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A .22-250 FIELD RIFLE BY SISK GUNSMITHING by Steve Timm "Published by permission from The Varmint Hunters Association, Inc."
In talking on the phone with Charlie Sisk, it was apparent that he is a very practical hunter and gunsmith. Charlie’s gunsmithing is business based on the use of high quality components and the finest possible machine work. There are two sides to Sisk Gunsmithing. Like most custom gunsmiths,
Charlie does general accuracy work for his clients. What sets the firm
apart, however, is the line of custom-built rifles offered by Sisk Gunsmithing.
Basically, the rifles feature a Remington 700 or Winchester M-70 action,
a Hart stainless barrel, an H-S Precision stock, a Jewell trigger and
a Sisk Muzzle brake. These are true custom firearms in that are individually
built for each custom. The Rifle After I decided to try a Sisk Gunsmithing Rifle, I had to make a huge decision. If you’ve read more than one of my articles, you know I am highly allergic to the common heavy varmint rifle. I personally prefer a rifle that isn’t chained to a benchrest or hunting vehicle. The problem was that the majority of Charlie Sisk’s rifles are built to satisfy the average varmint hunter and are “full proportioned.”
So I called Charlie and we designed a varmint rifle – his kind of varmint rifle. The resultant firearm is one that would satisfy the needs of most varmint hunters and it is quite typical of the rifles that Sisk Gunsmithing builds. To be truthful, the rifle is relatively portable in the field. It isn’t a true “waling varminter,” but it is a very satisfactory all-around field rifle that I could easily live with. With that said, let’s look at the Sisk custom rifle. The heart of the rifle is a fully-blueprinted Remington 700 ADL chrome-moly short action. This was no shortcut blueprint job. Charlie spends a lot of effort in totally preparing the action, previous to barreling. The first steps are to strip the receiver and bolt, true the receiver threads and face the front of the receiver. Following this, he squared the locking lug recesses, trued the front and rear surfaces of the locking lugs, trued the bolt nose, trued the bolt face and hand-lapped the lugs to 100% contact. Of course, complete visual inspections are done at every machine step. After blueprinting, the action was fitted with a Hart barrel that had been factory-tuned to Remington Varmint contour. The barrel is a standard .224” with a twist rate of 1-in-14”. The barrel is cut at twenty-six inches and fitted with a Sisk muzzle brake. Charlie surface-ground the original Remington recoil lug for this job, but he usually uses a Holland lug. The test rifle was chambered for .22-250 Remington. I requested the .22-250 for two distinct reasons. First of all, the cartridge seemed just right for this size and weight of rifle. Secondly, I’ve received literally hundreds of reader requests for a load workup on the .22-250. The trigger is a jewel and I requested that the weight be set at precisely two pounds. There was a chance that I might find time to hunt with the Sisk rifle and I didn’t want a trigger pull that was too light for field use. For those who haven’t used a Jewell, take it on faith that this is the finest trigger on the planet. The H-S Precision Varmint model stock is a proper compliment to the reasonably heavy varmint-weight barrel. The H-S stock features a proprietary H-S aluminum bedding block. Some folks use this type of stock as a “drop in,” but I’ve never had much luck with that approach. Charlie Sisk properly bedded the forward section of the receiver and the shank of the barrel (11/2-inches) with an exceedingly hard bedding compound. The tang of the action rests on the bedding block. Interestingly, the stock has a no-pressure bedding pad located about two inches back of the forend tip. In discussing the bedding pad with Charlie, he says that a lot of barrels respond to the treatment. The pad can be removed if the barrel prefers to be free-floating.
