Interested? 450/348 Ackley (Slight edge over 450 Alaskan)

[jkpq45]

Hello All,

Thinking of building a Handi in this caliber.  Is anyone interested in having me ream out their 45-70 for them?

Might be fun....
jkpq45

[gcrank1]

Can you post up the cartridge spec pic of each for a visual comparison and some ballistics info?

[jkpq45]

Here's a good picture of the 450 Alaskan:



The 450/348 Ackley Improved removes most of the case taper and changes shoulder angle to ~40 degrees (where the 450 AK is 16°32' as shown above.)

Various IMR powders can get the 450 AK up to ~2400 FPS with a 350 grain projectile and ~2000 FPS with a 500 grain projectile; both solid ~4500 ft-lbf loads (this in a 22" barrel).  450 AK is ~88 grain H2O capacity, beating the 458 Win Mag (by capacity) but still holding at ~44 ksi chamber pressure.

Expect the 450/348 Ackley Improved to beat those numbers by ~5%.  Perhaps a 200 or 250 FPS increase over the mid-range 45/70 government loads.

[gcrank1]

Well........ummm.....
I can tell already it would break me down in short order......

[quickdtoo]

Dies aren't cheap, just on a performance vs cost basis the 45-120 is more economical and will out perform it at equal pressure due to the much larger case capacity, 3-die sets are around $50, can be reamed by hand with a rented reamer, on the other hand, it's something different and Elk Ridge rents the 450-348 Ackly reamer. Kind of a toss up on the brass vs die cost tho, 348 Win brass is $40 for 50, 45-120 is over double that, can't beat the shock and awe of the big 45-120 round tho! 

Tim

NOTE: I just checked Cabela's, they have Norma 45 Basic brass on sale, the stuff I got from them was 3¼", but Norma makes some 45 Basic brass that's shorter, you'd have to call to check.

[jkpq45]

All good points, quick, but how many folks have a 450/348 Ackley Improved Handi?

'specially all fixed up like the BC.  Makes me want to carve a big silhouette of Denali on the buttstock....

[quickdtoo]

Elk Ridge has the reamer, go for it, I believe you'll have the only one I know of that I can remember  .

Tim

[jkpq45]

USPS says the package was delivered while I was out of town.  Can't wait to get back and inspect it.

27", 0.458" heavy blanks are on sale at Green Mountain....

[jkpq45]

Reamer showed up and looks... giant.


Now all I need is a donor barrel and some 348 Brass....

[hoytcanon]

Reamer showed up and looks... giant.

Too giant for me... lean towards subtle rather than "shock and awe." Even avoid the tamer long actions wherever possible.