05/12/2026
Ron Spomer says it well.
Complain and moan. Shooters tend to do this to excess. Each time a new rifle cartridge is introduced, legions of shooters --already pleased with the older cartridges and rifles they've been shooting -- groan and grouse. They don't need this, so how dare anyone offer it? Similar rounds have been doing the job for decades, sometimes 150 years! They're just trying to (horrors!) sell more guns and ammo and (more horrors!) make money!
Duh. What manufacturer designs, builds, and sells anything with an eye toward NOT selling and NOT making money?
Case in point suggested by this photo: The cartridge on the right is the 22-250 Re*****on, an old wildcat from the 1930s that earned such a following that Re*****on finally woke up and made it a legit, SAAMI spec cartridge in 1965. Never mind that "No one needed it!" because the 220 Swift and 22 Hornet, 218 Bee, 219 Donaldson's Wasp, and 222 Rem. were already crowding the market. For the next 60 years the 22-250 reigned as the most popular long-range, high velocity 22-caliber in the USA.
Despite this, P.O. Ackley, among others, found the 22-250 Rem. in need of some remodeling. Ackley straightened the walls, made the sloping shoulder 40-degrees and added enough powder space to add roughly 100 fps to the Rem. version shown in the middle.
Recently Hornady released what amounts to a SAAMI spec. version of the 22-250 Rem. They call it the 22 Creedmoor, so legions of shooters automatically hate it because, well, those Creedmoor fanboys! It's dimensions are a bit different from the Ackley Improved, but its performance is nearly identical. So people complain. How dare they make what amounts to a 22-250 Ackley without the need for custom rifles and custom handloads! You mean you can just buy off-the-shelf rifles and ammo? Unfair! They're just trying to sell you more stuff!
Yes, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus. You do not get free rifles and ammo. If you want them, you have to buy them. And thank the USA you have not only that right, but innovative, risk-taking citizens willing to risk their time and money to build a better mouse trap. Buy one if you want. Stick with your great grandpa's 22 Hornet if that's what you prefer. But thank our founders for the Bill of Rights and our free market system that -- while often redundant -- creates more and different products that better serve the needs of whomever wants to buy them.
Alternatively you could move to Somalia, North Korea, Cambodia, Fiji, and similar countries where you can't even own a firearm.
So, question: given your freedom to buy or not buy any of these three cartridges and rifles to fire them, would you choose the old 22-250 Rem., the handloader proposition 22-250 Ackley, or 22 Creedmoor and why?
