P.O. Ackley Krag

T

tater134

New member
I picked this Krag up at a local gun shop this afternoon with plans to put a stock and some sights on it and make a deer rifle out of it. I never buy sporterized military rifles since I prefer them in their original configuration but the price was right on this one. As I was doing paperwork on the rifle I noticed that the barrel was stamped P.O. Ackley and I remembered the name from the blow up tests he did on military rifles and the wildcat cartridges he invented. So I have a few questions about the rifle I bought:

- Was this rifle rebarreled by Ackley himself or were barrels sold with his name stamped on them?

- Is it odd to have an Ackley rifle with a standard 30-40 Krag barrel instead of one of his "Improved" cartridges?

- Does the Ackley barrel add any value to the rifle?

Here are a few photos:









Thanks in advance for any information.
 
P O Ackley make barrels in addition to building custom rifles. It is not odd to see his barrels on any type of action.
 
I think it's 30-40 Krag. The barrel is a custom barrel with a short cylinder before the taper begins. That's something Ackley did for custom guns. The caliber marking would have have A.I. (Ackley Improved).

Of course, you can always do a chamber cast to see if it has the customary 40 degree shoulder of the A.I. cartridge. Even then, it should be safe to fire a normal 30-40 as they were fire formed to fit the A.I. chamber.
 
I know from experience the P O Ackley also made, sold and installed over the counter chambering. I have seen several he did for John Amber.:)
 
You most likely have a standard .30-40 chamber in that Ackley barrel, since P.O. would have definitely marked the bbl ".30-40 AI" if it was chambered for his improved krag - which is not to say that some subsequent owner didn't have the chamber reamed out to AI, but never so marked.

I, too, would normally recommend a chamber cast - but simply firing a factory .30-40 Krag cartridge in it (how AI cases are made/fireformed anyway) & comparing the fired brass to another factory Krag shell ought to tell you if they're identical or if the fired case (and, ergo, the chamber) is an AI.

As for value - It's still only a sporterized Krag, maybe worth only a little bit more to some knowledgeable buyer than another sporterized Krag in the same condition, because of the Ackley bbl (but virtually equal).



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