Dad made me feel like a kid this Chrstmas.

Ray, very very cool.

'Not sure what your level of engagement is in the sport, but there's alot that goes into the soup of having a wildcat chambering. At one level, its quite simple and the true Ackleys are just a joy. This might also be a goldmine opportunity for you. The lesser mine being the knowledge you can gain from learning more about what goes into such a prize toy. The larger being priceless time w/ your Dad. Not unlike the old art with the str8, the number of guys that understood and used fine tools like that Remington are dwindling. You have the chance to learn alot and preserve knowledge that few now know about. As an example, though I'm not fluent on that specific chambering, the true Ackley simply fires the parent cartridge in the Ackley chamber and is instantly fireformed into the usable wildcat. No separate fireforming operations needed. That was the beauty of the true Ackley. There are many copies that lack this capability. Your Dad likely knows about this and can help you learn. You'll both enjoy the learning and the time. I hope you're able to capture some of that knowledge and add a wealth of memories of wonderful time w/ your Dad.

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Originally Posted by pinklather

Ray, very very cool.

'Not sure what your level of engagement is in the sport, but there's alot that goes into the soup of having a wildcat chambering.

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There is a reason Dad gave me this and gave my brother an old High Standard 22 pistol. :) I grew up with Wildcats. Dad has been a long time PO Ackley fan. Funny thing is that a lot of the rounds that were wildcats when I was a kid you can buy as off the self ammo now.

This 22-40 is a true P.O. Ackley round but it not as simple as just fire forming a 222 mag in the chamber in this particular rifle. When this chamber was reamed the neck was reamed tight. A standard factory chamber neck has about .005" clearance in it. This one has about .0015" clearance in the neck (intentionally). Because of that after the cases are fire formed the case needs to be put on a lathe and have the neck lathe turned to a max dia. of .245 to have a safe and proper neck clearance of about a thousandth to a thousandth and a half.

One advantage of this is that once a case is fire formed in this gun and trimmed the case hardly moves at all when reloaded and fired. Thus Cases almost never wear out from the expanding and contracting from firing and resizing. The other advantage in theory is that by having the tolerances so tight in the neck and having the bullet just seat in the lands when the round is chambered there is no room for any kind of bullet misalignment. Whereas, if you had .005 neck clearance your bullet could be slightly misaligned when the round was chambered.

I think that is why this particular gun shoots so many different loads really well. As long as you don't use anything over 50gr in a bullet (1 in 14" twist) its easy to find loads that are sub 1/2" at a 100. Its pet loads are sub 1/4 at 100.

With the popularity of long range shooting and prairie dog shooting I would think that there would be plenty of accuracy nuts still around. When I was a kid it was hard to find anyone outside my house who knew much about ballistics and serious hand loading. But now with the internet and all the info readily available I would think there are more guys around who could handle wildcat loads. A lot of the serious dog shooters are even developing heir own wildcats now days. Granted most of them are large caliber for really reaching out there. Heck those Allan boys are regularly hitting prairie dogs in excess of 2000 yards with their own wildcats.

Dang!!!! I got to get a prairie dog trip planned for this summer. :gwh:

Would any of you guys happen to be ranchers who needs the P-dog pack thinned a little?

Ray