.30 Ackley Short mag #2 Help

[LTP90]

I inherited a rifle this weekend that I am hoping everyone here might be of assistance on. It is a rifle my great grandfather made for my grandfather. My great grandfather was quite the artisian, and it is a beautiful birds eye stock. The problem is the dies are long gone. On the 2 boxes of shells that I have, my great grandfather wrote .300 ackley #2. The rifle was built in 1961 or 61(the 2 shells I shot today were loaded in 1963). I'm pretty sure my great grandfather wouldn't write .300 ackley without it actually being that. That being said somewhere along the line, I believe my father had some 30-338 made for the rifle. the 30-338's are darn close, but are not quite the right case.
I know that some of the cases at one time had to be fire formed.

is there anyway I could buy dies for this, and avoid the fire forming, and is there anyone out there that has exact measurements for .300 ackley #2?

I'm obviously going to have to reload for this gun, but I'm going to have to figure out exactly what it is, and find dies for it first.

Thanks in advance.

[gemoose23]

Some google fu: http://forum.accurateshooter.com/ind...opic=3092559.0

The 300 Ackley Magnum is actually the 300 H&H case improved. Many shooters will start with the Weatherby brass because it is higher quality. There are several versions of the Ackley but the differences are minor until you get into the few, like the 300 Hart, that actually do increase the capacity.

Pretty interesting, someone even lists a magazine article from 2012 with more .300 Ackley info. Here is another... http://www.loaddata.com/articles/PDF...iland%20LR.pdf

I'd love to see some pictures of rifle and ammo..

[gunboat]

Since ackley "improved" are usually just a shoulder angle change or blowing out, the common way to make cases is by fire forming --
At one time rcbs - huntington would make dies if you sent them a fired case.
my guess is that you will find them rather expensive.

[LTP90]

Well it's not a 300 Ackley Magnum, I'm fairly certain of that. That is an even larger round. I included a picture of the shells. The small one is a .223 for size comparison, and the other 2 are .300 ackley. I still have not found much info, I'm hoping to find someone who has the ackley volume 1 book and would be willing to share info.

[DSMeyer]

It's definitely a belted magnum case in you picture.

[RNE228]

What is marked on the case? The parent case may give an indication of the actual Ackley cartridge. Ackley books sometimes show up on Ebay.

Isn't there a way for a gunsmith to do a casting of the chamber and then take measurements from that?

A friend has a 30-06 Ackley in a Winchester. He had the chamber ramed and then RCBS made him a set of custom dies. I think those dies werearound $200. I remember when he did it; I think he had the gunsmith contact RCBS I've shot that rifle; it shoots nice and the Chrony work he did indicated nice gains. He took an Elk with it.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_10?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=p.o.%20ackley&sprefix=p.o.+ackle%2Caps%2C330

[RNE228]

A quick web search shows he made 300 Ackley from 300 H&H, or there was a 308 Norma Improved.

http://www.gundigest.com/wp-content/uploads/GunDigestPOAckley.pdf

[RNE228]

As I noted in earlier post, my buddy got his dies from RCBS. They were just expensive.

He fire formed his 30-06 brass. Part of the beauty, at least for the 30-06 Imp, is that if you run out of reloads, you can shoot factory ammo. He found factory ammo grouped well, and shot 2" low compared to his Improved reloads.

is there anyway I could buy dies for this, and avoid the fire forming, and is there anyone out there that has exact measurements for .300 ackley #2?

I'm obviously going to have to reload for this gun, but I'm going to have to figure out exactly what it is, and find dies for it first.

Thanks in advance.

[RNE228]

More...

http://www.loaddata.com/articles/PDF/LD-33%20Haviland%20LR.pdf

[fguffey]

I would compare the cases with what is know as the 308 Norma Mag.

F. Guffey

[LynnJr]

I have a half dozen 300 Ackley rifles.My cases are made from 300 or 340 Weatherby brass but you can use 300 H-H or 8mm Magnum as well.
The dies are still available from RCBS and as others have said they are 300 H-H Ackley Improved dies or you can buy custom dies.
My guns will push the 200 grain bullets to 3300 fps with a very long barrel.
The 300 Ackley is very common in 1000 yard benchrest and is extremely accurate and easy to load for.
My cases hold 100 grains of water and my pet load is 81 grains of RE25 a Fed 215 and a Clinch River 216 grain bullet hard into the lands.
I will post a picture of the brass with a caliper on it but here is one of my guns used in unlimited class.

[LynnJr]

I have included a picture for comparison.The brass is arranged from left to right 50 BMG 408 Chey-Tac 338 Lapua 338 Norma Mag Ackley Improved 300 Ackley Improved 308 Baer 300 H-H 300 WSM 25-06 Ackley Improved 6 Dasher 223 WSM and 14 Flea.

The difference between a 300 Ackley and a 308 Baer is the 300 Ackley has a 40 degree shoulder and the 308 Baer has a 35 degree shoulder all else is equal.
My brass is 2.820 long.
The shoulder is 2.350 inches from the casehead.
The neck is 0.375 inches long.

If your brass is way shorter you might have a 300 Ackley based on the 300 Winchester Magnum case and not the 300 H-H or 300 Weatherby case.
If you can tell us what headstamp is on your brass and the length we can get you steered in the right direction.
Lynn

[LTP90]

Thanks for all the help everyone.

I called RCBS today and they said they didn't have any dies in .300 ackley. They did say you could send in 5 fired shells to get a quote on custom dies. 200 bucks seems pretty steep for a set of dies.

there are 3 different head stamps. There is .338 win man, .308 norma magnum and several cases on 300 h and h brass.

I'll go grab my caliper and measure what I can on the case.

[LTP90]

my brass is just about 2.5 long
My neck length is very similar to yours, its hard to say exactly, but it's almost the same.
the shoulder starts at almost exactly 2 inches from the casehead.

oal is 3.195 and 3.329 on the two different rounds that were loaded for it in the 60's and 90's. Both chamber ok.

[RNE228]

That's price for a one-off die set. When my buddy got the 30-06 Imp die it was a 2 die set. That ~$200 is paying to set up a lathe or mill twice; once for sizer, once for seater die. Plus they spend time mic'ing out your cases.

Given the cost of setup and jig time at machine shops, that is relatively cheap.

I called RCBS today and they said they didn't have any dies in .300 ackley. They did say you could send in 5 fired shells to get a quote on custom dies. 200 bucks seems pretty steep for a set of dies.