.244 Improved

B

bluehen1987

Guest
Good morning! I am brand new to the board. I am primarily a varmint and target shooter. I recently purchased a rifle which was built by the late Art Freund. It is a .244 improved built on a Ruger varmint platform, red pad and tang safety. The rifle has a custom trigger, custom stainless barrel (marked only 244) which has been glass bedded and free floated. The barrel is a medium heavy contour and has a concave muzzle. It looks brand new and may have been fired 5 or 10 times. It has a varmint profile but was built by a benchrest shooter and gunsmith!

When cleaning last night, I was able to determine it has a 1 in 8 inch twist. I also could not fit a .243 bore brush down the tube. I found it interesting that the rifle has a 1980's serial number and the barrel is marked 244, well past the time that the 244 had been redesignated as the 6mm.

I felt I should turn to you guys on this rifle for recommended loads, forming brass, and any other tips with this caliber and set up. Thanks!
 
I bought a Clymer reamer in the mid-1980's that is marked ".244 Ackley Improved". According to Ackley's book he referred to this chambering as a ".244" and not as a "6mm" as we do today. So far as brass, loads, etc. you need to verify the chambering you have. There were several different versions of the ".244 Imp" that will not necessarily interchange. Also, the fact that a .243 brush won't fit in the barrel is a definite warning sign. Get a gunsmith to examine the rifle and make a chamber cast to verify what you have before even considering trying to load or shoot it. Vic
 
The interesting thing to me is that I was able to load a 6mm cartridge, chamber, close the bolt and then safely extract said cartridge without a problem. It locked up snugly, but I still can't see why I could not get a 243 cleaning brush down it the other night.
 
If it is a 244 Improved, you should be able to chamber and fire a 244 or 6mm factory cartridge, safely. But, not all rifles chambered for the Improved version were done correctly. A chamber cast is almost a necessity. Even then, you would be well advised to take all of the usual safety steps when fireforming cases in an improved chamber.

A new bronze brush should be a tight fit. That test doesn't really tell you anything. Check the bore diameter at the muzzle with a caliper.

Ray
 
O.K. I ran down to Wally World and purchased a brand new .243 bronze cleaning brush. I placed the rifle in a sight vise and was able to snuggly pass the bore brush down the barrel without problem with a Dewey rod. Looks like the old brush may have been the problem (it's now in the trash can).

So, since I can pass a .243 brush down the tube and a 6mm remington cartridge will safely chamber and extract, it should be safe to fire form some cases with 6mm Remington rounds. I will check with the local gunsmith to see about a chamber casting.
 
A very wet brush goes down the bore more easily... it also goes down a clean bore more easily.

If you try a factory round, the bolt closing should be felt to be quite firm... if you can not feel the bolt firmly on a factory 244 or 6mm round, you have headspace.

Remove the bullet and powder from a factory round and fire the primer in your chamber... the primer will back up extremely close to the amount of headspace...
 
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Art Freund was supposed to be a pretty good 'smith wasn't he?
 
Is there a possibility it might be a .224 bore?? I would most definitely want an ID measurement on the bore before shooting a .243 dia. bullet.
 
spfld said:
Is there a possibility it might be a .224 bore?? I would most definitely want an ID measurement on the bore before shooting a .243 dia. bullet.
Click to expand...

The interesting thing to me is that I was able to load a 6mm cartridge, chamber, close the bolt and then safely extract said cartridge without a problem.

If it was a 224 bore you would not be able to load a 6mm cartridge, chamber, close the bolt and then safely extract said cartridge without a problem.
 
It depends on what grain bullet you are going to shoot. The magazine Hodgdon sells may list some heavy bullets for a 6 mm and work up from that. Good Luck Max
 
Mike's web page recommended using Norma 7x57 brass formed into 6mm Remington.
I used a 257 Roberts FL die then a 6mm FL die to make cases for fireforming from 7x57 Norma brass and 6.5x57 Mauser RWS brass.
The 7x57, 6.5x57 and 6mm cases all have different shoulder angles and the 6.5x57 case is derived from the 8x57 Mauser but the 2 step resizing using FL dies worked very well for both.
I'm load testing the 87gr VMax with fireformed cases and using >50gr of H4831 and H1000 to get a full case of powder without compressing it.
Ben
 
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