lancetkenyon Report post Posted June 21, 2016 A gunsmith here on the site and I have been talking for a while, and he developed a new wildcat. Very similar to the 6.5-06 Ackley Imp., but using the .270 Win neck and case lengths. Not sure what he will name the cartridge yet, but it is a 6.5-.270 Ackley Imp. 40°. He built the rifle for a long range deer and medium range elk rifle. Started with a Rem 700 BDL LA action, added a PTG recoil lug, 28" finished length Benchmark #3 fluted barrel (that will eventually have an APA Micro Bastard brake) w. a 1 in 8" twist, Timney Calvin Elite trigger, and B&C medalist stock in a Weatherby contour. I am not sure what all work he did to the action. So hopefully he will chime in if I misspoke on anything. Anyways, he brought me the rifle to do some load development on. He had taken it out and put 20 rounds down the pipe to break in the barrel, and brought me the fired and fire formed cases. Along with 45 other virgin brass. Specs on loads: Hornady virgin .270 Win brass was weight sorted, and culled just a couple that were more than 2 gr. out of range. I prepped it all by running them through the die set to neck it down from .277 to .264 and putting a hint of a false shoulder on the .270 Win shoulder, uniformed the primer pockets, and annealing the necks/shoulders. You can just see the start of a false shoulder. I took a fired brass and checked seating depth to lands on 5 different bullets. 140 SMK, 142 SMK, 142 NABLR, 140 Hybrid, 140 HVLD, and recorded all the info. I also checked the case length to shoulder of the fired case and set the die up to bump the shoulder back .0015" to 2.1000", which then fed the cases very smoothly. Primed all the virgin brass with CCI 200 LR primers, and the fire formed cases with some Rem 9 1/2 mag primers I had on hand. Using RL22 which I use in my .25-06 Ackley, I charged up all of the virgin brass with a near max load for the 6.5-06 case per the Berger book. Then loaded up rounds for fire forming using 5 different bullet types. 15 @ Berger 140 Hybrids for sight in with 5 and 2 groups of 5 for accuracy potential 10 @ 142 NABLR 5 @ 142 SMK 5 @ 140 SMK 10 @ 140 HVLD Then loaded up a ladder test using the once fired brass with some 140 HVLDs just touching the lands. Dang that is sexy... Since I was going to be shooting for hopefully small groups, I swapped my Kahles 6-24 w. the SKMR reticle on the rifle. And told my buddy not to get too attached to it. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
muledeerarea33? Report post Posted June 21, 2016 Does it fill a niche or is it just a fun project that hadn't been done yet? Looks cool as heck! A lot of wild cats are an answer withou a question. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeke-BE Report post Posted June 21, 2016 Awesome!! I thought about this with my .270. I'm interested in how it turns out 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lancetkenyon Report post Posted June 21, 2016 Range day: Variable winds, from about 10:00 to 4:00 o'clock positions, maybe 5-8mph. Temps ranged from 82 to 93°. Baro was 28.11. My first fire-formed case on the left, virgin case on the right. I love this part... First 140 Hybrid velocity with fire forming rounds. Not screamers, but decent with blowing out the shoulders on a clean, cold, oiled bore. Not bad for a clean cold bore shot and the next 4 shots The rifle and the shooter settled in and started going to work. A 5 shot group with the 140 Hybrids. Another 5 shot group with varying winds. 140 HVLDs 142 SMKs 140 SMKs The best group I got with the 142 NABLRs was about 1.25", and the second group was over 1.5". Ugh. I then took the 3 lightest charge weight loads of the fire-formed "Ackleyed" cases just to see where velocities were going to come in with a case that actually fit the chamber. This is the 2nd lightest load in the ladder test. These are 3 different charge weights of RL22 using the 140 HVLD, with absolutely no load development yet. Shows some promise. Don't mind the neighbor's hole to the left, as they were bouncing .25 Auto, 9mm, and .40 rounds through my target on occasion..... I got everything home, recorded all the data, resized all the brass and it is in my tumbler that is dying a slow death after 10s of thousands of rounds, even a lot of overnight tumbling. But....I got a new tumbler for Dad's Day, so all is right in the world! To be continued..... 