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My late father was a friend and fan of Parker Ackley. I have two of his rifles that Ackley himself 'Improved' - one is a Marhoff drilling with the rifle barrel chambered for .22 Savage High Power AI. It shoots a 70gr, .228 dia bullet at about the same velocity that a 22-250 shoots a 55gr. These bullets are hard to find and I have a stash of Speer hollowpoints from the '50s that I load and shoot sparingly. I have shot a few whitetails with this gun and it drops them right now with a boiler works shot. It absolutely pulverizes coyotes.
The other rifle is a single shot '98 Mauser chambered for 31-40 Krag AI. It's thirty one-forty because it was originally chambered for 8.15x46R which has a groove diameter of .315. I squish .323 (8mm) bullets down to .315 in a swage die, and I also shoot regular .312 (.303 Enfield) bullets which actually shoot quite well out to 300 yards considering they are a little under bore size.
The reason the old man had Ackley chamber it for his 30-40 Krag AI is because the rifle action required a rimmed cartridge. I load 52gr of H380 behind a 174gr Hornady RN and get what amounts to a 30-06. This load is actually a little light as the cartridge is capable of near .300H&H mag velocities using 4350 or 4831, but in an 8lb sporter the '06 equivelent load is more comfortable to shoot and is capable of killing anything in Idaho I want to shoot.
I guess all this qualifies me as a gun looney, huh?
George
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