Thoughts of 25-35 Ackley Improved loads

[ohland]

“Are Wildcats Dead?”, 1962 Gun Digest, page 206, P.O. Ackley

K) Imp. 25-35 (Rimmed) As with the others, there are several improved versions. Some are called by fancy names, like many wildcats, but they're all just pooshed-out 25-35's. The illustration shows the Ackley version, which features the sharp 40° shoulder and minimum body taper. This one could be described as a maximum 25-35 since it would he difficult or impractical to produce a case of greater volume from this size brass. These maximum versions have the same trouble fire-forming that the Imp. Zipper does - actually it is practically impossible, thus cases must be made from 30-30 or 32 Special brass. The result is well-worth the trouble though, because it is a most surprising cartridge. Like other wildcats stemming from the 30-30 family, it does wonders for the 99 Savage. Like the 6mm/30-30. it can be used in all lever action rifles made for any of the rimmed series.

90 gr.
34 grs. of 3031 - 3046 fps
37 grs. of 3031 – 3253 fps
39 grs. of 3031 – 3296 fps
40 grs. of 4320 – 3134 fps

100
36 grs. of 3031 - 3060 fps
36 grs. of 4064 - 2976 fps
38 grs. of 4320 – 3129 fps

125
32 grs. of 3031 – 2637 fps
34 grs. of 4320 – 2576 fps
36 grs. of 4320 – 2764 fps
36 grs. of 4350 – 2576 fps

[Reg]

Through the years I have managed to play with a couple of Ackleys creations, the last being the 25 Ackley Krag Imp., 40 degree.
Now Parker, while he started earlier, got really cooking at the end of WW-2. His ideas actually helped create a lot of what we know about high performance cartridges today, he was a ground breaker in thought and design. Must also remember that the times were different, liability laws were not as they are now and a lot of things like dies. etc., were cheaper. Also while he did have access to cronograph's and pressure reading equipment, we do know he "winged" some of his concepts.
I think he "improved" about everything. If he did do the .22 Long Rifle I am sure it looked like a unsharpened pencil necked to .17 caliber.
Getting back to the Ackley Krag, I think it was about like every other improved version I or others that I knew played with. It was one hot number. On a good day it would set the grass in front of the bench on fire for at least 100 feet. It required a good degree of skill to create the casing and care in loading especially getting near the top. While accuracy was good, my 22-250 would consistently out shoot it. The performance was there but in the field my 250 Savage did about the same and weighed less. I never told the wife what I wound up paying for the form and reloading dies and we will not talk about the chambering reamer.
Was never happy with case life, would quickly burn out especially with those upper loads.
I could go on and on but the jist of it was it was my final experience with Ackley. I still play with wildcats and always will but have learned of better ways to have something different, ways that cost much less and are much easier to sell when we are done playing with them.

Then again, a long time ago a fellow gave me a bunch of baby pigs. Just gave them to me. When I asked why he said that everyone needs to raise pigs at least once and that way they know for sure if they want to raise pigs or not.

Not gona raise any more pigs either.

Everyone needs to do it at least once.

[ohland]

Already looked at the reloading dies. And the form dies. Ow-ow-ow. BUT using 30-30 brass, size in the 7-30, then final size in the 25-35 AI dies... My Dad is looking at a decent performer for the Contender. From what I see, this should be the equivalent of the 7-30, but able to use the smaller 25 caliber for better BC. He wants to go out about 250 yards with this combo.

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

I'm muddling thru a similar problem. A local gun shop had this beautiful (if you like Baroque/Weatherby styling in a 13lb Rifle) birdseye maple stock with a couple of inlays, and heavy, heavy barrel in some sort of 22 wildcat. DST's, about a hundred feet of checkering, and rosewood grip cap and forend. Just gorgeous. Made by Vickery in Boise, likely in the early fifties. It has a really neat old Bausch & Lomb 6-24X Balvar external adjustment scope on it. It came with a tong tool and cases made out of various iterations of the 30-30 family. I shopped the gun shows, and bought a couple sets of forming and reloading dies. After awhile, I gave in and had a chamber cast made and measured the bolt face.
The rifle had (apparently) originally been chambered for the 25 0r 30 Remington necked down to .22 cf, and had a .496"+/- bolt face diameter. I have crushed about a dozen of the Federal 30 American cases trying to get one to fit.

The barrel still looks new, but the case necks are splitting by about my third reload. Annealing does no good.

Good Luck! with yours,

Rich

[ohland]

The rifle had (apparently) originally been chambered for the 25 0r 30 Remington necked down to .22 cf, and had a .496"+/- bolt face diameter. I have crushed about a dozen of the Federal 30 American cases trying to get one to fit.Rich

.496? Typo? Larger than the .473 case uses.

[Plumb Center]

I have a 25-35 Ackley in a 26" Win 1894 rifle. Bought it years ago and it came with the form die set. I shoots pretty good with 117 RN jacketed bullets, but have to use no more than a 90 g. cast as the short Ackley neck won't accommodate long bullets without intruding into the powder space. The case capacity is the same as 250-3000. I reduced 250 data by 10% to start. My best jacketed load chronos at about 2500fps which is a considerable improvement over 25-35 Win. Still, I wouldn't spend the money to build one up. Bought this one cheap.
Jim