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

Hi Dale and welcome aboard,

I'm kind of a traditionalist stick-in-the-mud so I haveta wonder why you want to move away from the original chambering? The difference between all three mentioned rounds doesn't amount to much ballistically, given that I can push several mollied pills that fast out of my 700 .22-250.

I'm a big fan of standardized stuff, cheap available brass and avoiding trading field time for bench time, but that's just me.

I'll bet the rig you have right now is as good or better than what you'll have several dollars down the road.

Cheers!

Redial

I'm cheap.

I'd shoot it either as is or in AI. Maybe 3000 rounds down the road, when the throat gets rocky, I'd rechamber to the longer .243 based case and shoot it some more.

You really can have your cake and eat it, too.

Thanks for the response Redial.

You make a very good point about leaving it be and I may just do that. The main reason I thought about it was a friend has the Ackley with a hart barrel with the uuuuhhhhh.....9" rate of twist. I think that is right. Anyway, he shoots a 80gr bullet like in the 4100-4200 fps range. I think that is right as well. I have shot that gun on several occasions and it is truly impressive. That gun is what started all of this. So it's his fault.

You stated that you were shooting that currently with a standard 22-250 right now. WOW! Have you experienced any problems with brass shooting that fast????? Also, how is the accuracy? One more thing.......I'll give you a buffalo nickle for that recipe.

I had never heard of the Whompas Kitty before. Ron Freshour down in here in Houston(my other smith buddy) is the one that pioneered it back in 1969, he told me. He was telling me about all the experemental test he did with the caliber and it was fascinating. Talk of vapor trails and bullets blowing up. The last one is scary, but he really raves about it. I don't know if anyone here has heard of this gentleman, but to me he is the bible of guns and shooting. If it has been done he either started it or he has done it. It is a shame he doesn't do the puter thing because he is a wealth of knowledge. I know I'm talking him up, but he is a fantastic person. Anyway, he insist that this chamber is the cat's behind for varmint hunting so that's why I contemplated it in the first place. My thinking was that well shoot someone has got to know about this if it so good. Unfortunately, I haven't found a single piece of info on this yet....ohter than what the originator told me.

I'll keep looking so that I will be informed when I decide what to do.

Again.....Thanks

Dale

Howdy!

Mr Freshour's name is one many will recognize. Good to have a competent mentor!

Some of the 1000 yard stoolshooters up this way have put together fast twist .22-250's (long, boring winter...) and I understand others have done well in some Canadian Fullbore F-class kinda matches.

If you're shooting a factory Rem heavy barrel like I am, I may be able to save you some aggravation. Cryo it immediately. That'll cure its tendency to walk all over the target as it gets hotter/cooler. That one drove me nuts.

Second, don't sweat seating depth too much as your throat probably starts out by the sling swivel somewhere if it's anything like mine.

Lastly, if it's as rough as mine (looks like 26 inches of Korean highway), stick with mollied bullets or fouling will kill accuracy after about 12 - 15 rounds. I can get 100+ before cleaning with uniform accuracy throughout.

I may be off, but I think Kenny Jarrett makes something similar to the Whompass called the Jaybird. The newest Hodgdon manual covers that one.

My data involves WW brass and primers, mollied 52 - 55 grain Sierras, Hornadys and Bergers and (strangely) a known lot of GI pulldown 4895, seated 2.450"-ish. I got 40 V-max's going WAY fast but didn't follow thru on load workup.

HTH

Redial

I had a 22-250 AI and found out it was more trouble than it was worth to me. Their pretty finniky. Mine was a Mauser action with a Hart barrel. One thing I do know is you won't get 4000 fps. out of one with an 80 gr. bullet. I was getting 4000 out of mine with a 50 gr. bullet and it showed pressure signs. Your VLS will shoot .300 groups easily once you experiment with different loadings the way it is. Thats what really counts. Just my experience.

Redial wrote: "I'm a big fan of standardized stuff, cheap available brass and avoiding trading field time for bench time, but that's just me.

I'll bet the rig you have right now is as good or better than what you'll have several dollars down the road."

I just wanted to say that these seem like words of wisdom, and I totally concur.

Dan

I may have the details wrong but as I recall, one of the .22/.243's was called the .224 Clark and was intended to shoot heavy bullets(70-90?). Another was the .22 Barnes QT. I think it used a 1:5 twist with 125 gr bullets, around 2700-2800 fps. Alledgedly penetration and LONG range performance were impressive. The .243 case holds an awful lot of powder for the .224 bore, and maybe barrel life would be...brief? Fleeting? Yes, I like fleeting. Just seems to have the right ring, don't you think?