The optics system I mounted on the Sisk rifle is fairly unique. Some time ago, Dan Shepard sent me on of his 3-10X40 range-finding scopes to test. The Shepard scope arrived just before my annual sabbatical (I hunt big game about three months a year) and I didn’t want to trash Dan’s brand new scope during the course of my marathon wilderness hunting trips. The Shepard scope is a complicated affairs, with a dual reticle system (one in <u>each</u> focal plane) and range-finding/holdover circles. The scope came with a video and I’m glad that it did. The Shepard product takes time to master and this project presented the perfect opportunity for me to do just that. I chose to use the fine Leupold Quick Release scope mounting system on the Sisk varmint rifle. Believe me, it took a lot to lure me away from my beloved Leupold Dual Dovetail mounts, but the Quick Release did just that. At first, I was a not a believer. Hey, I’m an old poop. Any new product has to prove its worth or I’ll continue to use the time-proven products that I know and love. The first time I used the QR’s I must have had the scope on and the rifle two hundred times in 500 shots. I learned that, after a bit of break-in, the QR mounts return to zero every time. Not close to zero, but precisely on zero. The Leupold QR mounts are rock solid, reasonably weight and they work exactly as advertised. On big game hunts I always carry and extra pre-zeroed scope in QR rings, just in case the bad thing happens to the scope that is mounted on the rifle. I also use the QR scope mounting system on literally all my varmint rifles. I really like to remove the scope during all bore cleaning operations. Removing the scope makes receiver access for bore cleaning much easier. Besides that, I no longer spoil the ocular lens coating with splattered shooters Choice. Leupold QR mounts are as much an aid to bore cleaning as a fine rod guide. After mounting the scope on the Sisk rifle, I did some weighing and measuring. The rifle is 471 /2 –inches long and it weighs precisely 10 pounds, 12 ounce. Ready for the field, with a full magazine of ammo and a Harris Low-Swivel bipod (my favorite), the rifle tips the scale at 11 ¾- pounds. Most of us would add scope covers and possibly a nylon sling, bringing the gun to approximately 12 pounds total. This is not a fly-weight rifle by anyone’s standards, but it is reasonably portable.
Charlie still owns and shoots the Oberndorf ’98 Mauser that he built in Pappy Adkins’ machine shop class. The Shilen-barrelled .257 Roberts just refuses to quit shooting ½ -inch groups and killing Texas whitetails. Like a great percentage of artisans in every profession, Charlie Sisk is largely self-trained. During the entire course of this project, Charlie and I talked often. It was obvious from the very beginning that the man is enthusiastic, ethical and knowledgeable. I would have to add that if the rifle that Charlie built for this project is typical of his work, one more adjective would have to be added to the list – meticulous. Charlie Sisk is thirty-five years of age, unmarried and lives east-northeast of Houston, in Crosby Texas. His interests include building accurate rifles, hunting (all creatures, large & small), target shooting, fishing and restoring his 1951 Farmall “C” tractor. Among rifle actions, Charlie favors the Remington 700 and the controlled-feed versions of the Winchester M70. Other favorites are Hart barrels, H-S stocks, Jewell triggers and Burris scopes. Like most experienced hunters, he prefers reasonable cartridges (especially the .257 Ackley 40?) and despises the modern trend toward cases that are grossly inefficient (not mentioning any names). I like the man. THE CARTRIDGE Like so many of today’s truly great cartridges, the .22-250 started its life as a wildcat. Unlike most successful wildcats, however, the .22-250 was developed by a single gunsmith/experimenter. Indeed the name Jerry Gebby and the .22-250 are almost synonymous. The whole story started in 1919, when Gebby was waiting for an automobile repair in Buffalo, New York. Gebby and Charles Newton (Newton Rifle Company) had previously corresponded and Gebby apparently thought that talking guns was a great way to pass the time while waiting to get his radiator fixed. During the course of the visit, Newton picked a .22 caliber prototype cartridge out of a cigar box and gave it to Jerry Gebby. The case was smaller than the .22 Newton that was in current production. The prototype case was based on the .250-3000, a cartridge that was developed by Newton and marketed (in a big way) by Savage. Newton’s problem with the .22 version was that the existing powders were too fast for the bore capacity. Essentially, excessive pressure signs developed before the cartridge got up to speed. Little did Newton and Gebby know that the slower burning powders were soon to make their dream cartridges practical. At this point, Gebby unintentionally did a very intelligent thing. He basically forgot about the Newton prototype for about 10 years. In either 1929 or 1930, Gebby was corresponding with J. Bushnell