Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 257 Ackley Improved

Looking for better case fill than 4831 gives, using 100-115g.
Is anyone using 7828 or H-1000???

RL 19 and IMR 7828 both but 19 gave better accuracy and just as good velocity wise. You might try the new 4451 JB's been using. Also IMR 4350 gave me the best velocity but I could never get it to settle down and give decent accuracy. Most any decent load is going to be a little compressed. Mine is a cut down 20in 722 that has been a faithful companion for 30 years now. Killed many Texas whitetails over the years w/115gr BT's. powdr

My accuracy isn't where i would like it to be, so am searching for alternatives. I will give RL19 a go. My thoughts were a powder slower than the H4831 i have been using. Maybe that is the wrong approach.

I have been using H4831sc in mine for at least 15 years and have never found any reason to switch.

Another H4831sc fan...mine with 120gr bullets.

I've been shooting several 257 Ackleys for over thirty years and after lots of chronograph and accuracy testing found my perfect powder back in the late 80's with the heavier bullets. It was H-450 and it gave me the best velocity, case density and accuracy of anything on the market at the time. As a ball or spherical powder it was a pleasure to meter and work with. Kind of batch sensitive but not bad. It's no longer available but I've got two pounds left then I'll probably fall back on RE-19 which was next best.

I started to load some up w/Midhen's load but since I had RL19 and it's been killin deer for 25 years...I just stayed w/it. powdr

I could load the old 120 Hornady HP way out in a Mod 700 257 Bob reamed to the Ackley. I shot a case full of IMR4350.

The 120gr Hornady HP is a wonderful bullet. Can't believe they discontinued it (or the 100gr). Fortunately, I stocked up and still use the 120 HP in my 257AI.

I had a guy at a gun show tell me one time the deadliest deer bullet he ever used was the .257 Sierra 90gr BT. I'd have never thought that. powdr

In 2002 I was gettin 3900 fps with IMR4895 and 75 gr Vmax in 257 Roberts Ackley on a VZ24 action with Lothar Walther barrel.

But the brass did not last long. The primer pockets got lose.

Normally I would not care much, but I had to form that brass with cream of wheat:(

I've heard that before too, Powdr.

H4831 worked really well w/ 115s & heavier in mine, IMR-4350 w/ 100s, RL15 w/ <100s.

I ended up narrowing it all down to Ramshot Hunter for 100s & heavier & Big Game for <100.

I never really figured out what a >100 could do that a 100 couldn’t with deer.

When you can pick your shot so that the POA is behind the shoulder, they work really well, when they work.

The catch being that they don't always work and can come apart on impact, resulting in very little penetration.

I used them successfully for more than a decade, but when I had a couple of bullet failures, bullets that came apart on impact and didn't penetrate through the rib cage and into the lungs. I decided that, for me, a clean kill was important enough for me to stop using the 90 grain Sierra BTHP and seek out a bullet, or bullets, that I was more confident in. I found that confidence in the 100 grain BT and Partition and particularly in the 110 grain AB.

There is an interesting one for sale at https://www.gunbroker.com/item/802177340

H4350 and 117-120s worked well in my rifle.

I liked IMR-4350 with 100gr. Hornady’s and it smoked antelope like lightning. I wanted to kill an elk with that rifle and switched to a 115gr Partition with RL-19. Killed a cow elk at about 175yds with the load. She took about 4 steps then fell backwards dead! My rifle was the most accurate with RL-19. I think it was made for heavier bullets in the 257 Ackley!

Elk Country

The stock looks like it has so much drop that you'd need a lantern jaw, like Jay Leno, to shoot it with a scope.

that made me laugh...

OSU, while I don't shoot it in my 257AI...I shoot the old 90gr X in my 250Ackley at 3250fps. Never lost a deer and had only a few even take a step. The 250Ackley has always impressed me more than the 257AI...just doesn't do as well w/the heavies. powdr