250 or 257 Haley, which do I have
I have a Haley rifle that I bought used at Whiteside’s estate auction. I always thought it was .25 caliber, because the tag said “Haley 25”. I have been using beeman kodiak .25 caliber pellets in it and they seat so easily, much easier than a .25 condor that I have. I never though much of it until I read the talk here about .257. I then reviewed Haley’s site and saw that the 250 was not meant for pellets and it looks just like the 257. Could what I have be .257 and how can I tell? I guess I need to push a slug through the barrel and measure it?
This is also driven by my desire to get a mold and start casting bullets for this rifle.
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I don’t think it is a QB conversion. Here is a picture (kind of hard to tell much detail). It shoots as well as any other rifle I have in the same situation. I was not real happy with performance at 118 yards, but it had a scope I hated at the time. It and I would keep a 3 inch group at 118. I do need to get back out and try again now that it has a new scope.
Sunday I will get time to measure the bore, but it is probably .25 (not .257).
Martin,
As far as I know Jacks making of the 257 Scandalous did not take off until John Bowman won the Lasso shoot last year, having said that his rifle was 2 or 3 years old at the time but very few people were privy to its existence. Best way is to slug the barrel.
Also realize that a lot of earlier small bore Haley rifles were made on QB conversions.
Have you chronied it to see what power your getting now? And how do the pellets shoot as far as accuracy? I ask this because if it is a 257, pellets probably would not work so well in it.
Regards,
Roachcreek
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Martin,
If your getting 3 inches at 118 yards with pellets, it certainly is not a 257.
If you can get a picture of the upper and lower receiver and id of OD measurement of the air tumbe and upper receiver I will compare those measurements with mine.
CrowPopper has a older 30 caliber version, if we can get measurements from him we can compare the three and hopefully find out what you have. I can also contact Jack and Reba with those measuremnts and get the word directly from the source on what you have.
If I may ask how long ago was the auction, I remember it but not when and how much did you pay for it?
Now interestingly enough, Jack did make at least one 257 Scandalous two barreled set with a 250 and a 257 barrel, It belongs to the fellow making the HS bullets, he got his about a year ago I belive, now I doubt that your is one, but perhaps you could fit a 257 to it and shoot the excellent 257420 if your interested in doing that.
The reason I say I doubt it is a 257 is as follows, until John Bowman convinced Jack Haley to make a 257, he had approached just about every maker out there to make him a 257, they all said no, the proper bore was 250, that and the fact you getting really good accuracy at almost 120 yards with what you consider a poor scope, and a 257 just would not do well with pellets.
What do you fill it to and I assume your velocity is in the 880 to 950 realm and how many shots do you get per fill?
But either way Martin, what you have there is one hell of a find that I suspect you got for a very good price.
RC