Smith. At the time, Smith was serving in the U.S. Navy as an early-day submariner. Smith later became a very famous custom handloader and cartridge experimenter in his own right. (still later, he accidentally blew himself up)l. Apparently, Smith sent Gebby a Winchester Hi-wall to be rechambered to a new .22 caliber cartridge that Smith had designed, using the .22 Savage High-Power case and Savage .228” diameter 70-grain bullets. At the same time that Gebby was working on Smith’s rifle, he decided to make himself a rifle based on the .22 caliber prototype case that Charlie Newton had given him. Newton had never marketed the cartridge and propellants had been seen amazing advancements during the ten year period that the case had been gathering dust. The first thing that Jerry Gebby did was to standardize the bore diameter. Newton and Savage used a .228” bore, but somehow Gebby foresaw that the .224” bullet was the way of the future. In an article by Jerry Gebby, he states that he and Smith had calculated that the cartridge was “too small for moose but just right for crows and chucks.” He therefore wisely limited bullet weight from 35-grains (Newton and Savage used bullets of 70-grain and 90-grains) When the rifles were ready, J. Bushnell had been discharged from the Navy and had started “Smith’s Custom Loads.” It wasn’t long after this that both Smith and Gebby were shooting rifles chambered for a .224” version of the Newton prototype. Gebby admitted that it was Smith’s ideal to call the cartridge the .22 Varminter. After having fine success with the cartridge, Jerry Gebby registered the name “Varminter” as a trademark. The Varminter trademark applied to cartridges, cases, loading dies, tools machines rifles and barrels. As an interesting aside, the original barrels that Gebby and Smith shot were stamped “.22-250 SPL.” Gebby reminisced later that he never saw a cent from the Varminter trademark, and he wondered whether things would have been different if he had registered the designation marked on the original two barrels. Actually, it was the lack of recognition that ranked him, not the loss of revenue. In later years he took solace in the fact that he was decades ahead of the major players of the firearms industry. He had seen what they had not. And maybe that’s enough. The .22-250 was an exceedingly popular wildcat during the thirties,
with its chief competitors being the .22 Neidner Magnum, the .219 Improved
Zipper and the .219 Wasp. Ultimately, the .22-250 beat them all because
of the case of case forming. The case is die-formed, but all that is involved
is to run a .250 Savage (.250-3000) through a .22-250 sizing die. Soon after its introduction, however, the Swift fell victim to
a number of bad press reports. Some claimed that the .220 Swift shot out
barrels at an alarming rate and that accuracy was poor. The other camp
claimed that the .220 Swift was a fabulous slayer of anything from Cape
buffalo to mice. This controversy raged from many years and, to some degree,
is still alive today. Fast forward to the 1950’s As a fledgling hunter in Montana and Oregon, I never knew a single person who shot a .220 Swift. A lot of the crowd shot .22-250’s and apparently never saw a compelling reason for anything faster. We were poor and we handloaded out of necessity, so that fact that the .22-250 was a wildcat wasn’t a problem. I worked my way through college selling handloading gear and firearms in a local gun store. One day the Browning salesman came by with a Safari-grade .22-250. I ordered several for the stock and they sold as soon as they hit the rack. Again the fact that the .22-250 was a wildcat never seemed to bother anyone. Remington introduced the .22-350 as a factory loading in 1965. I can’t quote national sales numbers, but I can tell you that we sold every .22-250 that we could lay our hands on. Other rifle manufactures soon followed Remington’s lead and the rest as they say, is history. Of course, the best thing about making the .22-250 a factory chambering is the fact SAAMI got into the picture. As a wildcat, the 28º shoulder was pretty standard (the .250 Savage has a 26º30’ shoulder), but the neck dimensions varied widely. The same problems also plagued the .25-06. Standardization made the cartridge much easier to handload well. Also, the availability of factory-made brass made the .22-250 more attractive to a larger group of shooters. So what makes the .22-250 so special: I believe the answer lies in the magic balance of case capacity to bore size. The case capacity of the .22-250 is 41.6-grains when filled to the shoulder/neck junction with water. This measurement indicates that the .22-250 has a case capacity that is approximately 25 percent greater than the .223 Remington and about ten percent less than the .220 Swift. In other words, the .22-250 is HOT, but not so hot that it burns barrels at a terrific rate. Frankly, it is about all the varmint cartridge that any of us really need. Loaded intelligently, the .22-250 will kill varmints at a distance that surpasses the marksmanship abilities of most