I have noticed, after looking at various reloading data, that some cartridges seem to benifit more in terms of increased speed due to Ackley Improvement. Do the short cartridges such as the 308 & 243 family benifit more than the longer 30/06 family? What is the improvement for the 223 and would you consider it worth the effort?

1. more speed
2. less triming needed
3. haveing something the next guy doesnt
4. really cool looking cases

1 and 4 are what made me go for the improved vesion.

Do a search on this site, and you'll find a lot of pro and anti Ackley views here. I mostly come down on the pro side, but go in with your eyes open and don't expect the world. Short modern cartridges like the 243/260/7mm-08/308/358 family don't gain much. Older cartridges with more case taper like the 250 Savage, 257 Roberts, 7 X 57, etc, gain quite a bit. And, as mentioned, they look way cool. - Dan

Parryj

For what it is worth. I have a 6mm and 35 Whelan AI. I have been interested in AI's for a long time. I look at them as the step between regular and magnum calibers. They seam to be quite a bit more efficient. I have gained quite a bit more from my 35 than from my 6mm. Which leads back to what the other guys have said. I can reach 2850 fps with a 225 gr Nosler BT. Thats 4000 ft/lbs at the muzzle. Not bad for 60+ grains of powder. The brass on IA are usually easy to form and in a jam you can shoot regular rounds.

There is no gain in efficiency or less trimming however it's something that you can that makes no sense but in the end will not cause a big problem. It's only an expense of a couple of hundred bucks.



If you look at a case that has a lot of body taper then that can be expanded some. Also a case with a long shoulder can be stretched. Thus a .243 can be blown out some but a .358 Win cannot in terms of the shoulder.