Saguaro

WTB a left hand 22-250 Ackley Improved with a 26” barrel and a 1:8 twist. Looking for a Cooper or a custom build. A Terminus action is desired if custom, but willing to hear what you have.

Just like you said, full length, chamfer and go. For the next loads, I will anneal and bump shoulder, neck size, expand then I will neck turn, chamfer and load. Chamfer helps with the flat base Bergers and it’s not really necessary for boat tails. I used to mess with pockets and flash hole prep, but I didn’t see any advantage in my grouping where I did with annealing and neck turning. At least nothing noticeable with the Lapua brass, others, yes. Cleaning, I always use a sonic cleaner because it’s the right size for up to 200 pieces and that’s about what I load in one sitting. Shininess is not the most important thing to me, but the lube needs to be cleaned off. Before I charge powder, I brush the inside of the necks with a 22 cal cleaning brush on a case prep center. I feel the annealing, turning and brushing are important tasks for consistent neck tension. I have had luck with halfway full length sizing. Make sure you check measurements as you go on the brass because I have seen some vary mor than .004 before. You may want to checkout the dies they have now. In the past year, I replaced a lot of the ones I have with interchangeable bushings for seating and sizing and they work better than the old RCBS or conventional Redding or lee of yesteryear. I won’t claim to know everything, I am looking to expand just like you.

Get Lapua brass whenever that’s possible, but Lapua doesn’t make everything. There is no better brass out there. Well some come close. I can’t get Lapua in 22 Hornet so I bought 4 different brands to fire form my 22 K Hornet. Of the 4, Hornady was the only one where 100% survived the fire forming. Nosler was the worst at about 50%. I stocked up on a lot of 223 cartridges a few years back and have about 5 different head stamps in multiples of a few hundred. 223 happens to be my favorite in a bolt action and it’s not unusual for me to go through 400 in a few weeks, I just enjoy it that much. Lapua has always been the most accurate, dependable, and longest lasting with about 10 loads so far on one set I have of 100, and a few hundred other Lapua are holding up to loads and accuracy as well as can be expected. All of the others, even with my best prep, loading and careful shooting leaves a lot to be desired in accuracy. I would say the best thing is to scrap all other brass and use Lapua only. It took me a lot of experimenting to figure that out, but it will be money well spent.

Leupold is a set it and leave it scope and they are great for that. If dials are desired, pick something else. I too have had problems with the vx6. I have a Schmidt & Bender and it has never had a problem with dialing. I hear Nightforce is good, but I can’t comment on them because I don’t have one yet, I may get one for my next dialed scope, not sure yet since S&B has proven themselves to me.

I went to the gun show there today. Kind of mediocre but still fun. Those small town shows have a different yet better feeling than the big city ones. Good luck if you have the September any elk hunt. If that’s why you ask. I’m checking places too.

This really is one of the better deals I’ve seen in a while. Whoever got this, congratulations. You have a great cartridge, gun and scope. I think the reason didn’t sell as fast is because it wasn’t one of the new 22 cartridges and it didn’t have a Vortex scope on it.

If Hornady was really wanting to be helpful, I think they could have accomplished all of that with the .260, 6.5x47 and maybe the 6.5x 284. If they improved upon existing cartridges or chambers I would accept that. Now they have to take up shelf space and manufacturing lots to make something we already have. I get that new bullets and powder will keep getting better, but wish they would make those bullets to adapt to stuff out there. Like I said, I’m guilty too. I’m not disappointed I bought the 6.5 Creedmoor, but I’m a long ways away from saying it’s better than the other three I mentioned. Seekins and Bergara could have built those to keep up with the new bullets out there, a lot of that is chamber specs and twist rate. I see that other makers are keeping up with the bullets out there since we all have to have the heavier bullets now. Ruger and others are making faster twist barrels in their off the shelf rifles that I didn’t see a long time ago because of our heavy bullet craving.

I keep thinking the 30-06 will make a comeback. I’ve been thinking that for years now. I actually like it and I will have a 30-06AI built in the next few years. But now I think it’s done. Like one of the guys said, go find your grandpas 06. The younger people will grow up thinking the same thing. The makers like Hornady, Nosler and the others are great at marketing and know we will eat up a new cartridge if it’s talked about in the press as the greatest new thing. I’m all about freedom, do what you want, but be careful calling it the best when the difference is minor between each one. Especially the capability of each one. Take a close look at all of the 30 caliber magnum types. Just to name a few, the RUM, Weatherby, Win Mag, PRC, and Nosler only have minor advantages or disadvantages and not enough for anybody to say one is better than the other, and someone that’s had one for only the few years it’s been out can’t say it’s better than any of the others. What it amounts to is the load development you make of each one that makes it special, not the name of the cartridge or +- fps and it seems like it’s the name we latch on to. This is not uncommon for a certain cartridge to become popular. When I was young, Sako, And Ruger made the 6mm PPC and it was a hot new item. Now, probably no one knows WTF that is. We all saw the 7-08 become the best thing for kids and when I was young, it was the 270. How many people buy a .270 over a 7-08 now? Not many I bet. The .270 is another grandpa’s gun.

It’s name is kind of worn out. I bet if it had a few minor changes to it and a flashy name like the new trendy ones it would become instantly popular like the Creedmoor. The Creedmoor can’t lose. People are now making it 22, 25, and 243 caliber and can’t seem to get enough of it and if you look closely at each one, they are no different than existing cartridges like the 22-250, 250 savage and 243. But we get bored easily and need to have something new to talk about. I’m guilty too. I had to have the 6.5 Creedmoor when it was new almost 14 years ago and I didn’t know any better.

If you think about it, this would be a great con to get into if you were that type of person. You would just have to come up with a better method. From what I’ve seen here and other places, is that we want nice stuff dirt cheap. You see that with a lot of WTB posts of people wanting something like a Ruger American when a new one is $380 expecting to find one for less. So if you dangle a Swarovski in front of us and ask to make an offer, we almost can’t help ourselves.

I would stay with the 30-06. Some of the reasons are that it is more available than the newer sexy cartridges out there in everything like brass and even quality brass like Lapua. I have lots of 30-06 brass and I don’t even have one. That tells me I would never run out or have the need to find some if I did. I get leftovers from people that don’t reload and there’s more that shoot the 06 than the newer ones. I’m sure I won’t get any leftovers of PRC or Nosler cartridges. It also keeps getting better and better with some of the new powders coming out, at least I notice more of a gain than what it was capable of 20 years ago. 30 caliber bullets keep getting better. You can reload for it and get about 125 cartridges out of a pound of powder and that’s better than the magnums where you will get about 80-100. The argument that it’s not a 1000 yard rifle is crazy. It’s still supersonic at 1000 yards. Also, I think it’s just cool. I plan on a 30-06 AI soon and it will be a long range/target rifle that will never go on a hunt.

The first edition doesn’t have the 184 grain 7mm bullet. It stops on the 180 grain for all of the 7mm cartridges.

Nor sure what you’re loading for, but I used lil gun in two different cartridges and A 1680 seems to be a better powder. You can find it a little more available at the usual online places.

No, that one was entirely me. If they had an opinion it wasn’t vocal, however I feel they would advise against it. I got burned out working 16 years in the valley and wanted to get back to enjoying more of the outdoors on more than a weekend or two here or there.

I’m going to have to cancel my parents too. When I was growing up, there was all kinds of irresponsibility. They actually let me ride my bike without a helmet and let me ride unbuckled, and standing in the car, and even would allow me and my friends to ride in the back of the truck.