For starters I'm new here, but glad to be here.

I just purchased a remington 700 VLS in 22-250. Has a Zeiss 6.5-20 x 50 target scope(very nice scope btw, my first zeiss). Suprised the heck out of me for out of the box. Now, have two friends down here/gunsmiths, telling me two different things. You see I am going to wildcat the gun and have two good options. First off....One says to go with the Ackley. The other says to do the Whompas Kitty. Question is this; Have you guys heard of this caliber? The kitty is basically a .243 necked down. Ron's thinking is that the brass is much better and easier to come by. Still have to fireform the cases though, but he says that the elongation and stretch is much better in the .243 case than the 22-250. He states that the velocity that he shoots this at is 4100 fps and could be some more. Would like to have some other input before I put the reamer in the bore.

Thanks so much

Dale

It's your gun, and your choice... but if you do either of the listed mods, put aside about $1 per shot, so you can buy a new barrel when you need it.

Denton,

Yeah, unfortunately I know about the barrel. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the stock barrel should be good for what....say about 2,000-3,0000 rounds. This is acutally a good thing in my regard though because of the 1-14 twist in the stock barrel. Really would like to re-barrel right now so I could shoot the heavier bullets, but the gun is new. Kinda hard to justify right now.

Have you heard of this specific caliber? If so, what would be your thoughts if any?

Again....Thanks for your time

Dale

It's really hard to predict, but some of the really hot wildcats give barrel life measured in hundreds of shots, rather than thousands.

According to a friend who sells guns, it is pretty common for people to buy a 22-250, and shoot it until the groups start to open up, then trade it. I think that even the basic 22-250 is a bit of a barrel burner.

What you've got sounds like a very nice setup. Have you thought of running a few thousand rounds through it, and rebarreling when you start to get some wear?

There are people on here who know a heck of a lot more about those wildcats than I do. Maybe one of them will chime in with a recommendation.

In any case, good luck, and have fun.

I had a 220 Swift in the shop about 2 years ago that the owner said wouldn't shoot. It wouldn't. He thought maybe the bore was shot out. Very bad case of metal fouling in the bore. Cleaned it out and it shot like new again.