hunters. I have only one gripe about the .22-250. Every varmint hunter I know insists on calling his gun “my .250.” Friends, it isn’t a .250, it’s a .22-250. The .250 Savage (.250-3000) is the parent .25 caliber cartridge and is an absolutely superb cartridge in its own right. Maybe I’m getting crotchety in my old age, but it seems that the vast popularity of the .22-250 has somehow blurred the identity of what I consider to be Ol’ Charlie Newton’s finest contribution to the shooting tribe – the .250 Savage. Ina backhanded way we have Newton to thank for the .22-250. After all, the prototype case was the product of Newton’s experimentation. The problem with giving Newton too much credit, however, is that the case was tried, rejected and delegated to a box of failures. It was Jerry Gebby who saved the case. It was also Jerry Gebby who saw the potential of the case and who sat on the Newton reject for many years. And it was Jerry Gebby, perhaps with a little help from J. Bushnell Smith, who later realized that the development of modern propellants had made the .250 a useful concept. In my opinion, every hunter who has ever used and loved the Varminter owes a sincere debt of gratitude to Jerry Gebby. I personally find the circumstances surrounding the birth of the .22-250 to be fascinating. The whole situation seems to be somehow charmed. What would have happened if Jerry Gebby hadn’t had radiator trouble in Buffalo, what if Charlie Newton was busy on that fateful day? It is also conceivable that Newton might not have shown Gebby the failed prototype case in the first place. The fact that Newton actually gave Gebby the prototype case seems to stretch the possibilities to the absolute limit. Speaking of this chance meeting between Gebby and Newton; there is a notion that has teased my mind for years. What other goodies were in Newton’s cigar box? If he was any kind of businessman, Newton probably didn’t show Gebby his best failed prototype. Was there an early-day 6PPC or a .284 Winchester hidden in the box? And what happened to the cigar box full of cases when Newton’s enterprise went into bankruptcy? I guess we’ll never know the rest of the story, but it is tantalizing to think of what might have happened, given an alternate twist of history.
For the outset, the Sisk Gunsmithing Varmint rifle presented a challenge. It was a fine example of the modern state-of-art technical rifle. The gun was built by an exceedingly talented artisan and it featured the best-quality component parts. To add to it, the rifle was chambered for a slam-dunk cartridge. There was not a doubt in my mind that it would shoot better than I could hold. My challenge was to develop the very finest handloads possible. Not only that, but if the rifle was to do well I had to keep the barrel in pristine shape during the entire testing period. The rest of my job was simple; just learn to shoot the rifle and hold tight. In preparation for handloading, I gathered a bunch of the proper components and tooling. The fist item of importance was lading dies. This need was filled during a phone conversation. With Richard Beebe, the owner of the Redding Reloading Equipment. I apprised Rich of the .22-350 project and he sent me a “project care package.” In the package was a Redding Type-S bushing neck sizer, a carbide sizing button kit (the button “floats), a body die and a Competition bullet seating die. As usual, I didn’t know exactly what bushing to use, so Rich threw in titanium nitride bushings of .248 and .249 diameter. From an equipment standpoint, I was ready to rock ‘n roll. I called Mike Jordan of Winchester and he sent a generous supply of Winchester brass for the project. I must have sounded needy, because he also included a supply of the wonderful Winchester Supreme .22-250 ammo. Powder was not a problem. My previous experience with the .22-250 indicated that the cartridge simply dotes on propellants between h-355 and WW-760, depending on bullet weight. I had an adequate supply of the appropriate powders, so I didn’t have to bother any of my industry friends. Bullets were a different story. I tend to shoot them up an critters and I am always dreadfully short of .224’s. A few calls to the folks at Starke, Nosler and Berger remedied this situation. I also had a few Sierras and other bullets on hand. The supplies for the project came trickling in about a week after making my phone contacts, but it too about two weeks before all the tooling and components arrived. I used the downtime reading every source I cold locate on the .22-250. The list was extensive and it took fully a week to digest all that has been written bout the Varminter. I learned a lot, so it was time well spent. Eventually I had a box full items for the .22-250 project and it was time to begin the handloading process. Experience has shown that an extensive shooting test, such as this one, requires one hundred fully-prepped pieces of brass. Just to cover my losses, I started with 110 virgin Winchester-brand .22-250 cases. The first step, as usual, was a complete inspection of the 110 cases. At the