Chamberings
(Other Chamberings)

There are literally hundreds of chamberings to choose from. For most big game hunting I feel that factory chamberings are the best choice. This is simply because you can get factory ammunition to hunt with in an emergency. With wildcats, you are in trouble if your ammo gets lost. There are factory chamberings that will suit your purpose for virtually all of your hunting, everything from varmints to elephants.

There are two categories of non-standard cartridges, wildcats and improved cartridges. An improved cartridge is one with non-standard dimensions that is formed by firing a standard factory cartridge in the chamber of the rifle. The case is then “blown out” to fit the improved chamber. The new cases can then be reloaded using dies cut for the improved chambering. The advantage of improved chamberings is increased case capacity and corresponding increased velocity. Another advantage is that if you lose your ammo on a trip you can use factory ammo and continue your hunt. Wildcat cartridges are ones that require extensive forming of a parent case through a series of dies that change the shape of the case so that it will fit into the chamber of the rifle. Many of them also require neck turning or reaming. The parent case will not fit into the chamber of the rifle so wildcats are a handloading only proposition.

We chamber for dozens of wildcats. They can be very interesting to work with and should be reserved for the serious handloader. They are definitely not for some one that is just beginning. I personally stay away from them because of the time involved in working on them.

Improved chamberings are a good compromise because you can still shoot factory ammunition in them. There are some wonderful choices among them. One of my all time favorites is the .250 Ackley, which is an improved version of the .250 Savage. It is a big velocity improvement over the .250 Savage and  a   wonderful deer cartridge. Another big favorite is the .280 Ackley. I have shot hundreds of these and it  is  a real performer.

Below are my some of my recommendations of cartridges for various hunting:

Varmint - .223 Rem., .22-250 Rem., .22-250 Ackley, .220 Ackley,
                .243 Ack.  6mm Rem. Improved

Deer -    .250 Ackley, .25-06 Ackley, .257 Wthby., .270 Win, .280 Ackley,
                7mm Rem Mag, .30-06, .300 Win Mag.

Antelope - .257 Wthby, 7mm Rem. Mag., 7mm STW, .300Win.

Elk -       7mm Rem Mag, .300 Win Mag, .300 Jarrett, .340 Wthby,
                .338 Win Mag, .338 Jarrett

 Below are some performance figures of some of our most popular cartridges:

.22-250 Ackley - 4100 fps with a 50 grain bullet

.220 Ackley -  4200 fps with a 50 grain bullet

.22-284   -   5000 fps with a 40 grain bullet

.250 Ackley - 3200 fps with a 100 grain bullet

.257 Laser - 3850 fps with a 100 grain bullet

.280 Ackley - 3200 fps with a 140 grain bullet

 7mm Rem Mag - 3300 fps with a 140 grain bullet

 7mm STW - 3400 fps with a 140 grain bullet

.300 Jarrett - 3500 fps with a 165 grain bullet

Of course these figures will vary from gun to gun, but these are from guns that were chronographed shortly before this was written.

     We have also included on this site a list of cartridges that we chamber for. For a custom rifle, we will chamber for any cartridge that you want, including any not on our list. For a re-barrel job, the customer will have to pay for at least 1/2 the cost of a reamer if it is not on our list. If it is a really outlandish chambering, we might charge the customer for the complete cost of the reamer.