Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What does Ackley improved mean?

I see some rifles have this caliber size, and I am wondering
what this means ?

And....we're off!

The Ackley Improved family of wildcat cartridges are designed to be easily made by rechambering existing firearms, and fireforming the ammunition to decrease body taper and increase shoulder angle, resulting in a higher case capacity. If a rifle's chamber is properly "Improved" you can fire factory ammunition in the rifle and fire form the cases for higher powder capacity.

In the last few years on multiple threads it has meant that several thousand pages of "T n A" will follow.........


http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/10449384/1



ya!

GWB

What does "T and A" mean ?

You must not have ventured far into the 223AI thread.

So lets just say that Google is your friend!

ya!


GWB

I have not done a search, I would just like to know
more from those on here.

I am conservative, and think standard calibers will do
the job very well.

I find the wildcat cartridge idea is just a fad, and
really not needed.

and it can be a suffix on many other things......




223 AI, top

280 AI, bottom





250-3000 AI (250 Savage AI)





257 Roberts AI




338-06 AI

ya!

GWB

What does need have to do with anything.

Not trying to be a spoiler, but.....

oh, never mind!

ya!

GWB

Well, you pretty much answered your own question, and you are pretty much right..


I shoot a LOT in the .223AI and what it does for you is increase performance over a standard .223 by 8-10% on a good day, but the big thing is that it negates the need to trim brass, which is a royal pain if you shoot in volume...

From time to time, when applied correctly it can also mean

Dead critters......



Sako AV, 280 AI




Cooper 22 Classic, 257 AI





I "Ingwe'd" this one! ( in my leopard print crocs no less)

Sako S491 Custom, 223 AI

perhaps you get my drift!


works for me!


ya!

GWB

I only came here for the T&A.

Wildcatting gave rise to some of our most loved or hated but enduring commercial ammunition and chamberings.

.22/250rem, 257roberts, .270win, 7mm Mag, 35Whelen, Roy Weatherbys magnums

Wheres the pictures?

geedubya - re: bottom pix...new meaning on the term "Head Cheese"
Homesteader

These three got AIed..and I don't mean Artificially Inseminated







.223AI

I bet P.O. Ackley rolled in his grave laughing at that statement.


To answer your question Farmboy:
P.O. Ackley was a fellow shooter that believed a cartridge could be "Improved" by removing as much taper from said case as possible without causing extraction problems. This would increase powder capacity, thus velocity usually up to 100 fps & in some cases, 150 fps.

I am in love with my 280 AI.

"What does Ackley improved mean? "

It simply means you can't buy ammo for it.

I like my AIs to have Red Tips!

Wrong.

That's the beauty of the Ackley, I can shoot 223 ammo in my 223AI all day long and twice as long on Sunday.

If you don't care about accuracy or velocity.

Wrong again. Accuracy is fine velocity is slightly less. Sometimes when you don't know what you're talking about it's best to just read....

I'll take a shot at a straight answer.

When Parker O. Ackley first came up with idea of “improving” cases there weren’t nearly as many factory chamberings to choose from – the .222, .308 and their offspring and most of the belted magnums were still in the future. Existing chamberings generally tended toward those with a pronounced slope to the case, i.e. the .30-30, .250 Savage, 7x57 and so forth, so improving a cartridge to increase its velocity was a worthwhile goal. These days we probably don’t “need” an AI as much as 70 years ago since there are chamberings that split hairs that were already split two or three times over.

One thing AI’ing a case really does do is eliminate the need for trimming - I've fired AI cases 25 times and never had to trim them. Plus, they look cool and one can thrust out one's chest and casually toss off the name “So and So Ackley Improved” when a member of the unwashed public range shooting clan asks you “what caliber izzat?”

T and A means tits and ass. See this thread: .223AI Technical discussion, and only technical discussion

I need to get ahold of Jkob and talk to him about punching my 6.5 Creed AI.

Minds will be blown.

#Idon't 6.5

Easy pass creeds nothing new

I don't 6.5

That would be mostly correct. Nosler has been loading for the 280AI for some time.

