2008 ft/lb.

Obviously you can try other bullet weights but Alan wanted 100 grains tested so I stuck to them - I did not want to burn his barrel out experimenting before he took delivery of his rifle!

With a PES muzzle can fitted it was a beautifully balanced and light stalking rifle, with an efficient and very user friendly wildcat round.