243 ackley

[mitchell]

i was just wondering how hard it wold be to ream a 243 to 243 ackley  by hand??  the reamer at midway is only 85 so in about 2-3 barrels the reamer would pay for its self.  does any body have any experience on making an ackley by hand?? and is it even possible to do by hand??

[Dave in WV]

While it may be possible to do it by hand, to get a good clean chamber cut you may need to cut it deeper than the original chamber depth and set the barrel back one turn. My gunsmith related this to me about converting my 30-06 to AI. If you want more velocity getting a 6mm Rem chambered rifle would be less expensive. IMHO the single best gain converting a .243 to AI is less case growth and my RCBS X die takes care of that.

[kend]

The rimless Ackley's such as the 243 require setting back the barrel and reaming to set the headspace. The rimless Ackley chamber is .004 shorter than the standard chamber so a standard cartridge will "crush fit" and form properly when fired. You can rent the reamer for $25, http://4-dproducts.com/chamber_reamers.html