It was raining here in California so I spent some quality time in the shop and cranked out a 450 Ackley mag on a pre-64 Mod 70 winchester long action. Barrel is a SS douglas and its equipped with a masterpiece front and rear sight, second recoil lug and barrel band. The stock is some wierd Super express take-off. The gun is still in the white and will either be steelblued or laquer backed. The pictures show some of the machining involved.-Rob

[This message has been edited by Robgunbuilder (edited 02-20-2002).]

Robgunbuilder,

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing these.

You'll love your .450 Ackley. My smith have biult one for me from a CZ 550 Mag in .458 Win Mag.

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BER007
Keep the faith in any circumstances
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BBER007@HOTMAIL.COM

Outside of the porn that I normally look at, those are about the coolest pictures I have ever seen!

LOL, I think LongBob should get quote of the year.
As for the rifle, if you find out you don't like it, I will gladly due you the service of taking it off your hands.

quote:

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Originally posted by BER007:
Robgunbuilder,

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing these.

You'll love your .450 Ackley. My smith have biult one for me from a CZ 550 Mag in .458 Win Mag.

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BER007 what kind of performance do you get from your .450 ACKLEY, I have a extra CZ-550 .458WM. (The little wheels are turning!!)
Thank you!

Robgunbuilder,

Very nice looking big bore.

I have a question about the barrel recoil lug. As best as I can tell from one of the photos, it looks like it is welded in place. What method of attachment did you actually use? And if welded, is there any concern about the welding creating stress in the barrel?

Jack Lott wrote an article once and discussed the need for a barrel recoil lug for big bores. In it he used a sleeve soldered to the barrel to provide a platform for the rear sight as well as attachment of the barrel lug.

Looks like a standard Model 70 recoil lug if you ask me, nice and beefy and is forged with the reciever.

tsturm,

With this 25.5" barrel you can reach 2350 fps with a 500 gr bullet (Honardy). This with 80 gr of IMR 3031.

As for the .458 lott the best velocity is between 2300 and 2375 fps originaly with a 450 gr bullet. You can use other powders W748, Varget,RL-15,...

The advantage with .450 Ackley no need to trim case (.375H&H abd .416 rem mag), we use 2.850" case.

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BER007
Keep the faith in any circumstances
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BBER007@HOTMAIL.COM

The second lug is hard to see in the picture and the welded section you see is the weld of the lug plate to its mount. What I did was taper turn a barrel sleeve ( to match the taper of the barrel about 5 inches foreward from the standard M-70 recoil lug, then welded an old remington recoil lug to the face of the sleeve. I then sectioned the sleeve and lug and drilled and tapped it with two 8X32 screws( and acraglass) to mount to the barrel. Final shaping was done on a grinder. This way the lug is maintained perpendicular to the barrel and does not have the induced stresses of a welded lug. It also is quite strong and hides well in the stock.

I fired this thing for the first time this weekend and was very pleased. Not only does it feed and extract flawlessly, but I was able to hit about 2390 fps with a number of reloads and 500 gr Hornady solids. Recoil was stiff but far from unmanageable. My son shot it and it pushed him back two steps! Accuracy is one hole at 50 yrds and I have to say that the masterpiece rear sight works beautifully. The recoil lug system worked great as the stock has no cracks after 25 full power loads.-Rob

Rob,

Thanks for the detailed explanation of how you attached the extra lug. It helps because I'm trying to decide if I should have one added to my 458 WM.

How did I not see that forward lug, time to clean my monitor.