A good day in the loading room! 

Tired of short brass life in my newly acquired 44 1/2 in 25/35Win, this morning, I rechambered to the Ackley Improved version with the body shortened a full 1/8" over the "std" Ackley version. Having little use for excess speed, I just wanted to get longer brass life. After annealing 20 new WW cases, my first try at fireforming was my old "go to" fireform load of 12gr of Unique, a tissue wad, cream of wheat filler and then a wax plug. This is #1 in the pic. I have used this load on dozens of different cartridges, both large and small, for fire forming with excellent success. Hmmm......no good. Ok, a stiff charge of slower powder(IMR3031) and a heavy 100gr bullet. This is #2 in the pics and still no good. Let's try some slower yet powder(IMR4064) with the same 100gr bullet. #3 is starting to look better. I think I'll try another anneal and the same load.....#4 is a winner. After annealing the remaining 16 cases a second time, I proceeded to fireform without a single case lost. It is amazing how much bunk is on forums about the 25/35 AI being impossible to fireform. I think I just found a new favorite deer rifle

I had my 44 1/2 chambered in a standard 25-35 and have had no problems with case loss so far.  Last fall on it's maiden voyage it accounted for one antelope with one shot using the Nosler 120 gr Partition and then I switched over to a 100 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip to bag a 25" 4x4 mulie, also with a single shot.  Both were about 225 yard shots and it is now my favorite rifle replacing my B-78 in 25-06.  That might not last long as this fall I should have my Borchardt back in 30-40 AI.  I am second guessing myself about not going with the standard 30-40.  Time will tell.  Tom

Mine was pleasant to shoot offhand with the 100gr. I intend to load milder target rounds. The resulting powder capacity is within a grain or two of the .25Rem, which was intentional. Note how much longer the neck is on my version. 

I like switch barrels, so an action is not really committed to any one cartridge. The next barrel for this rifle is a #7 Shilen which will become a Mashburn Bee.....all because I had a box of loaded .218 Bee's sitting on the shelf.