Accuracy International is a British

firearm A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...

s manufacturer based in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. The company produces the Accuracy International Arctic Warfare series of precision

sniper rifle A sniper rifle is a high-precision, long-range rifle. Requirements include accuracy, reliability, mobility, concealment and optics for anti-personnel, anti-materiel and surveillance uses of the military sniper. The modern sniper rifle is a por ...

s. The company was established in 1978 by British

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

shooting gold medallist

Malcolm Cooper Malcolm Douglas Cooper, MBE, (20 December 1947 – 9 June 2001) was a British sport shooter and founder of Accuracy International. Sports shooting career He was the first shooter to win two consecutive gold medals in the Olympic 50 metre r ...

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(1947–2001), Sarah Cooper, Martin Kay, and the designers of the weapons, Dave Walls and David Caig. The founders were professional international or national sport shooters. Accuracy International's sniper rifles are used internationally in military units and police departments. Accuracy International went into liquidation in 2005, and was bought by a British consortium including the original design team of Dave Walls and David Caig.

Management

As of 2014, the company was equally owned by two directors, Dave Walls and Tom Irwin along with

Paul Bagshaw Paul Lynton Bagshaw (born 22 August 1946) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) during the 1960s and 1970s. Bagshaw played 360 games for the Double Blues and 14 for So ...

. David Caig remains in the business as a consultant.

Production

The rifles are hand-built. Accuracy International introduced their new AS50 .50 BMG calibre semi-automatic rifle at the 2005

SHOT Show The SHOT Show , which is an acronym for "Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show", is an American annual trade show for the shooting sports, hunting, outdoor recreations and firearm manufacturing industries. The show is owned and sponsored by ...

in Las Vegas and their new AX Series at the 2010 Shot Show in Las Vegas. The UK government announced in March 2008 the award of an £11 million contract to produce rifles for the British Army.

Distribution

Accuracy International's distribution in United States is managed by the American division of AI, Accuracy International USA. There are only two distributors of Accuracy International in the United States,

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and Mile High Shooting.

Magazine types

Different Accuracy International rifle models come with a variety of proprietary magazines.

AICS-style magazine

The "AICS-style" short action box magazine was originally manufactured for the Accuracy International Chassis System, but can now be found on several production rifles, such as the SIG Sauer CROSS, the

Ruger Gunsite Scout The Ruger Gunsite Scout is a bolt-action rifle introduced by Sturm, Ruger & Co. at the 2011 SHOT Show.Ordorica, Ray"Is Ruger's New Gunsite Scout Rifle a Pretender, or Contender?" ''Gun Tests'', May 2011 It is a re-designed scout rifle based on t ...

,Top 10 Detachable Box Magazine Platforms
/ref> Ruger Precision Rifle, some

Ruger American Rifle The Ruger American Rifle is a family of budget-level hunting/ sporting bolt-action centerfire rifle made by Sturm, Ruger & Co., which also produces a line of rimfire rifles with similar designs called the Ruger American Rimfire. Design The Rug ...

models and some new production models by Remington (Model 700 PCR, 700 Tactical Chassis, 700 Magpul, and 700 Magpul Enhanced). AICS-style magazines can also be found on many custom rifles, and aftermarket conversion kits (known as " bottom metals") are available for several different rifle models and are made by several different manufacturers. Many conversion kits require fitting ("inletting") by a

gunsmith A gunsmith is a person who repairs, modifies, designs, or builds guns. The occupation differs from an armorer, who usually replaces only worn parts in standard firearms. Gunsmiths do modifications and changes to a firearm that may require a very h ...

. In addition to Accuracy International, there are now aftermarket manufacturers offering AICS-style magazines, such as Magpul, Accu-Mag and Modular Driven Technologies (MDT).MDT Polymer and Metal Magazines – Modular Driven Technologies LP. "MDT's magazine are AICS compatible to fit our MDT chassis systems and many more"
/ref> Examples of other magazine designs include the STANAG magazine (for

5.56×45mm NATO The 5.56×45mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 5.56 NATO, but often pronounced "five-five-six") is a rimless bottlenecked intermediate cartridge family developed in the late 1970s in Belgium by FN Herstal. It consists of the SS109, L110, and ...

length cartridges) and SR-25 pattern magazine (for

7.62×51mm NATO The 7.62×51mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 7.62 NATO) is a rimless, bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It is a standard for small arms among NATO countries. First developed in the 1950s, the cartridge had first been introduced in U.S. service fo ...

length cartridges).

References

External links

*
The AS50
at Modern Firearms {{Accuracy International Manufacturing companies established in 1978 Firearm manufacturers of the United Kingdom Companies based in Portsmouth