same time, so that none of the cases would be ruined during sizing, I rounded out the occasional oval neck with a tapered punch. Then, the case necks were gently chamfered inside and out with Darrell Holland’s nifty new tools. Just to get the proper measurement for the neck sizing bushing, I seated a 55-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip in a virgin case. The neck, with the bullet seated measured .251”. This measurement indicated that the proper bushing would be a .248 or .249”, just as Richard Beebe had predicted. I usually shoot with .001” neck tension when shooting a single shot. This rifle had a magazine, however, and I thought it would be best to load the ammo as if I were going to use its repeating capability. With this in mind, I decided to use the .248” bushing. The necks always spring back .001”, so the .248” bushing would give me .002” neck tension on the bullet. I installed the bushing in the Redding Type-S die, giving the bushing a few thousandths end-play and started neck sizing .22-250 cases. After sizing, the cases were trimmed to 1.902” (.010” short of max.) and inside/outside chamfered with Holland tooling. Then, the flash holes were deburred and the primer pockets were uniformed. Following this, the case necks were measured with a Holland Concentricity Gauge. Cases with neck variance exceeding .001” were culled. The remainder, 101 cases which had passed muster, were primed with Winchester WLR primers. At this point in time, the cases were prepared and ready for work at the rifle range. The next step was to study the barrel throating. Charlie Sisk included a bullet seating gauge with the rifle (bless him), so my job was a great deal easier than dealing with a factory throat. The initial measurements indicated that the throat was quite long. When seated to slight rifling contact, 55-grain Nosler Ballistic Tips measured ±2.536” C.O.L. (cartridge overall length) and precisely 2.125” when measured over Stoney Points OAL Gauge (ogive to case head). The SAAMI maximum C.O.L. for the .22-250 is give as 2.350’, so it was obvious that this throat measured approximately .190’ longer than standard. Just to give and example of this, the Winchester Supreme 50-grain .22-250 ammo measures 1.934” over the Stoney Point tool (bullet ogive to case head). When the Winchester ammunition is fired in the Sisk rifle the bullet has to jump .191” (a fifth of an inch) to the throat. This is not a condition that aids in accuracy. While it is true that the majority of varmints hunters use handloads, it is always desirable to have a throat that will shoot factory ammo well. When handloading for a long throat, the limits are set by the position of the ogive and the length of the case neck. It has been recorded innumerable times in handloading reference books that a depth of one caliber is needful. I believe that the original author meant one bullet diameter, not one caliber. Probably an early writer wrote the observation and later writers copied the comment about the “one caliber.” Anyway, the observation is wrong. I have done a lot of experimentation on the subject and, while one bullet diameter of seating depth may be desirable, often the handloader has no choice but to cheat on that rule. I can still get fine accuracy and durability in the field with a seating depth of one-half bullet diameter. Hey, its works for me and it sure makes dealing with long throats a lot easier. In the Sisk rifle’s throat, the 55-grain Ballistic was seated to almost the entire length of the .22-250 neck when the bullet had slight leade contact. This led me to have a bit of hope for lighter bullets, so I went on a bullet seating marathon. The various 50-grain bullets used approximately three-quarters of the neck when contact with the rifling was made. The single exception was the 50-grain Strake, that seated halfway down the neck and was still had a very acceptable one-half bullet diameter in the case neck. When I checked 40-grain bullets, I found that most of them were out of the neck before proper throat contact was made. This would make it impossible to load the light bullet in a craftsmanlike manner. I would make an attempt to seat the 40-grain bullets as long as I could, but even the best of them would have to “jump” at least .010”. In fairness, most .22-250 fans shoot only 55-grain bullets and leave it at that. This being the case, the throat on the Sisk rifle is absolutely perfect. The standard SAAMI throating robs the .22-250 of valuable case capacity. In theory, the relatively long throat in the Sisk varmint rifle would offer added ballistic performance. I hope that I don’t seem too critical in the assessment
of the throat in this .22-250. This was a “spec” rifle and
the average shooter would probably find the throat suitable for his needs,
especially if he shot the most popular bullet weights (50 and 55-grains). RANGE TESTING The time finally came for the Sisk Gunsmithing varmint rifle to show its worth. After all, the measure of a fine rifle is always determined by how its shoots on the range and (especially) in the field.
