Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 250 Savage Ackley Improved

Will a 250-3000 Ackley fit into a 99 mag and feed correctly without a lot of work? My brother has a 99 250-3000 TD built in 1915 and he is thinking about having it improved? Primarily he wants to get better brass life and not having to trim so often. Good idea or bad idea?

Thanks for your help.

I wouldn't do it on that action, just because that's an early one. If it would work, I'd do it on a post 1960 action that has the 1:10 twist that would optimize the use of longer bullets. Again, I don't know if it will work? Joe.

Seems to me that Ackley Improved cartridges have straightened case walls and/or steeper angles in the shoulder. All this is to get more powder in the case. Also seems to me that you pick up a little more velocity but nothing really worth writing home about in most Ackley Improved cartridges. My advice would be to leave the TD alone and get a .243 if he wants to stay in the "bore range" and have a hotter cartridge. If he hand loads and is streatching cases then I'd also advise backing down on the charge until it pretty much goes away. AIs came out in a time when people didn't have a lot of extra income to fill basements full of firearms and it represented a reasonable way to increase the performance of your rifle without spending the amount of money it took to buy another one. But most of us don't seem live under those economic constructions anymore so go forth and celebrate your buying power with another rifle. I guess I fall down on the bad idea side of the fence.

PS - I'd also play with other powders because that technology has came a long way since the day of AI cartridges.

250 AI will work just fine in a 99 with the right parts. I can feed 250 AI cartridges thru a 300 Savage w/o a hiccup btw. Don't think I'd use that action though.

I remember reading PO ACkley and others and the general feeling was back in the day that the improved cartridges with their straighter sidewalls "clung" to the chamber walls better, and actually exhibited less bolt thrust than a heavily tapered cartridge. Is this still the belief amongst the heavy hitters?

His is not a collectible anymore. It had been re-blued and the stock was refinished before he bought it. So, the re-chamber will not harm it’s value.

I'd still put the money towards another rifle. The .250 has a cult following and someone else may want it just to get into that cartridge, especially if the deal was good enough. Anyway, since you asked this is just something else to chew on and best of luck in your friend's adventures into the land of AI.

I'm just sitting here thinking back on my playing with the 250 AI cartridges in 99's, which has been a few years ago now. As I remember it now, they didn't feed in all 300's or 308's, but only some of them. That was and is a mystery to me.

Find a few 250 AI bullets, load it up and see if they feed okay. If so, find yourself a 2nd 250-3000 takedown barrel to modify to AI and have a 2 barrel gun. Just remember which bullets go in which barrel.

They will both take the same bullets.

Damn good solution /|\ !!!

Calhoun meant "cartridges" I'm sure. And that's just what you need to do -- see if the AI cartridges will function fine in the magazine or if they are just enough fatter to hang the rotor a bit (I have this trouble in a 303 Savage action that got redone to 35 Remington which is a "fatter" cartridge than the original 303). My guess is the improved cartridges will work fine.

Calhoun got all pussy hurt on another thread about semantics and then uses the word 'BULLETS' for cartridges.

I'm pretty sure Calhoun can defend himself, but thanks dad.

Regardless of semantics I got the two barrel concept. its a good idea.

A lot of Savage 99,s have large chambers so case on firing stretches.

My tang safety 99 250 was so bad I sold it about
2 firings on new cases before problems started mild loads.

250 3000 case has a lot of taper in a large chamber its asking for short case life.

Calhoun was running on 3 hours of sleep after troubleshooting problems all night and didn't feel like wasting time on an old, retired troll who never positively contributes and who gets his jollies from hassling folks. I'm human, I screw up all the time, glad I can bring some joy to your empty existence.

Still short on sleep, Easter weekend with family ruined, need to go fishing.

First of all, a 1915 .250-3000 vintage receiver should be able to handle a .250AI just fine. Savage upped the ante in their receiver alloys at that time. Reference a recent thread on that subject. Besides, unless you're an idiot you won't be running higher pressures than the norm anyway, regardless if it's an AI chambering.

If case life is an issue, I submit that one of two scenarios (or both) is in play. Excessively hot loads, or excessive headspace. I would check headspace first and re-evaluate my loads if not shooting factory stuff. (Of course if all that was being used were factory loads I guess case life wouldn't be an issue.) Don't say "I'm a grain under max book loads" either- such loads may be fine in one gun and excessive in another. Savage 99's don't take kindly to hot rodding due to their inherent "springiness" for lack of a better term. Even under the best of circumstances you won't get the kind of case life with a 99 that you would, say, with a tightly headspaced bolt action.

A new longer bolt may be all you need.

Personally I would think long and hard before AI'ing this thing.