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lancetkenyon Report post Posted June 21, 2016 Does it fill a niche or is it just a fun project that hadn't been done yet? Looks cool as heck! A lot of wild cats are an answer withou a question. Just something a bit different. Really, not much different than a 6.5-06 Ackley that anyone could tell performance-wise, except the slightly longer body and neck of the .270 Win might just have a bit of a leg up on inherent accuracy potential. But probably not enough that many, if any, shooters could realize. But the Ackley Improved version sure gets better speeds than the standard 6.5-06 round, that can't be denied. And much better case life and case prep work is reduced greatly with the 40° shoulder too. The bad thing is I already have 2 short action 6.5mm rounds, a .260 Rem and a 6.5 SLR that both shoot lights out. And now I want one of these too!!! Hard to beat adding 250-300 fps to the same bullet you currently shoot. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike S Report post Posted June 21, 2016 I'd try H1000 with the 140s. Should get good speed w/o the temp issues of RL22. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cjl2010 Report post Posted June 21, 2016 Lance, if you offer in house financing I could take that 260 off your hands!! Interest free of course! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lancetkenyon Report post Posted June 21, 2016 Thanks Zeke, for pointing out that I totally forgot to mention the part about necking down the .270 Win brass from .277 to .264 when I sized the virgin brass. Doh. For those that don't get what an "Ackley" chamber does: Take a standard case like a 6.5-06 that is just a .270 Win necked down from .277" to .264". You load your bullet of choice, and powder of choice. Put the standard cartridge in your rifle chamber and shoot it. The Ackley chamber will allow your case to stretch to fit the new chamber, and come out "fire-formed" to the new chamber dimensions. An Ackley version does a few things. Removes he majority of body taper out. With the 06 line, there is not much t begin with, but case like the .250 Savage with a strong body taper, this alone adds about 5-10% or more of case capacity. It still spaces off the shoulder to neck junction, and leaves it in place. But the shoulder to body junction moves forward, and sharpens the shoulder to 40° vs. the 22° of the standard case. All of this can net between 4-20+% more case capacity over the parent case. Meaning more space for powder, and more speed at the same pressures. Plus, much better case life due to the 40° shoulder not allowing the case to stretch and flow, and less case prep as well. Cases go in like the round on the right, and after firing, stretch to fit the chamber and come out like the case on the left. Viola'! Fire formed Ackley cases that are now ready for reloading in the new Ackley Improved cartridge. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Douglas-gun-guy Report post Posted June 21, 2016 Thanks for putting the load work up lance! And for developing the load for us. Really enjoyed building that rifle and will be doing another soon for our switch barrel. Lance is a great guy y'all! One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WampusCat Report post Posted June 21, 2016 I'll be interested to see what max safe speeds you can squeeze from that thing. And how the long neck mitigates the throat erosion. I love fast 6.5's. I built my 6.5 SAUM to do similar things but with the hope of longer barrel life. When you can get a bullet with a BC near or above .6 moving at 3100+ you are "doin work" ! Would def try some H1000 or RL26 in that case too. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hoss50 Report post Posted June 21, 2016 Very nice work as usual Lance. I will be watching this for sure. I have always wanted to build a 6.5x06 so this is very near what I am looking for. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cell4soul Report post Posted June 21, 2016 Being new to reloading, I really appreciate your post.....good work. I will being keeping track of this one to gain some more knowledge from your expertise. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
STOMP442 Report post Posted June 21, 2016 I've been on the inside track on this build via text with Chris and he's built a nice rifle that shoots just as good as it looks. I am starting another build for a friend / client of mine in 6.5-06AI. Got all the components ordered up last night. Bartlien #3 27" 5R 8 twist blank, 200 Berger 140 Hybrids, Leupold VX3I 6.5-20x50 and a Boyds featherweight thumbhole stock. Going to be built on a tang safety Ruger M77. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CWpredator Report post Posted June 21, 2016 What dies are you using for this round? Assuming they had to be custom order dies? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Douglas-gun-guy Report post Posted June 21, 2016 What dies are you using for this round? Assuming they had to be custom order dies? they're standard 6.5-06AI 40° dies. Lance ground the shellholder down, for FL sizing.We will have custom dies made. Wanted to prove the concept. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