I was really looking forward to testing the Sisk Gunsmithing varmint rifle for two reasons. First of all, it would be enjoyable working with an accurate rifle. The second reason was a new accuracy tool that I received just before the range testing was about to commence. The folks at Gradient Lens Corporation sent a Hawkeye borescope to the VHA for a field test. Fortunately, the VHA forwarded it to me. I’ve wanted to work with one of these borescopes for a very long time, but just kept putting it off. Of course, I spent many hours familiarizing myself with the Hawkeye
by checking literally every barrel in the house. My old Schneider-barreled
.223 Ackley (18,000+rounds) has about ten inches forward of the throat
that resembles a cracked dry lake bed and my new .223 Ackley (6,000+rounds)
is also starting to look like a crispy critter. In checking the Hart Barrel with the Hawkeye, I found the bore to be smooth, clean and totally free of fouling of any type. It was apparent that Charlie had done an incredible job of bore cleaning before I received the rifle. The first job to be done at the range was learning to shooting habits of the rifle and accomplishing barrel break-in. Load development is usually a total washout during the benchrest gymnastics of barrel break-in, so I didn’t even try. The break-in load was a mild one; 33.0-grains of VARGET behind the 55-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip. The bullets was seated to a very slight throat contact (just a hint of a circle on the bullet, when using the bullet seating gauge). Barrel break-ins was accomplished using Shooter’s Choice (MC #7) in the Sinclair Method. All of my previous shooting and barrel break-ins had been done following the time-honored formula of one brush stroke per shot. For the first thirty rounds the Hawkeye borescope forced me to brush about 300% more than I am used to. After thirty rounds, two forward-and-back strokes per shot seemed to keep fouling at bay. Two cleaning rod strokes per shot is still 200% more than normal. I expected that the fouling would eventually diminish to the point that the “one brush stroke per shot” axiom would apply. I was to be disappointed in this regard. The best aspect of using the borescope is that I was finally cleaning from a position of knowledge, rather than following a magic formula that some expert dreamed up. It is entirely possible that this particular barrel does not need more brushing than any other barrel. An extension of that thought is that it is quite likely that all my other barrels have not been brushed enough. I found it interesting that the bullet jacket fouling tended to accumulate at two places in the barrel. The throat fouled for about the first two inches in a heavy-to-diminishing pattern. This was fully expected. What wasn’t anticipated, however, was a ring-like fouling point ½-inch back of the muzzle. It was unclear whether this was a tight spot in the bore or just a zone of slight roughness. It was impossible to see either area of bullet jacket fouling with the unaided eye, but to the Hawkeye they were about as obvious as the Rocky Mountains. Most of my cleaning efforts were spent just keeping these portions of the barrel free of fouling. Barrel break-in revealed two additional things. First, the rifle was really easy to shoot. The large proportions of the stock, the long, heavy barrel and the effective muzzle brake made the Sisk Varminter an excellent informal benchrest gun. Secondly, even thought I wasn’t particularly paying attention to accuracy, the rifle was consistently shooting five-shot groups in the 6’s with the break-in load. That’s actually pretty impressive. The next order of business was to develop handloads for the Sisk rifle. Usually I shoot each load in both an indoor and outdoor environment. The two ranges I commonly use are the Leupold Rifle range (an indoor facility) and the Douglas Ridge Rifle Club. Regrettably, the Leupold Range was being remodeled during the shooting tests, so I had to rely wholly upon data developed under real-world conditions. It was humbling because I am not a great reader of wind and light conditions, but eventually I worked up a reasonably good load chart. Let’s look at the better handloads and their performance. The long throat totally killed the accuracy potential of the 40-grain bullets. I tried Walt Berger’s 40-grain MEF, Clint Starke’s 40-grain HP and, of course, the 40-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip. Try