I recently purchased this old 1885 from a friend. It was built in PO Ackley's shop by one of his employees as his personal varmint rifle. Has a 28" full octagon barrel marked ".219 Improved" and came with a 20x Super Targetspot mounted on it. It's spaced at the usual 7.2" spacing, but also has holes d&t for the longer @10" spacing. With the gun came 9 boxes of loaded ammo, and 5 boxes of formed ammo. A very early receiver in the 70xx range. With single set trigger.
The builder's name is Dean Instad, or Insted? Not sure how it's spelled. Supposed to have had a shop after leaving PO Ackley's and set up in Oregon City, Or. near Willamette Falls.
Wondering if anyone might have any information on this person, or know if there's information on employees who worked with Ackley?

This is my old High Wall 1885, caliber .219 Improved Zipper, metal work by my friend and gunsmith, Harry Creighton, stock by Hal Hartley. Unertl Vulture 10X scope.
https://hosting.photobucket.com/alb...0.219%20Imp.%20Zip%20001_zpsawxinz34.png
My varmint hunting days are long past and the rifle now has a new owner.

Thanks to Terry Buffum suggesting I contact engraver Bob Evans, to ask him about Dean, I got some info! Bob didn't recall a lot, as he's mid 90's now and said his memory isn't great. But he remembered how the name was spelled, and it's Dean Ensted!
Once I got the correct spelling, I immediately found Dean Ensted, and he still lives in the same place he has for decades nearby in Oregon City, Or.! But I also found conflicting info stating he died in 2016 too. So not sure which info is really correct. Guess I'll drop the search for now, as it's possible I'd go to an address with different people there.

Vall,
Don't give up now, "if you snooze, you loose". I know, from searching for ancestors, that a name is very often shared by family members and also other family members often keep the "old home place"( and therefore the address). Even if the one you are searching for has passed, family may have a wealth of information. You don't want to find them the day after they carried "a lot of old papers , parts, and worn out tools" to the land fill.
Mike

I'm hoping to get in touch with his business partner which I found listed at the same address, and the gunsmithing service of Enstad and Douglass. I found Dean Enstad Jr. listed at another Oregon City address, but he has moved about 90 miles away in Washington State.
So I'll see if I can get in touch with the business partner, and hope he might be younger, and still around.

I hope you're shooting this fine old rifle.

Not yet, but I've only had it a week now. I plan to shoot it a bit, and then may resell it. Mainly bought it to help a friend out who needed to get some money for another gun purchase.
I'm more of a Ballard guy, soo this is my only Winchester 1885.

I have one of these, done by a Pennsylvania gunsmith named J.W. Van Patten. There isn't a lot of reloading data out there using modern powders, but you can use .22-250 starter loads as a beginning point and work up carefully. In my experience, you can expect 50-100 fps difference between the .219 Improved and the .22-250. Perhaps a bit less if your barrel is longer than 24 inches (mine is 27).

I hope it came with brass, because it's a pain in the butt to reform .30-30 cases, which also need to be shortened a bit. .25-35 cases work fine for the basic .219 Zipper, but I've had no luck with blowing them out, even after annealing. I don't know what the difference is between the .25-35 brass and the .30-30 brass, but the latter works while the former doesn't.

It came with 10 boxes of loaded ammo, and 5 boxes of new formed brass.
I have both of PO Ackley's books on his various Improved cartridges, with his load data. His book shows 16 different loads for the .219 Ackley Improved, and the lightest load he shows is what I load my .22-250 in my Remington 700 at now! The other loads are all faster than I've ever loaded my 700, and one is almost 4,000 fps!! It's 34.0 grs. of 3031 with a 45 gr. SP that give 3950 fps! Yikes!
Many of his loads are in the 3700-3800 fps range for this cartridge! And he mentions in his data they are "good loads for single shot rifles". Wow.

Ackley’s data should be approached with caution. He was a very aggressive reloader. I’d be very careful of his max loads.

I'm leery of any load data posted by Ackley. But at least it's data, and I can start well below and creep up on it.

This is pretty easy, start with warmish loads for a straight 219 and work up a bit from there.
FWIW My 219 shoots great with 4895 .