PO Ackley 1885 Winchester

[marlinman93]

We had our Oregon Arms Collector show Sunday, after 15 months without any! I ran into a friend who told me he had something I might be interested in. So we went to his table, and he pulled out this Winchester 1885.
It's a very early serial number 79xx range, with a new 26" octagon barrel, marked ".219 Improved". Built in PO Ackley's shop by one of his employees as his personal varmint rifle. Has a 20x Lyman Super Targetspot scope, and single set trigger. Came with 9 boxes of loaded ammo, and 6 boxes of brand new formed and primed brass.





Should be a fun varmint or target rifle. I'll shoot up some ammo, and then maybe pass it along to somebody else. Not a Winchester guy myself, but it is a neat rifle.

[gamekeeper]

Looks interesting.....please let us know how well it shoots.....

[samsi]

That's a pretty neat one alright, but I'm a High Wall fan to begin with, so there's that...

[CowboyTutt]

I have always considered the 1885 HW to be the finest single shot rifle ever made. I have one Ackley Improved cartridge in 375 with another one on the way in 416/284 using his theories. I never met the man but I did meet his student a couple of times. But those 1885's really are just so smooth and amazing. -Tutt

[marlinman93]

This one was owned by Dean Insted (sp?) who worked for PO Ackley back when he had a shop here in Oregon. It's been owned by three of my friends since the original owner passed away, and I shot it the first time probably 35-40 years ago? It was a sub 1 moa rifle, and took a lot of sage rats back then.

[Bill in Oregon]

Vall, when are you going to dedicate your firearms museum? I am serious. What a wonderful rifle to be properly appreciated and cared for in your hands.
Oh, and congratulations on the gun show. We haven't had one here either, but I can't say as I miss the scented candles, acrylic knitted items and the fantasy swords from China.

[marlinman93]

Vall, when are you going to dedicate your firearms museum? I am serious. What a wonderful rifle to be properly appreciated and cared for in your hands.
Oh, and congratulations on the gun show. We haven't had one here either, but I can't say as I miss the scented candles, acrylic knitted items and the fantasy swords from China.

Afraid I'd need to buy a new home before I can let people trip over all the stuff in my current gun/reloading room! Might have issues with my home owner's insurance after a few claims got filed from injured public!
The lack of all the jerky, beanie babies, and other non firearms stuff, has always made me appreciate our OAC shows a lot! I haven't attended one of the commercial gun shows around here in so long I can't even recall how long it' been? I have friends that still waste their time and money at them, and mostly complain about the quality. But maybe once every few years they find something good, so they keep spending the $9 entry, and $8 parking. I always ask why they would spend that much, when it's $3 for an OAC show, and free parking? And better quality of course!

[earlmck]

Now that is a thing of beauty! I also have one of those highwall 219 Imps though probably not a PO Aclkey one -- I used to think it was good to be able to make the cases from 225 Winchester brass (took just a scosh of base swaging in mine). Nowdays you would need to go the other way if you happen to also feed a 225 (make 'em out of 30/30). Somehow I have one of each though the barrel on the 225 is so worn I don't shoot it enough to wear out much brass. The imp still shoots however: lot's of 2-piece sage rats produced with 55 grain Speers.

[marlinman93]

Now that is a thing of beauty! I also have one of those highwall 219 Imps though probably not a PO Aclkey one -- I used to think it was good to be able to make the cases from 225 Winchester brass (took just a scosh of base swaging in mine). Nowdays you would need to go the other way if you happen to also feed a 225 (make 'em out of 30/30). Somehow I have one of each though the barrel on the 225 is so worn I don't shoot it enough to wear out much brass. The imp still shoots however: lot's of 2-piece sage rats produced with 55 grain Speers.

I stuck one of the empty formed cases into the chamber when I got it home. The box had a note that said, "Needs fire forming." So wasn't sure what to expect, and found the case wouldn't just drop in. It stopped about 3/16" from fully chambering, and I pressed on the base and it almost seated. Then closing the action finished it. When I opened the lever it extracted with some pressure, and comparing it to another the shoulder was slightly rounded over after chambering. Compared it to a fire formed cartridge and it looks like it's closer to that than one just formed, and not fired.
I've heard that cases formed from .30-30 should have the necks and shoulder annealed to eliminate split necks. In one box of empty brass there are probably 10 cases with blue felt pen on the bases. A note on that box states, "split necks as marked" So it appears an owner figured out after firing the cases should have been annealed before loading and fire forming. The split is so tiny if they hadn't been marked I'd have missed it. Had to use a magnifier to see the crack.

[yooper2]

Great find! I missed out on a high wall in 22 2R Lovell, friend got it along with dies. The old varmint rigs are so very cool.


Eric

[marlinman93]

Great find! I missed out on a high wall in 22 2R Lovell, friend got it along with dies. The old varmint rigs are so very cool.
Eric

Thanks! I like that he kept the original look of the 1885 on this one and didn't do one of those typical 40's or 50's varmint type stock sets. And he made the new barrel octagon also to retain the same contour as originals.

[earlmck]

I've heard that cases formed from .30-30 should have the necks and shoulder annealed to eliminate split necks. In one box of empty brass there are probably 10 cases with blue felt pen on the bases. A note on that box states, "split necks as marked" So it appears an owner figured out after firing the cases should have been annealed before loading and fire forming. The split is so tiny if they hadn't been marked I'd have missed it. Had to use a magnifier to see the crack.

I have 100 cases made from fireformed 219 zipper brass and another 100 made from R-P 30/30 cases. This was all done over 40 years ago and I have no recollection of how it went but I'm sure I'd have annealed the 30/30 stuff and probably I annealed everything. I just went out to the loading room and checked my notes and it appears I've never lost a case to neck cracks (or anything else for that matter). But that rifle doesn't get shot all that much so even though the brass has a lot of years on it it has less than 10 loadings, so I won't be able to claim good case life for another few decades.

And it looks like I took a couple boxes of my 225 brass and did something to make them fit (I have vague recollections that just running them into the imp zipper die didn't squeeze the base quite enough and I failed to note what I did to get around that and don't remember). I'm sure I did it just to prove to myself I could...