OK, I got a great nights sleep and will write a bit of what I know about the 6.5-.280 Ackley Improved.
Please, no flames; I've been in lurk-mode on the Campfire for several weeks. It seemed that everything I said was wrong, so I simply have been spending more time helping people at our Catholic parish. That's what I do best, anyway.
I digress; let's talk about the 6.5-.280 Ackley.
Gosh, I don't even know the year.
I was retired from our jewelry store, so it was after 1992. Chub Eastman was still the Sales Manager at Nosler. I still was writing at
Varmint Hunter, a Contributing Editorship I literally walked away from in 2004. It was way before 2004 though, because it was back when Darrell Holland and I had a friendly working relationship (don't ask, please). And it was still back in the days when Chub and I went to slay whitetail, mulies and mooses in Alberta.
Just for the heck of it, let's call it the 1993 or 1994.
Chub Eastman, my longtime good friend and hunting partner, gave me a call one day. Chub wanted me to suggest/design a cartridge that would work through a pre-'64 Winchester action that he had. Generally, his request was for a .264" round that would give the maximum performance out of the basic .30-'06 case. Chub is not allergic to fireforming, so Ackley influence was fine.
So, how do you get the mostest bang for the buck out of the basic '06 case???? The largest case volume of the family is the .280 Remington, owing to the shoulder being .051" forward of the standard round.
The obvious answer to Chub's request was simply to make a .264" round on the .280 Ackley case. Yes, we could have gone for a 6.5 Gibbs, but creating a surragate shoulder or bullet jamming or other heroics were not something I wanted to do.
At the time, Darrell Holland was my go-to gunsmith, so I had Darrell order a 6.5-.280 Ackley reamer from Hugh Hendriksen (the absolute best!!!) and I paid for half of the reamer. I would assume that Chub paid for the other half.
The reamer was marked .264 THE Express. The "THE" nomenclature reportedly stands for
Timm,
Holland and
Eastman. I always thought that the THE name sucked.
Chub and I both had rifles built in 6.5 -.280 Ackley. Chub's was on his Model 70 action and I believe that he used a Pac-Nor barrel. Knowing Chub, he probably went for a longish barrel and I believe that his stock was one of those yukky MPI abortions.
Mine was on a Remington 700 BDL, with a three-contour twenty-four inch Schneider 1-10" stainless barrel, with a pillar-bedded McMillan Remington Classic stock. My rifle was impeccably done, by any standards.
I guess Chub didn't fancy the THE name any more than I did because his barrel is marked 6.5 Blowhole Express.
My barrel had more character by half because my chamber designation is .264 Brainfart Express. If nothing, Chub and I are comics to the core. The Two Stooges, actually.
I developed the data; the rifles shot wonderfully and they shot fast.
Please, no flaming, Chub and I kill stuff; we have proven it in the field and we use what works.
There were two standout loads. The first featured a 120 Ballistic Tip with RL-22 and the muzzle velocity was 3,250 fps. The second was with the 125-grain Partition, again with RL-22, and the MV was 3,200 fps.
Over the years, I watched Chub murder fully a half-dozen Alberta bull moose with the 120 Ballistic Tip in the 6.5 Blowhole. Each moose needed a single shot and they died most rickey-tick. Dead right friggin' there, in fact.
How many huge Alberta whitetail did he kill? Crap, I don't know ... maybe a dozen. They simply died most sincerely dead with the 120 Ballistic. And with no or very little blood-shooting of meat.
I don't believe that either of us have ever recovered a 120 Ballistic; they basically go clear through both mooses and deer, leaving an exit of one- to two-inches. They destroy things that sustain life in the critter, they exit and then they go into a low orbit of the earth.
Very late in the game, Nosler's ballistics buy, Matt Smith, had Holland build him a rifle. Matt was the replacement for Gail Root, Nosler's legendary bullet designer and ballistics dude. Matt was a great guy and he had access to Oregon's GI Ranch, so he was able to kill lots of animals with his rifle.
For those who know Oregon, the GI Ranch is beyond Hampton, kinda in the Glass Buttes, Riley area. It's a huge ranch and permission is like impossible.
Matt fancied the 100 Ballistic tip and he killed mule deer and bull elk that all of the rest of us only dream about with the combination. I've seen photos of Matt with 200+++ point mulies and bull elk that give me the dry humps without the aid of Viagra.
How fast was Matt pushing the 100??? Well, he's young and he's ballistically smart, so probably very, very fast. And, more to the point, the bullet worked for him in a most magnificent way.
The rest of the story: Chub is still murdering animals with his rifle, I guess. I've lost touch with Matt, but it would be hard for me to believe that he would abandon a "good luck rifle" like that. Me? Well, I drifed back to the .280 Ackley, the .25-'06 and a brief flirtation with the 6.5-'06 Ackley.
Currently, I'm kind of quarter-bore guy; in love with the .25-'06 and my new, lovely and totally-unfired .257 Weatherby.
Truth to tell, my shoulder did not really survive surgery well three years ago and I've only fired a few rounds since that time. It is painful in the extreme to shoot a single round and I'm completely incapable of getting big critters out of the field, in the truck and butchered, so I've kinda left the field.
And that's fine. Lord knows, I've killed enough.
So, Campfire friends, that's the story of the 6.5-.280 Ackley. It is a superb round.
Frankly, my work with my Gordy Gritters 6.5-'06 Ackley proved it to be fully equal to the 6.5-280 Ackley. If I were to chose between the rounds, I would go for the 6.5-'06 Ackley because dies are easier to obtain and the choice of brass (.25-06) is far superior.
If you want to read my two-part article on my Gordy Gun, my 6.5-'06 Ackley, pick up
Varmint Hunter issues #48 and #49 (October 2003 and January 2004). VH issues are usually available at gun shows for about $1.00 each or some are available through the Varmint Hunters Association. Warning: I tend to write long, so something like 12,000 of Steve's words are needed to describe the rifle, the gunsmithing, the loading procedures and final load development.
I hope that this answers all of the questions that come to mind. As for me, I'm back to lurkdom.
Steve
