Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ackley Improved?

I appologize for my ignorance on this subject, but I have heard of a few different cartridges being "ackley improved", can someone educate me on what this means?
Who is this Ackley fella, and what is being improved?

Thanks.

In some peoples minds he was a genius when it came to cartrigde efficiency, use of powder verses being over bore. Also, the 40 degree shoulder angle made for the best accuracy in most rifles. He was one of the best gunsmiths to live, and was ahead of his time. I have a number of AI rifles and they are the nicest cartridges to shoot.

P.O. Ackley was a genius. At least when it comes to guns and reloading. Not all AI (Ackley Improved) cartridges are worth the hassle and Ackley was the first to admit this. The big improvement IMHO is the case life due to the near elimination of trimming and stretching. Purely a hand loaders endeavor however, it is an interesting realm of reloading.

He was cool before cool was cool.

anyone know where his first shop was?

Roseburg?

Steel,
I think you have mentioned that in a previous post and I totally agree.

Dave

The first smith to 'improve' a cartridge was Lysle Kibourn when he developed the K-Hornet in 1940.

Lysle Kilbourn

I know what AI is, generally speaking. Which of the cartridges are the haves and have nots?

I know Ackley was reluctant to produce the .243 AI because he thought it was already improved but did anyway.

What are the best AI's and the worst?

Tom

Here is one chart that shows various AI cartridges and their percentage increase.

http://www.4-dproducts.com/ackleychart.php

I'm sure there are others.

Well just for confusion, there is Ackley Improved and then there is Improved Ackley. What is the difference?

Nothing.

Absolutely wrong.

OK. Are you going to enlighten us?

I was hoping an Ackley fan would brighten our day, but here goes. Ackley was not only an improver of factory cartridges, he was a wildcatter. The inveterate tinkerer, some of his wildcats made more than one trip through his creative process.

To designate his improved factory cartridges, terms such as 257AI were coined. For his wildcats, which actually became improved Ackleys rather than improved factory cartridges, he used other names. For example, he had a couple versions of the Krag necked to 25 caliber. These are known as 25 Ackley Krags. There is a long and a short version, and they were popular in single shot rifles.

He further improved the long by blowing out the taper and using his 40* shoulder angle. So, the cartridge became known as the 25 Ackley Krag Improved. Improved Ackley merely indicates it is one of his wildcats rather than a factory round that was given the reforming treatment. If I was to hazard a guess, I'd say Ackley Improved Ackley seemed a little bit redundant.

If I was a little bit better wordsmith, this might have flowed better. I hope the gist is conveyed.

Thanks for the info.

Improved and Ackley improved are used interchangably by the industry.Improved, as used by the industry is assumed to mean those cartridges which follow Ackley's design principles even if Ackley never worked with that cartridge.
If an improved cartridge differs from Ackleys design principles then it gets an additional appellation attached like Improved RCBS.
Ackley used the Improved moniker many different ways.
Fred Zeglin, a prolific wildcatter in his own right, published a partial list of cartridges that POA laid claim to at one time or another and the Ackley Improved moniker is attached to some decidedly wildcat cartridges such as the .450-.348 Ackley Improved and he added a simple Improved moniker to several factory cartridges such as the .348 Improved.
No clear distinction can be drawn by the exclusion of the name Ackley from an improved cartridge.
Leastways that's how Fred Zeglin sees it and Fred knows a bit about the subject.

I'd have bet my bottom nickle you would have to argue. Did you even bother to read what I wrote, or did you just once again rush to your own defense without forethought?

The only problem you are going to encounter here is that I do not argue with the self absorbed. Have a good day.