Pennsylvania Game News - December 2022 - 60

num-like velocities without the heavier
recoil. And it carried some unexpected
benefits, too.
When a rifle cartridge is fired, tremendous
pressure and heat cause the brass
to " flow " or stretch forward. The flatter
shoulder angle of an AI case resists that,
so cases need trimmed less often.
Less stretch also leads to longer case
life because the walls don't thin out as
quickly.
I have three rifles in AI chamberings -
and am always looking for an excuse to
have another.
For my first, I wanted to create the
ultimate varmint rifle - a high-velocity
rig firing bullets heavy enough to buck
breezes better than the typical .22-calibers,
yet still frangible enough to cleanly
dispatch the many woodchucks on the
family farm.
Because a nice used rifle cost less than
a new action alone, I started looking for
one in either .243 Winchester or 6mm
Remington as a parent cartridge. I ultimately
bought a Remington Model 700
in .308 Winchester - which has the same
bolt face - at a gun show, picking up six
new boxes of Remington .243 ammunition
for $15 each at the same time. That
gave me 20 cases for load development
and 100 for hunting.
I sold the barrel, stock and scope and
sent the action to McGowen's Precision
Barrels in Montana, with instructions to
blueprint, fabricate and install a heavy
27-inch stainless fluted barrel in .243 AI.
This was going to be a " working " rifle,
so I didn't need a fancy stock. Instead, I
chose a Hogue " overmolded " stock. It's a
fiberglass chassis with an aluminum bedding
block, all overmolded with rubber.
My son and I shaped the stock's barrel
60
channel to match the new barrel, then
topped the rifle with a Leupold VX-3
target scope in 6.5-20x with an adjustable
objective and a dot reticle. Using Berger
65-grain Varmint/Target bullets, the rifle
will put five shots into a ragged hole
slightly larger than the diameter of one
bullet at 100 yards.
But here's what's sweet: it does that at
a scorching 3,939 feet per second.
The old .220 Swift gained fame as a
varmint round for reaching the 4,000 fps
barrier. But it does so with much lighter
bullets.
My rifle comes really close to that
velocity with bullets weighing 60% more.
Next, I wanted to build my " perfect "
deer rifle.
Remington created the .280 as an
answer to the .270 Winchester. It offered
similar performance using a wider range
of bullet weights, but it never developed
the same kind of following.
Ackley fell in love with the oftneglected
.280, though, and performed
his magic on it. He'd refer to it as the
cartridge that most benefited from his
improvements.
So I decided my perfect deer rifle
would be a .280 AI.
Wanting it to look as good as it shot,
I sought out one of the scroll-engraved
receivers Remington put on some Model
700 BDLs between 1997 and 2001. I
hoped to get one in either blue or stainless.
I wound up buying a nearly-new blued
rifle in .30-06 Springfield with a factory
detachable box magazine. I again sold
its barrel, stock and scope and sent the
receiver to McGowen's to be blueprinted,
this time requesting a 25-inch stainless
barrel with blackened flutes in the factory
contour.
Pennsylvania Game News - December 2022

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