Re: 223 Ackley Improved
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Brad Arnett</div><div class="ubbcode-body">That rifle of SS110's is so heavy he begs people to shoot it so he doesn't have to carry it anywhere....LOL. I thought mine was heavy, until I picked his up. It made me feel like a little girl when I was whining about how heavy mine was. Mine goes 13.5#'s with the NF, less with the loopy on it, and his is 17.5# if I remember correctly. Mine will be lighter when I ditch the heavy USMC return stock for the ligher A5 I have ordered, and swap out the Badger Steel rings/bases for Aluminum from Glen.
I have no idea on barrel life in the 223AI, mine has ~3200-3300 through it. I've really abused that rifle way more than it should have been...I shoot long strings of fire, shoot it waaaaay hotter than most guys do, I dont' clean it very often, and I moly coat my bullets. It's still shooting 5 5shot groups that'll agg in the .5's with me shooting it off a bipod laying on the ground, I'm not the best group shooter either. When the barrel does go (current one is a Broughton #6 contour), it'll be replaced with another 1-8" 223AI....might try a Bartlein the next go around.
My favorite part about the rifle is not trimming brass. My oldest brass has 18 firings on it and has never been trimmed (after the initial FF'ing I trimmed them all to the same lenght), and the pockets are still tight (R-P hulls). Also, that brass has only been neck sized, I haven't had to run it through through the FL die yet. SS110 did have to bump his brass back with an FL die after about 4 firings in his rifle.
I'm getting 3050 w/75Amax's in a 22" barrel. I'd really like to try the JLK 80gr VLD with its .510BC, but the cost deters me. I'm not shooting the rifle in matches and the 75 A-max's work just fine for our casual shooting to 1K, and it comes apart pretty quickly on critters. 28MOA to 1K w/a 200yd zero isn't hard to like, when your only burning 26gr of powder a pop. I also will never build another one with a barrel longer than 22", my next one will be a lightweight hunting 223AI and will be 20, or 21"s at most.
My rifle is throated to get the 75 A-max TTL at 2.485", that also allows me to get TTL with even a 50 V-max. It was a 10 minute tweak to the issued Rem magbox to not have to single feed them. Mine feeds well enough that I have no qualms carrying it deer hunting, and I do use it for that, but I know some guys do have feeding issues in the Rem's.
Does anyone know off hand if Glen's mag's are center feed, or staggered feed? </div></div>
Brad,
Glen's mags are center fed. I talked to Glen the other day and he has sent me his metal to try. UPS says it will be here tomorrow. He told me to bolt it up the the b/a without the stock and see how it feeds. As you know mine has had feeding issues. Hopefully Glen's metal will be a good fix. 5rd mags only available now but he hopes to crank out some 10rd'ers next year.
I shot 52gr Amax's/h335 to fireform only because I had so many of them. This rd is just stupid accurate even when fireforming. Mine has a 22" Krieger, 1-8", finished at .93". It was throated to shoot the 75 amax's. My loads and performance are pretty much the same as Brad's. He had a pretty big influence in my deciding to go with the 223ai. My load is Lapua brass/75amax/re15/7.5's.
No brass trimming was also a big bonus for me.
After shooting mine and seeing how much I enjoy it my shooting pard is dropping off his action tomorrow to get a 223ai barrel screwed on.
good luck,
Keith