Looking for 223 Ackley Improved load data.

[Rover1022]

I just received a 15" 223 Ackley improved barrel from the T/C custom shop and I am looking for load data. I will probably be using bullets in the 50-55gr range.

[Greyfox]

The only place I can recall that has any data on the net is the reloaders nest. But, I use PO Ackley's recommendations. Choose the slowest powder you can reasonably use, start with near max loads for a standard 223 and fireform. Then you can work up to about 5% over max for the 223. One other suggestion is that along with the very slow powder, you seat the bullets tight into the rifling. Compressed loads keep the hammer from forcing the case over the bullet and causing misfires. Varget with a nearly full case works pretty well.

Good luck,
Rick

[Rover1022]

Yeah thanks GreyFox. I plan to seat the bullets as use suggested and I was going to start with 2223 max load data. I hadn't thought of using Varget but that sounds like a goo powder to use out of my 15" barrel.

[Lone Star]

There is data in Cartridges of the World, but it is all developed on a computer, not in a rifle barrel.  Ackley's data was not pressure tested, is very old, and is dubious at best.  A simple Google search found these, among many others:

http:// www.accurate reloading.com/223ackley.html
http://www.reloadersnest.com/frontpage.asp?CaliberID=98
http://www.loadammo.com/product/cartridgelist.htm
http://www.huntchat.com/showthread.php?s=50bce2cdd6fb00ce51a2e58e5521b89b&threadid=36045

The following comments are not meant to "dis" the .223AI - it is a neat round and personally I'd like to have one too.  The comments are one of a series of similar posts by shooters knowledgable of the cartridge, posted in one of the above links.  They help to explain the magic thinking of some AI owners and proponents:

"The 223 AI is a nice little round, but what it gives you over the regular 223 may be a bit exaggerated in print. The problem with most of the Ackley Improved cartridges is that it's extremely hard to read pressure signs on them. So reloaders just keep cramming in more powder, thinking there's something magic that keeps the pressures low. There isn't. The pressures climb with frightening speed; you just can't detect them in the way the case looks, or the bolt turns. If I needed more than the regular 223 (and I don't think I do), I'd just get a .204 or a .22-250."