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Wildcatting Speed Demon

Wildcatting Speed Demon

I have always had a soft spot for the 22-250 Remington, as in my day, it was one of the fastest vermin/fox calibres around, and best of all, readily available in factory rifles, as was the ammo. The 220 Swift was bigger but the 22-250 was more popular. It appealed to those wanting more speed to flatten trajectories at long range crows or foxes and it was very easy to load for and there was some very good factory ammunition also. My first custom rifle was a 22-250 with Shilen barrel and Harry Lawson thumbhole walnut stock on a Sako A2 action, it’s now a 22-284!

Double duty

The appeal of this big 22 centrefire is double duty, since with the correct bullet, it can be used for small species deer (Muntjac and Chinese Water Deer) in Wales and England and Roe in Scotland. For most, a 222 or 223 Remington is more than enough but the22-250 gives you the edge. Based originally on the 250 Savage case, hence the 22-250 nomenclature, it was in its day the top choice for a full-power 22 centrefire. But for some, that’s still not enough and the wildcat 22-250 Ackley Improved (AK) is the way to go.

This is a case that has a radical shoulder angle, usually 40° and parallel wall sides to maximise powder capacity. With the AK-chambered barrel, you can go for standard dimensions, but I would not recommend that route, go custom instead. This also means that you can choose neck diameter for a tight chamber of minimum dimensions, to maximise precision and potential accuracy. Best of all, you can opt for a standard twist rate of 1 in 14” for light bullets and hence speed, or the preferred route with a fast twist 1 in 8” twist and use heavier, higher BC bullets for better downrange performance.

On spec

This cartridge is one of P O Ackley’s best in my view, although the 7x57 AK comes close. There are several versions of the 22-250 Improved, not least the AK version. They are all based on the standard 22-250 case, which is plentiful, and I would advise to buy 100 brand new of best quality. You will need to fire-form them, so it makes sense to start right and measure and sort by weight to obtain the best possible cases to re-form. If you don’t know, fire-forming consists of firing a standard 22-250 in the Ackley chamber and the pressure will blow the shoulder forward to conform to the new dimensions.

The 22-250 AK version shows a 40° shoulder angle that minimises bolt thrust and case lengthening but increases powder capacity. Plus, it just looks so good, especially! I have also seen shoulder angles from 28 to the 35° (Shannon case), all with their own take on improved capacity, smooth loading or performance. But I picked the standard Ackley version with a tight neck chambering.

H20 capacity is 47-grains, so 3.5 grains more than a standard case at 43.5-grains H20; well worth having in my view. That translates to 250 to 300 fps more oomph, lovely. To achieve that lovely Ackley profile, you must perform a few processes to the brass. I sourced some new Norma .22-250 cases, which are superb brass and have a good uniformity with a small weight to weight variation for a consistent internal powder capacity.

Prep

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Annealing the neck is something I do for the smaller calibres, when you move a lot of brass in necking up or down, but the Norma needed little work, so I left it as is. I did the customary primer pocket uniforming with the Sinclair cutter, as well as the inner flash hole too, although little was needed.

With a 0.252” necked chambering, I had to remove some brass, as the Norma starts with a neck diameter of 0.254”; so, I trimmed to 13 thou wall thickness, so that with a loaded bullet, a Sierra 52-grainer, the outside diameter on the neck was 0.250”. That’s two thousandths of an inch clearance to give a perfect release. The throat was quite short, so good for lighter bullets and no need to seat too far out to engage the rifling, which also allows a certain degree of erosion from excessive use, i.e. you can chase the rifling up the barrel.

Rifle spec

I was using the same rifle I reviewed last month, the Dave Tooley custom Stolle Panda actioned bench gun, which came as a switch-barrel gun setup. The 22-250 Improved barrel was a stainless-steel Hart match grade; lovely! It is 27” long, which is a practical length to gain a velocity advantage; after all, that’s what this calibre is all about. With a straight taper, from 1.23 to 0.814” at the muzzle, it ensures a rigid platform from which to launch your projectiles. I would have preferred a faster twist, but this rifle came as is with the classic, six groove 1 in 14” pitch. This allows loading for faster velocities, without too much stress on the bullet, due to rotational torque and pressure. The muzzle was threaded by Norman Clark’s at 18x1mm, with an invisible thread protector and lovely 11° muzzle crown.

Chambering wise, as stated, this is an Ackley improved version and as such has a 40° shoulder and a tight neck. The barrel is marked ‘0.252 nk’, so some work on the case is required. If you look at loading data, many say just load like a 220 Swift, but with a precision-made action like the Stolle, you can experiment a little in safety!

Bench gun

The rifl e shows a right-hand bolt and the left/ right loading port is so handy for loading from a bench, which is where I did all the testing from. The McMillan bench rest stock allows a perfect ‘ride the bags’ scenario, for maximum accuracy in Caldwell’s ‘The Rock’ rest and my trusted Kahles K10x50 i scope allowed a crystal-clear view.

Load-wise, it’s a doddle and easy to work up good loads. I had a choice of hand dies, ie Wilson with removal neck bushings, to fi ne tune the neck tension on the cases for best accuracy. I also had a set of Redding Type-S bushing neck dies that come as a generic .22-250 Rem Imp 40°. In either neck die, I used a 0.248” bush for sizing, allowing for the brass ‘spring back’ after seating the bullet. All loadings used Federal (large rifl e) Match primers and with the slower twist rate barrel I was limited to about 62-grain weights but stopped at 55 and so started low with some lead-free bullets. Quick Load ballistics program really helped with working up loads and my library of reloading books also had some interesting data too.

Conclusions

The conclusion writes itself really. Yet another great wildcat that is not too wild to put off wanabe shooters, yet gives a real performance increase and improved case life to. You can re-barrel a rifl e as you like; either slow or fast twist to suit your needs and double duty for vermin and small species deer. This is a very accurate bench-type gun, but I can see a 22-250 Improved with a sporter weight barrel, a fast twist rate and synthetic stock being really appealing.

Contacts

Holts Auctioneers www.holtsauctioneers.com
Norman Clark 01788 579651 Custom work and reload supplies, Berger
RUAG 01579 362319 Kahles scopes
Hannam’s 01977 681639 Reloading Reload supplies
Edgar Brothers 01625 613177 Alliant powder
Henry Kranks 0113 2569163 Sierra bullets
JMS Arms 07771 962121 MAE mods and Quickload www.quickload.co.uk

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