A few days after Christmas I picked up a new rifle for hunting coyotes. I was very fortunate to find one a friend was willing to part with. It started out as a Remington 700 BDL in .22-250 but had been re-barreled with a Lilja SS 1-9" and chambered to .22-243 Middlestead. The action had been blueprinted, the trigger was worked to 2.2 lbs. and was bedded. I topped it with a Mark IV 20 MOA base, Mark IV rings and a Vari X-III in 6.5-20x50 with the varminteer reticle.
With no immediate availability on dies, I borrowed a set from a buddy of mine to start working on my brass. This is what I learned the hard way.. Both guns were chambered with a 30 degree shoulder, and a .254" neck. The difference beyond that between the two chambers was huge. My version of the middlestead maintains the original body shoulder junction of the .243 win and sets the shoulder back, lengthening the neck to the same O.A.L as the .243. His version maintains the shoulder neck junction, and sets the .243 win shoulder ahead leaving the standard length neck. Essentially he is able to neck his brass down, load and fireform. So how many variations of wildcats normally exist?
His Middlestead next to a .243 Win:
My Middlestead next to a .243 Win:
Reamer used on his Middlestead:
What I believe is the reamer used on mine:
After we made this discovery (cdnredneck_t3 and myself), I borrowed a full length sizer die from another friend who had a rifle built off the same reamer. A few hours later my brass was ready to be neckturned. I trimmed to an OD of ~.249", which when loaded gave me an OD of .253". Everything seemed to be in spec and chambered with little effort, so it was time to find a load.
I started off with Lapua 69gr. Scenar leads, IMR 4831 and CCI 200 primers. I wasn't overly sure where to start on powder charges so I went low with 38.0 gr. and worked up in .5 gr. increments. Fifteen rounds later (45.0 gr.) I noticed a slight drag on bolt lift, and a small ejector mark on the face of my brass. I backed down to 44.5 gr. and loaded up my remaining brass to take to the range today.
Loaded Dummy Shell:
The first thing I noticed with these loads was the varinace between cold bore, and after the barrel had warmed. When I shoot cold bore I'm about a half inch high and right of center, and they walk towards the bullseye from there. After the barrel was warm I wanted to test with a 5 shot group. The first four shots were in one ragged hole at 100 yards, within 1/4". The fifth had to be an outlier and go left far enough to see paper between the holes. (probably something I did)
After the gun was zeroed I broke out the chronograph to see what kind of muzzle velocity these loads would push. I was surprised to find that the total variance from lowest to highest velocity was only 14 fps. With the Lapua brass/lead, CCI primer and IMR powder my average velocity was 3658 fps. To say that I'm impressed with the way this gun performed is a massive understatement. I just can't wait to get out tomorrow with the call and see what it does on a dog within 500 yards.
Gun Dressed Up For Dogs:
With no immediate availability on dies, I borrowed a set from a buddy of mine to start working on my brass. This is what I learned the hard way.. Both guns were chambered with a 30 degree shoulder, and a .254" neck. The difference beyond that between the two chambers was huge. My version of the middlestead maintains the original body shoulder junction of the .243 win and sets the shoulder back, lengthening the neck to the same O.A.L as the .243. His version maintains the shoulder neck junction, and sets the .243 win shoulder ahead leaving the standard length neck. Essentially he is able to neck his brass down, load and fireform. So how many variations of wildcats normally exist?
His Middlestead next to a .243 Win:
My Middlestead next to a .243 Win:
Reamer used on his Middlestead:
What I believe is the reamer used on mine:
After we made this discovery (cdnredneck_t3 and myself), I borrowed a full length sizer die from another friend who had a rifle built off the same reamer. A few hours later my brass was ready to be neckturned. I trimmed to an OD of ~.249", which when loaded gave me an OD of .253". Everything seemed to be in spec and chambered with little effort, so it was time to find a load.
I started off with Lapua 69gr. Scenar leads, IMR 4831 and CCI 200 primers. I wasn't overly sure where to start on powder charges so I went low with 38.0 gr. and worked up in .5 gr. increments. Fifteen rounds later (45.0 gr.) I noticed a slight drag on bolt lift, and a small ejector mark on the face of my brass. I backed down to 44.5 gr. and loaded up my remaining brass to take to the range today.
Loaded Dummy Shell:
The first thing I noticed with these loads was the varinace between cold bore, and after the barrel had warmed. When I shoot cold bore I'm about a half inch high and right of center, and they walk towards the bullseye from there. After the barrel was warm I wanted to test with a 5 shot group. The first four shots were in one ragged hole at 100 yards, within 1/4". The fifth had to be an outlier and go left far enough to see paper between the holes. (probably something I did)
After the gun was zeroed I broke out the chronograph to see what kind of muzzle velocity these loads would push. I was surprised to find that the total variance from lowest to highest velocity was only 14 fps. With the Lapua brass/lead, CCI primer and IMR powder my average velocity was 3658 fps. To say that I'm impressed with the way this gun performed is a massive understatement. I just can't wait to get out tomorrow with the call and see what it does on a dog within 500 yards.
Gun Dressed Up For Dogs:
