AI Rifle Review

[Texas1911A1]

A good friend of mine, Chuck from Mile High Shooting in Colorado, brought down an Accuracy International AE Mk II rifle chambered in .308 loaded up with a slew of AI accessories for me to review. We put the gun through it's paces and in an unfamiliar environment to discern what makes this gun and package worth the money.

Review Here: http://www.texasguntalk.com/forums/...-international-ae-mk-ii-308-rifle-review.html

 

[Zak Smith]

Just FYI that is not the AI muzzle brake. That's the SAS muzzle brake.

 

[mc223]

Zak, dont you have like eleven of those?



Maybe by the time i get back to Colo I can find one that is dented, scratched, and almost shot out in my price range. An AI is on my Christmas list permanently.

 

[MCMXI]

A friend has an AE MkII from MHS and I recently bought an AI AW from Diann ... great folks, great rifles. I've shot my friend's AE and it's definitely a shooter. I showed some results here. I had to pay quite a bit more for the AW but I feel that it's worth the extra cost. However, I made the statement in my previous thread that the AE is a great alternative for someone thinking of building a custom rifle for practical shooting or F-Class. I still feel the same way. When you consider that it can take months to get a custom rifle built and an AE is just days away, then consider the combination of features that simply aren't available from custom builds, I wish I'd bought a couple of AEs rather than built three custom rifles.

It's a pity that AI doesn't sell actions, bolts and triggers. I'd love to build a hunting rifle around the AI action.

 

[Zak Smith]

If AI sold parts, then everyone would be saying how unreliable they were because Billy-Bob-Joe-Gunsmith built my gun from parts and it blew up, jammed, or whatever.

 

[MCMXI]

If AI sold parts, then everyone would be saying how unreliable they were because Billy-Bob-Joe-Gunsmith built my gun from parts and it blew up, jammed, or whatever.

I can't think of one high-end action or barrel manufacturer who suffers from "Billy-Bob-Joe-Gunsmith" syndrome. If someone is prepared to pay in excess of $1,000 for an action (an AI AE or AW would be quite a bit more than that) and $400 to $600 for a barrel, there's a good chance that they'll choose a decent gunsmith to put it together. Of course, the advantage of an AI action is that you can order a barrel that is properly chambered and headspaced so a gunsmith wouldn't necessarily be required.

The AI AW action, and to some extent the AE action, have every feature that I could want in a hunting rifle. If AI offered a hunting variant of the AE with a total weight under 8lb, I'd buy one. If they offered the AE action, I'd probably buy one of those too.

 

[Zak Smith]

I'm totally with you on the super lightweight "hunting" version. One of the advantages of the AI rifle is the geometry of the action vs. the stock, which puts the cheek height very close to right for most people with no adjustment and a very flat recoil push. I don't think a conventional-style hunting stock could do this.

On the "BBJG" syndrome, I think many "custom" rifles suffer from it. I've seen my share of competitor guns have problems that were due to basically using parts outside what they were originally designed for. Having to have an ejection port modded or a bolt ejector tweaked so cases don't bounce off the scope knob back into the action isn't that uncommon. Plus all those weird issues around DBM feeding and ignition. The "Rifle Reliability Highlights" video I did a few years ago shines the light on a few of these.

 

[MCMXI]

On the "BBJG" syndrome, I think many "custom" rifles suffer from it. I've seen my share of competitor guns have problems that were due to basically using parts outside what they were originally designed for. Having to have an ejection port modded or a bolt ejector tweaked so cases don't bounce off the scope knob back into the action isn't that uncommon. Plus all those weird issues around DBM feeding and ignition. The "Rifle Reliability Highlights" video I did a few years ago shines the light on a few of these.

OK ... now I understand what you mean. It would be interesting to see how well an M24 or M40A5 would hold up since many custom builds seem to try to replicate those systems.

One difference I noticed between the AW and AE is the spring loaded plunger in the AW bolt shroud which helps in case extraction by pushing the bolt rearwards for 1/8" or so when opening the action. The AE doesn't have that feature.

 

[Zak Smith]

For the first question, the thing the M24 or M40A5 would have going for it versus a "custom gun" is that they've been debugged, so with an issued system you wouldn't have "turn-on" problems, like a WSM case not ejecting right or the case bouncing off the scope turret....

 

[Texas1911A1]

On the brake, it's my understanding that AI North America is selling the SAS as their "tactical" brake in lieu of the true AI England brake due to it accepting a proprietary European suppressor.

 

[MCMXI]

On the brake, it's my understanding that AI North America is selling the SAS as their "tactical" brake in lieu of the true AI England brake due to it accepting a proprietary European suppressor.

If you look at MHS's website, they sell Suppressed Armament Systems suppressors so it makes sense for them to sell SAS muzzle brakes. If you "build" an AI rifle using the utility on www.accuracyinternational.com, the tactical muzzle brake is not an SAS version. It's the AI version that works with the suppressors sold by AI. I'm sure that MSH gives the option of the SAS or AI tactical muzzle brake.

 

[Zak Smith]

I was down at MH last week.

AI-UK has several brake versions, but they break down into the so-called "Tactical" versions, that have a threaded portion forward of the ports, and the regular version, that almost everyone in the US with AI-UK brakes has. There is not point in getting the Tactical AI-UK brake because no suppressors here are made for it, and it's a crummy method to connect a suppressor (that specific design). All the brakes on my guns are the regular non-"Tactical" versions. For someone who isn't going to shoot suppressed, the regular AI-UK brakes are the way to go IMO.

The US-sourced barrels that AINA is installing are - to my knowledge - threaded with US-spec muzzle threads, so you cannot use the AI-spec brakes, which are M18x1.5 (except the AW50).

Anyway, MH will be selling our cans soon, including our brake-attach version, which will be available for US or metric threads.