Did Acley build rifles....???

j23 · 12-29-2003, 12:12 PM

My friend asked me the other day if I was interesting in buying a rifle his father had bought for his brother that they were trying to sell. As far as I could tell at first, it appeared to be a sporterized Arisaka Mauser. Upon looking closer I seen the words P.O. Ackley on the barrel. He said it was a 257 Roberts so I just thought that it was a 257 Ack. but it is chambered for just standard "Bob". What gives? Did our good friend Mr. Ackley put the rifle together??? He only wants 250 for it. Should I pick it up for nostalgia sake?

popeye · 12-29-2003, 01:11 PM

I read a article maybe 10 or 15 years ago about Ackley built rifles. He did build a few rifles, very few, if I remember correctly. I don't recall what, if any proof marks distinguish them. The price on a true original Ackley rifle would be sky high.

Because it's built on a ***anese Arisaka action I would seriously doubt this rifle was built by Ackley himself. I think the Arisaka action post dates the man.

frizzellr · 12-29-2003, 06:13 PM

Quote:

No one has ever accused the Arisaka rifle of being handsome, but as several authorities like P.O. Ackley were eventually discovered, it was probably the strongest and safest bolt action battle rifle ever built. When subjected to destructive testing, loads that blew apart '17 Enfield, '03 Springfield, and '98 Mauser actions were taken in stride by the Arisaka action.

That is a quote from an article on the reload bench. This leads us to believe that he did have experience with the Arisakas. BTW, the Arisaka was adopted by the ***anese military in 1905. It is called the 38 because it was the 38th year of the emporer's reign. Ackley was still around in 1947. Not sure when he died.

8mm/06 · 12-29-2003, 08:14 PM

That would be a sweet gun. One of the popular chambering "switches" done by gunsmiths after WW2 was to ream the Arisaka's chamber to 257 Roberts dimensions while keeping the original barrel intact. The result was the 6.5 X 257 wildcat....a very cool cross-breed. I have a couple Arisaka project guns in the works right now...one to be cut to 6.5 X 257 or 57 (not sure which one right now) and the other to be cut to 6.5 X 55 Swede.

popeye · 12-30-2003, 09:13 AM

Good info Frizzellr, I was working from memory. I was assuming the action was an imported after WWII and thinking that Ackley died in the '30's. I was definately wrong on both counts.