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7mm Ackley Imp

4K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  Pinball 
#1 ·
Need information on a cartridge.
I just received a rifle from my father, age 81, who is giving up on shooting and hunting. He received the rifle from a friend and has never fired it, instead staying with his .30-06.

The barrel is marked 7mm ack. imp. and there is no brandname on the rifle. According to him his friend wrote for a magazine and the rifle was given to him for "testing" back 20, 30 or 40 years ago.

I looked at the reload books etc and have not seen anything on the 7mm ack. imp. There is a .280 ackley improved which is 7mm put is it the same.

Any information would be welcome.
 
#3 ·
Good question but one that cannot be answered. The barrel is marked 7mm ack. imp. with no other markings. I thought about the 06 or 08 but this is not on the barrel or receiver anywhere. If I had to guess, something one should not do with a firearm, I would go with the 08 as the rifle has a short bolt.
 
#6 ·
Did you get any brass with the rifle ?

PB, step one is to cast the chamber using cerrosafe. Step two is to slug the bore. Now you have all the critical dimensions you need to get dies to reload. A little research will yield some load data and critical dimensions of the parent case. Wildcats are just exactly that. Someone's "improvement" on a common cartridge. Most of P.O. Ackley's mods are published so you're ahead of the game once you find out which one you have.

FWIW, most of P.O.'s stuff shot very well. You might just have a treasure ! Wanna trade ? >MW
 
#7 ·
If it's a true P. O. Ackley built rifle, it will be the 7x57 Ackley Improved. That is the only 7mm/.284 cartridge that he marked as a 7mm Ack Imp. The .280 was stamped as .280AckImp and the 7-08 wasn't one that Mr Ackley himself worked with.

If it's someone else's build using an Ackley Improved style wildcat , then all bets are off and the only way to be sure of what cartridge it is will be to have a casting made of the chamber as mentioned above.
Lots of cartridges that PO Ackley never worked with have "Ackley Improved" versions of them that were brewed up by other wildcatters. If it followed the general 40° shoulder with straight-walls that he usually used and the new chamber can still hold the parent cartridge for fireforming then they sometimes get called an AI version even if it's not one of Ackley's creations.



And even if you got some ammo with the rifle, I'd have a cast done anyway just to be 100% positive of what you've got. Over the years things tend to get mixed around...especially in a case like yours where your dad never even shot the rifle.
 
#8 ·
For Pinball,.......to expand a bit on the chamber cast, Brownells have the material for this , Cerosafe. It's a metal alloy that melts at around 198 degrees, they say it melts in boiling water. As Millwright said plug the bore, a cleaning patch will do this. Pour the Cerosafe up too the breach end of the chamber. A soon as it becomes solid push the cast out and allow to cool before taking the measurements, it shrinks slightly at the solid stage then expands to actual size upon cooling. A funnel to get the liquid Cerosafe to the chamber can be made from aluminum foil.
 
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