Man, you suck at guessing.

Define "fad". 60 years. How long before it's not a fad???

Best line I've read on the 'fire so far this year.




Close runner up, but Steely is a perennial contender.



Regarding the OP's question: I'll just read.

"Ackley Improved" means my 6.5-06 cartridges with their .25-06 headstamp will not chamber in a .25-06 rifle.

The performance boost is nice, too.

You suck most of the time.

OK, I can't buy ammo for my 6.5-06 Ackley Improved. I don't buy factory ammo for most of my rifles, so the lack of factory fodder is no big deal.

As to accuracy, not necessarily true. The fire-form loads for my 6.5-06AI are max Hornady standard 6.5-06 loads and they are super accurate. Enough so that I use them to plink clay pigeons at 600 yards. When the crosswinds cooperate I get a surprisingly high hit rate, easily the highest of any of my rifles or loads.

I would (and have successfully) hunt w/ my 7mm-08AI fire form loads. My fire form loads actually got better velocity out of my new Hart 7-08AI barrel than the factory 7mm-08 barrel with exact same loads. Accuracy of the fire form loads is outstanding.

You're clueless.

David

Perhaps, but I ain't wrong and trying to cover it up with suckage thoughts.

Fixed

I have nothing.

Here's a photo looking through the scope of my 6.5-06Ackley Improved. The center orange steel is 500 yards, the upper-right steel is 600 yards. The 4 orange dots to the right of the 600 yard steel is a line of clay pigeons.

Standard, non-AI 6.5-06 loads are so darn inaccurate that even on the best days I can only get clay pigeon hits about 40% of the time.

A.I. means that through the voodoo of modern machining, you can fire standard and Ackley improved rounds from the same rifle.

It is like magic, only real.

What does "royal pain" mean?

smokepole - in all this smoke and mirrors setting did anyone actually answer the question " who is ACKLEY and why does he need IMPROVEMENT - has he been a naughty boy? " Homesteader

No one answered, not even the Grand Poobah himself.

I was thinking since it was Him, "Royal Pain" was something along the lines of being seated at the throne a day after some heavy cheese-eating.

It's means its better.
Like Wonder bread.
Like red M&M's.
Like adding salsa.

Bikini's were just a fad and really not needed:

I hate fads!

She should do away with hers.

If she was mine I would insist!

Geno

Wait a minute,

I've been under the impression that magic is real

Like WWF or Lucha Libre wrestling.

And real like that rabbit that will be coming around in a few days, you know, the one that lays colored eggs in baskets full of plastic grass. I think he craps black jelly beans too, good thing as I love them things.

Geno

PS, is there enough case taper in a 9.3x62 to make it worth doing an AI job on it?

PPS, that rabbit is a relatively new species in evolutionary terms, they didn't exist until about 2000 years or so ago. I think the jelly bean crapping is their newest adaptation to our ever changing world.

smokepole - must be a more difficult question to answer than first thought... Perhaps just more to it than shoulder angle etc.
Homesteader

I'd move and happily live in a grass hut.

I think it's the size of the charge that constitutes a "royal pain."

Well I started this thread, and you guys did not disappoint.

I recalled that earlier post on the subject and thought
it was a good time to revive.

My closest thing to these is 25-06 and a 250-3000.

Farmboy1 - "... and you guys did not disappoint.". Of course not...now you'll know who's awake out here and paying attention.
Maybe not a lot of attention BUT not yet zombie-fied either. Homesteader

I wouldn't say wildcat cartridges are a fad. A lot of stable, good, and fan favorites started life as a wildcat (22-250 my fav, 260 Rem, 338 Fed, 6.5-284). But I too am a conservative and try not to push the limits of a cartridge. Nothing against those that do. I/me/myself/personally, feel that if I have a question on whether or not a cartridge can take a game, I can always caliber up. Lucky, I've been wrong about what a caliber can do (on the good side). Still very impressed with what a 22-250 can do with a Barnes bullet on deer size game. The Elk? Well there are other options :-)

HaYen