P.O. Ackley – The Gunsmith

By G&A Staff

Parker Otto (P.O.) Ackley was Guns & Ammo’s tell-­it-­like-­it-­is gun sage whom readers trusted with their technical firearms questions. Joining the technical staff for the October 1959 issue, G&A’s first monthly edition, his first feature introduced Dick Casull’s .454 Magnum — the most powerful handgun cartridge at that time — in November 1959. Ackley contributed until his last “Gunsmithing” column appeared in the October 1974 issue.

He wasn’t a prolific writer, but he often worked behind the scenes on a number of projects. For example, while working with Technical Editor Robert Hutton, they attempted to break the 5,000-­feet-­per-­second (fps) barrier with a wildcat based on a .378 Weatherby Magnum. In jest, it was named the .22 Eargesplitten Loudenboomer.

Long before doing cartridge development and ballistics studies for G&A, Ackley was first a gunsmith. He had run his own shop since 1936 and built a nationwide reputation for making great barrels, through which he tested and was credited with producing …Read the Rest

Source:: Guns and Ammo