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| "...'Ackley' can best be described as a mindset, not just the
straight wall, sharp shoulder design he made famous..." |
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| A new reloader isn't reloading very long before
repeatedly encountering the name "Ackley" in books, magazines, and websites.
Many modern wildcat developers tailor their
designs with concepts that seem intuitive and basic but
only because P.O. Ackley challenged an entire industry with "Improved"
versions of their own designs. Today, Ackley's ideas
can be found in many high-performance commercial products.
P.O.'s long-time associate Mike Bellm of Mike Bellm TC's applies years of Ackley-inspired experience and knowledge to produce expertly tuned fireams of unmatched quality. Mike has provided a wealth of information to us about P.O.'s rounds as well as his own and his contributions are deeply appreciated. As Mike related memories of the "Great One" from his years in Salt Lake City, I knew many AmmoGuide visitors would enjoy them as much as I. Mike, it's a privilege to host these pictures and stories that you have generously shared. Thanks for allowing us get to know Parker O. Ackley a little bit better.
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A c k l e y o n A m m o G u i d e
Mike Bellm here.
I had ingested every "Gunsmith Column" by Ackley throughout grade school,
high school, and college in Illinois & then Logan, Utah, never
dreaming I would someday walk through the doors of his shop
in Salt Lake City at the right time and end up
doing the work I only dreamed about for years.
His shop was on one side of the Salt Lake Valley, mine was on the opposite side.
We never actually worked together but visited each other's shops.
And we talked - a LOT.
"Ackley" can best be described as a mindset, not just the
straight wall, sharp shoulder design he made famous.
Ackley is an analytical, realistic way of getting into problems and
finding solutions. It is a love of rifled sporting firearms and
the guys who use them.
It is also an attitude that looks at the "common wisdom"
put out by the shooting industry with a jaundiced eye and
challenges it when it does not stand up to the light of day.
For me..... it is also apparently an addiction.
P.O. laid the foundation for me to work from, but most importantly, he
taught me to think through things. It was not a matter of learning
to do things just one way. P.O. was a chronic experimenter, continually challenging
all the accepted "truths" that turned out to have flawed logic that did
not hold up in the real world. That is what has pretty much
set my course. It also tends to set one at odds with the
rest of those in the gun trade that don't agree with what I
can easily demonstrate when it flies in the face of "common wisdom" or
accepted practice.
I should have more pictures than I do, but was not into the
notoriety thing that much. I was just doing what I did for the
most part.
The really upsetting day was the day Jackie said they had thrown out
several pickup truck loads of old correspondence. That in itself would have been
the basis for a graduate course in barrels, chambers, & metal work.
Scuderi brought one of the Ruger engineers to the shop one time. Talk about a hailstorm of
concepts filling the air - everyone else in the group drifted out of the picture
as we let it all fly. I learned a LOT about Ruger's operation, castings, and moulds.
For many, many years, I turned guns and ammo around in my head after
reading about them in Ackley's writings and others. I was told by my
high school counselor I tested very high in "spatial ability"
and this seemed to develop more fully trying to conceptualize details about guns.
Stimulation and challenge by P.O. pressed it to the limit.
He would explain anything but never showed me anything.
That left me walking away having to figure out what to do.
He gave me the concepts, but I had to do it.
It wasn't until a few days after he passed away August 23, 1989
that it dawned on me what he had done. He made me learn to think.
He could only tell me so much about so many things, but learning
how to think was the foundation that has proven invaluable.
Mike Bellm |
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