Back in the 80's I had a standard .250Sav in a 99A Savage chambered for a 250Ackley Improved (40 degree shoulder). The .250 was originally pressure limited to 45,000CUP and the AI version did not claim to raise pressure according to Ackley literature (although I suspect the pressure was a few thousand PSI higher given the much higher velocity claims). Anyway, I had less problem with case "stretch" than the "factory" version because of the sharp shoulder design and much better velocity over the "screens". However, the biggest problem I had was functioning in the 99's action where the sharp shoulder case did not always feed as "slick" as the original, but I was impressed with its accuracy! You will not have a "feeding" problem in a Contender, nor a case stretching problem due to action design. (I currently have a .250Sav barrel mounted on my wife"s Encore and it will easily perform as well as a .257 Roberts.) Since the Contender will take the pressure of a .223 (about 50,000CUP) and a host of "wildcat" pistol cartridges pushing in that same "neighborhood", the .250AI should not present any problems. I would ask the good people of Smith & Wesson, who now own T.C., the pressure limitations of their Contender actions to make sure. BTW, if you use the standard .250 factory in the .250AI chamber, you will lose about 50 to 100fps over a standard chamber due to chamber dimensions and "fire forming" of the cases. Good luck in your quest. The .250AI is an excellent cartridge that is one of Ackley's more efficient designs according to many authorities on the subject.
