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Yes, I know: there's probably no good reason for any of them any more, with the possible exception of the recently marketed and factory-loaded 280 Remington Ackley Imp, which truly does make that one a durned good cartridge. But is it worth it when the 7 Rem Mag is also out there, and does everything that .280 AI does, plus a bit more? I remember when the 7 Rem Mags first came out, and I bought one, in about 1966. We all though it was a real hard recoiler, but it really isn't, esp. if you handload it down a bit.
I have the following in Ackleys, starting with the smallest caliber:
.250-3000 AI
6.5-06 AI
7 Mauser (7X57) AI
338-06 AI (which does not stretch the cases as much as the standrar and now factory loaded (by Weatherby, no less!) .338-06 version)
All of them do a great job, but are superbly accurate at least in part because they are all chambered in full-on custom rifles, with excellent match-grade bbl's and my own very high quality, very concentric almost-match-dimensioned chambers. All of mine are also chambered in hunting-weight rifles, and they all shoot well under 1 MoA! (The .250-3000AI in fact shoots into 0.25" MoA with the first 3 - 4 rounds!)
So why do it? It certainly does make selling them later a lot more difficult, including that they are always a handloader's rifle (except the new .280 Rem AI factory loads from Federal) and frankly, anything they can do can also be achieved with any number of modern standard factory cartridges.
So why should anyone consider them now? Yes, there are confirmed rifle nuts like me who want something a bit different to trot out down at the range, but I 've pretty much gotten over that sort of ego-thinking about 20 years ago!
Anyone else here also like or own any of these Ackley cartridges ? (I have to admit, I still like them, but I have no good defensive arguments anymore!)
Won't the Ackley chamber accept a factory round and fire-form the brass? Or am I confusing it with something else?
To me they make some sense for a rifle you are building from scratch, it's sort of like building a hot rod, they don't really provide any significant performance edge over other factory cartridges, it's just self-expression, in a rifle or a car, really.
I guess I have been handloading so damn long, and in so many calibers the factory loads are not what I want anyway, that the presence or absence of loaded ammo is not much of a consideration.
I've had several over the years. I was lucky enough to be able to chat with Parker numerous times about rifles and reloading. He's the guy that got me loading per volume, not weight. It's been good enough so far with a lot of one hole groups to my claim. I had him build me a 3006 Ackley Improved which was a real shooter for a sporting rifle built on an 03a3 action. Unfortunately it managed to walk out in a burglary years back. The Ackleys can correct brass issues with some case designs like the 218 Bee. Going to an Ackley or Mashburn chambering corrects the brass issues. About the only one Parker was real proud of was the 257 Rob'ts AI. That will stay with a 2506 any day but use far less powder. Otherwise, any AI chambering really doesn't do much unless you think 50-100'ps is something grand. Some of his chamberings even he said was ridiculous but folks wanted them, like the 30-30 AI or the even worse, 35 Remington AI. As he always told me just because you make a larger case that holds more powder doesn't mean it's better. He would chat about the bore diameter having an ideal bullet weight, case capacity, and an ideal burn rate. I wrote a bunch of that stuff down way back when and still use it today. Works for me and apparently him before he died. But for me his most prominent teaching was about the 03a3's. He loved those rifles and I learned a lot from him about them. I guess that's why I have so many of them. All are first class shooters....at least those that are not packed in cosmoline.
A tunnel port @ full chat, as the Brits used to say! Awesome. Like a 6.5-06 AI shot @ 800 yds!
Agreed. THey do correct some brass stretch or spliting problems that their originals may have inherited due to an old or bad design. But in light of all the modern stuff now out there, (some of he new Ruger shorties come to mind..) you don't have too good a rational reason for going the way. of an Ackley, unless, as you so correctly note, you have some of that fierce American independent hot-rodder's streak in you. And many of us do!
An example of Ackley-hype & error is this: Ackley assured us all that the 6.50-06 Ackley was useless, that in the same rifle, just re-chambered, he saw, in fact, reduced performance! That mis-information has persisted even into the very latest Cartridges of the World. I have intended, for decades really, to send the editor of that useful book some of our very carefully collected datas, documented with a good digital chronograph, not the hanging block of wood Parker used! (btw, their picture of the 250-3000 AI, which I own one of, and which Ackley noted as perhaps the most effective conversion he'd ever done.., is a normal non-Ackley! Edit much guys?)
Of course the 6.506 Ackey will obviously improve performance. Parker's own data for both the 25-06 AI and the 280 Remington AI (bracketing the 6.5-06 AI) show very useful gains in efficiency & velocity. The "standard" 6.5-06 itself generates, for example, a MV of about 2950+ fps with a 140gr boolit, perhaps 3000 with a longer slicker barrel.
My AI version, runing under max possible pressures that once upon a time I tinkered with (i.e.; when I opened the chamber and the primer just fell out, along with a little puff of smoke from it's once normal-sized primer cup... ouch!). provides me with a truly reproducible 3250 fps. On the hot side, with those one-time only primer cups, I have seen an honest 3450 fps, way over a 7 Rem Mag! But who needs it, I say?
Ackleys are indeed interesting, like running a 427 side oiler Ford "FE" tunnel-port motor, (alá the Le Mans motivator...) but hardly the dream-stuff of the econo-minded shooter or driver!
You and I must be related. I have 2 FEs sitting in the garage and one highly modded 390 in a 74 F100 with a modded C6. A real tire burner! Yeah, I bleed blue.
Strange you should mention the 6.5x06 as Parker was playing with it about a year before he died. It was not a favorite of his but he took a bull barrel of 26" and put it on an 03a3 action. He loaded what he thought was a max load for the 140, 120's and 90 grain bullets and run them over a chronograph. He then cut a 1/4" off of the barrel, recrowned it and shot it with all of the loads. The peak efficiency of the round per him was at 23 1/2" as I remember correctly. Anything longer and velocity dropped. Anything shorter and velocity dropped. He considered the round a varmint round. I always remembered him playing with it and finally built one back in the mid 90's an a 03 action with medium varmint weight barrel at his noted length with a 1:8.75 twist. It'll stay with most 264 magnums in the 90 and 120gr bullets but the 264 can push a 140 faster. It's a flat shooting round and will deck a coyote like the sky fell on him. I don't hunt anything I'm going to eat with it. I'm one of those that likes to use a lot of gun to kill something. Most 22 caliber rifles I won't even varmint hunt with. I start at 6mm and go up.
Don't suppose you've looked at the 6x45? No it's not a fast round but it's pretty dandy for low recoil and extreme accuracy.
I had built a 25/06 AI. It far exceeded my expectations. I went with a longer (27.5) barrel. It will run with the 257 Weatherby and is VERY accurate. 3/4 @ 200 yds, no brag just fact. and that's my hunting loads. The Ackley works better today because of slower burning powders. although my pet load is with imr4831 I also use magpro and retumbo. Case forming was easy using the cream of wheat method. Just got back from speed goat hunting, 115 nosler ballistic tip is amazing. Next rifle will be a 7stw
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A tunnel port @ full chat, as the Brits used to say! Awesome. Like a 6.5-06 AI shot @ 800 yds!
Next rifle will be a 7stw
