.223 AI (Ackley Improved) Rem 700 SPS Action

 223 AI

My 700 action 223 AI is my second.  The first being my Remington 722 custom heavy barrel 223 AI.  This rifle started life as a standard 223 Rem with a very bad trigger.  I had my gunsmith take off the barrel, clean it up, and chambered it to the 223 AI.  He also re-worked the trigger to something useful.

The round is a 223 Rem on steroids.  A wildcat cartridge started by P. O. Ackley many years ago.  It takes a standard 223 Rem, blows out the taper of the case to get a nearly straight case and puts on a 40 degree shoulder.

What is really neat about this cartridge is how easy it is to make the case.  Take a standard 223 Rem, load it, and shoot a prairie dog; that fire forms a standard 223 Rem to the 223 AI. 

There are several advantages, more powder capacity; which will give you more velocity, but more pressure, cases don’t stretch for two or three firing.  As with all of my rifles “I DON’T LOAD HOT ROUNDS”.  So my cases last for many firings.

My 700 action 223 AI is now on a Hogue Varmint Stock, it’s heavy, but I shoot off of a rest all the time.  I have over 2,000 cases for the AI and I use the same rounds in both guns.

I can easily shoot MOA or even better MOPD (Minute of Prairie Dog) out to 400 yards.  If they get farther out than that, I move the truck.