Ackley Improved Magazine Fed

[Newton]

I've honestly tried to search for an answer to this, but cannot find an absolute because it is never talked about specifically, only brought up when discussing other things.

So my question is, do Ackley Improved cartridges have a hard time feeding properly from a magazine?

I suppose that maybe the question is subjective so I figured I would give an example.

I have a savage 111, pre-accutrigger, flat back receiver. When I first got the gun I had thought about building a .260 and getting a CBI barrel with the match chamber. Building it off the long action would let me seat bullets out as far as I needed I figured.

I revisited it over the weekend and am almost sure that I want to build one in a .260 AI with the match chamber. However, the only hiccup I can find was that there is a possible issue with feeding from a magazine.

Is this the case? I was thinking the longer action might help and if there is some issue then maybe there is something I can modify?

 

[STOMP442]

The old staggered feed magazines can get a little tricky sometimes. The newer center feed mags can be made to feed pretty well with just a bit of tweaking on the mag lips. An aftermarket center feed style DBM may be your best bet for reliable feeding. The .260 Ackley is an outstanding cartridge. It will give you all the performance you need to make the 140 class bullets really shine and is very efficient on the powder burn to do it. I have a CBI prefit with the standard chamber and I am able to push 140 Bergers at 2920fps with plenty of room for more.

 

[Newton]

The old staggered feed magazines can get a little tricky sometimes. The newer center feed mags can be made to feed pretty well with just a bit of tweaking on the mag lips. An aftermarket center feed style DBM may be your best bet for reliable feeding. The .260 Ackley is an outstanding cartridge. It will give you all the performance you need to make the 140 class bullets really shine and is very efficient on the powder burn to do it. I have a CBI prefit with the standard chamber and I am able to push 140 Bergers at 2920fps with plenty of room for more.

I had read this might be the case, never could find anything definitive on the staggard fed ones - which is the type I have. I'm not opposed to going to an aftermarket center feed style, but I would rather not if I can get away with it. I do plan to do some hunting with the gun so I do want it to feed well. But, because I would only be using the magazine system for hunting, everything else I will do will be single fed only, I would rather not have the DBM style.

Not to try and derail my own thread here, but I am thinking of wanting to try and use the hornady 143gr eldx for hunting, and maybe even try the 147gr eldm for target work. Do you find that there is plenty of room to seat longer bullets out in the standard chamber? I suppose that might be hard to answer if you have never tried the longer bullets. That was my only thinking of going with the match chamber so I could try out the longer bullets.

 

[AckleymanII]

223 AI's in Rem 700's are the only one in Rems that I have had issues with. I would love to know the fix.

 

[STOMP442]

I had read this might be the case, never could find anything definitive on the staggard fed ones - which is the type I have. I'm not opposed to going to an aftermarket center feed style, but I would rather not if I can get away with it. I do plan to do some hunting with the gun so I do want it to feed well. But, because I would only be using the magazine system for hunting, everything else I will do will be single fed only, I would rather not have the DBM style.

Not to try and derail my own thread here, but I am thinking of wanting to try and use the hornady 143gr eldx for hunting, and maybe even try the 147gr eldm for target work. Do you find that there is plenty of room to seat longer bullets out in the standard chamber? I suppose that might be hard to answer if you have never tried the longer bullets. That was my only thinking of going with the match chamber so I could try out the longer bullets.

I used the the 147s for a couple of years and was running them at 2880 fps with superb accuracy. I won quite a few local matches with that combo, but then I started having issues with them not making the target and blowing up mid flight. I switched back to the Bergers this year and haven't looked back. They might cost me a few cents more but that's a small price to pay for getting to the target.

 

[Bill K]

I must be fortunate, as my 20-223 AI feeds just fine in a Rem 700 ADL I built it on.

 

[Fast14riot]

Love my 260AI CBI match chamber, but it's a RemAge and single feed in a short action. It has shot in the .1's ar times, averages in the .3 to .4 for its life so far, about as good as I can hold anyway.

 

[swd]

I've never seen an Ackley built on an appropriate action that didn't feed fine.

 

[Newton]

I've never seen an Ackley built on an appropriate action that didn't feed fine.

What is an "appropriate" action?

 

[swd]

What is an "appropriate" action?

As in an action that fed the original parent case.

 

[Newton]

As in an action that fed the original parent case.

I see, that makes sense, in a way. Are you referring to just the action, or are you referring to the magazine also?

So in my case, it's a long action, but it's also the same diameter as the 308 class cartridges - just a different length.

 

[ballisticxlr]

Definitely rougher feeding on my .243AI with ackley formed cases than with regular .243win but not enough that it caused me much trouble. I had far more trouble with mags themselves than with what was being fed from them.

 

[Will Henry]

Almost every Ackley cartridge will have a bit of a feeding glitch incomparison to the parent case in the same action. The slightly larger diameter at the shoulder, along with the outside angle of the shoulder being a little further forward, can cause the case to bind up a bit as the shoulder contacts to top of the chamber before the head of the cartridge clears the magazine. Now, this is not a serious issue and can, in most cases, be ignored but in some rifles it can be a real problem.
A nicely polished radius on the chamber mouth is the best preventative measure. WH