as I might, I never developed a load that would jump to the throat and give good, consistent accuracy. About the only load that showed promise was the 40-grain Ballistic ahead of 36.5 grains of H-4895. Accuracy was indifferent, with four five-shot groups registered and aggregate of .95”, and the instrumental muzzle velocity was a speedy 4007 fps. Thing changed radically when I switched to 50-grain bullets, and was able to just touch the throat with the bullets ogive. Most any combination using the Berger, Nosler, Speer or Starke bullets shot somewhere in the 6’s. Careful load development, however, produced some really spectacular performance. It is seldom that a single load combination is awarded the twin laurels of “Best Load in Rifle” and “Most Accurate Load,” but that is exactly what happened in the shooting test of the Sisk rifle. The 50-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip backed by 37.0 grains of VARGET gave a muzzle velocity of 3810 fps and yielded an aggregate of .44”. The individual groups were .28”, .46’, .65” and .38”. The .65” group was probably an error in reading the wind ( I had a .33” going), otherwise the aggregate would have been somewhere in the neighborhood of .36”. During a calm afternoon, I shot several groups under on-inch at 200 years with the load. I honestly believe that a talented benchrest shooter would probably get his combination to consistently shoot in the high-2’s and low-3’s. If the gun were mine, I would shoot nothing but 50-grain Ballistic with 37.0 grains of VARGET. There may be an undiscovered load that would shoot better, but I‘d never feel the lack. Most folks that shoot the .22-250 use 55-grain bullets, and I surely can’t fault their choice. The wind-buckling ability of the 55’s is legendary. The Starke 55-grain varmint bullet backed by 40.0 grains of H-414 proved to be the most accurate in its weight class. This combination gave a muzzle velocity of 3572 fps and an aggregate of .48”. Groups were round, with no obvious fliers, and the chamber pressure seemed manageable. This load would be just perfect for long range varminting, under windy conditions. The 55-grain Berger shot well with 35.0 grains of VARGET. The aggregate was .51” and the average instrumental muzzle velocity registered 3645 fps. This is a superbly consistent combination and one that is fully equal to any load tried. Interestingly, I couldn’t get the classic load of 38.0 grains of H-380 to shoot well with most of the 55-gran bullets. It is fine load in most .22-250 rifles, but it steadfastly refused to group. Only the Sierra 55-gran Spitzer (#1360) shot marginally well, with an aggregate of .72’. I shot the 40-grain Winchester Supreme ammunition and the results were very much the same as I had previously experienced with the 40 Ballistic. This particular rifle seems to have something against lightweight bullets that jump to the throat. The 50-grain Winchester Supreme factory ammo was entirely a different matter. Considering the fact that the Combined Technologies Ballistic Silvertip had to jump .191” to the throat. I considered it a minor miracle that the aggregate was .69”. Actually, I didn’t believe first set of numbers and totally reshot another four group. The two aggregate were .66 and .72”, so I rounded it off to .69”. The velocity was fully equal to my handloads, at 3778 fps. By the end of the shooting test I was very favorably impressed with the Sisk varmint rifle. The gun’s performance with 50, 52 and 55-gran bullets would make it a truly awesome long range killer. The fact that Winchester Supreme 50-grain bullets would make it a truly awesome long range killer. The fact that Winchester Supreme 50-gran ammo shoots well in the rifle is just more icing on the cake. GENERAL COMMENTS AND CONCLUSION Let’s talk about the Sisk rifle first, before getting into comments about ancillary gear. The gun worked flawlessly during the shooting test. Everything about the rifle worked and continued to function properly. The gun is a winner in all respects and I can recommend it highly. After development proper handloads for a new rifle, it is my usual practice to shoot the gun informally off the benchrest and prone, both with the usual Dog-Gone-Good™ bags and with the Harris L-S bipod. The Sisk rifle performed admirably when tested under simulated field conditions. Targets of opportunity (rocks), were easily hit at ranges up to 400 yards. The rifle was so steady that I even managed to wing a few 500 yard rocks, through I missed more than I hit. But then .22-250 isn’t really a 500 yard cartridge, and it’s for damned sure that I’m no a 500 yard shooter. The informal part of the shooting test left me convinced that the Sisk varmint rifle would be a formidable combination in the hands of an advanced rifleman. If I were a more sedentary varmint hunter, I would own one. The Shepard scope really helped make long range hits possible. After watching the video a few times and becoming familiar with the instructions manual, I finally got the hang of the bullet drop compensating reticle. The ranging circles on the Shepard’s lower vertical crosshair are made to range 18-inch objects, presumably the body depth of a deer. I was shooting at long range rocks of random size, so I was forced to use a laser rangefinder to determine the distance. Once I had a handle on the range, it was a simple matter to hold the appropriate circle on the rock and squeeze the trigger. The bullet drop compensating reticle worked very well. The entire time that I was using the Shepherd scope, I was wishing for something more than ten-power magnification (gimme power). Shooting small groups and judging wind/mirage is a real struggle with the power limitations of the Shepherd 3-10. I am sure that varmint hungers would see wisdom in a Shepherd 5-16 with lower vertical ranging circles based on typical varmint measurements. Personally, I would leave the objective lens at 40m/m, so that the used of the medium rings is possible. The non-shooting star of the show was the Hawkeye borescope. It was really a terrific experience to finally be able to see bullet fouling and the effects of bore cleaning. In this case, the Hawkeye forced me to brush about twice more than I normally do. I highly suspect that my beloved .223 Ackley barrels will need the same. If I may make a pun; the Hawkeye will clean up my act.
With the 90º adapter in place, the Hawkeye is the ultimate tool for inspecting cartridge case interiors for possible incipient case head separation. The more I use the Hawkeye, the more uses I find for it. I suppose the Gradient Lens folks will eventually want the Hawkeye borescope back. When they do, I will undoubtedly buy one of these wonderful tools. The Hawkeye is an absolutely “must have’ for anyone who shoots a great deal. It is also a pleasure to work with my old friend, the .22-250. It’s hard to believe that this hard-charging, spectacular cartridge is seventy years old. Like all great cartridges, the advancements in propellants and bullets just keep making the .22-250 better and better. With any luck at all, Jerry Gebby Varminter will be zapping varmints well into the Twenty-First Century.
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Charlie
Sisk |
I
usually like to test a gunsmith’s typical custom rifle, and there
are a few excellent reasons for this. First of all, the “typical
custom rifle” is usually the gunsmith’s personal favorite.
Secondly, I believe that a craftsman builds a better product when he has
built several like it in the past. Perhaps the most important reason of
all is the fact that every time I do an article about a rifle in The Varmint
Hunter Magazine, several readers fall in love with a featured rifle and
order one just like it. With this in mind, it is best if the featured
rifle is one the gunsmith does well.
Charlie
Sisk was born, raised and educated in Madisonville, Kentucky. During his
schooling at Madisonville North Hopkins High School, he took shop classes
from Larry “Pappy” Adkins. It was this association with Pappy
that started Charlie’s keen interest in firearms, shooting and hunting.
Interestingly, somewhere along the line Pappy Adkins left the world of
academia and started work with the fine folks at Accurate Arms (good move).
Charlie and Pappy remain fast friends to this day.
Charlie
Sisk shoots all of his rifles for accuracy before sending them to customers.
Personally, I believe this is and excellent policy, because it acts as
a final empirical test of the completed firearm. Charlie spent at least
two range sessions with the .22-250 and he was delighted with the way
it shot.
The Hawkeye
borescope (with the 90º adapter removed) is an incredibly valuable
aid when inspecting flash hole burns. Using the Hawkeye, I was able to
determine the extent of the burrs. Also, I was able to adjust the flash
hole deburring tool to the point that the burr was just removed –
and no more.