Accuracy International is a British firearms manufacturer based in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The company produces the

Accuracy International Arctic Warfare The Accuracy International Arctic Warfare rifle is a bolt-action sniper rifle designed and manufactured by the British company Accuracy International. It has proved popular as a civilian, police, and military rifle since its introduction in th ...

series of precision sniper rifles. 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,

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 Sarah Anne Cooper (born December 19, 1977) is an Americans, American author and comedian based in New York City. She worked in design for Yahoo! and in user experience for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides while also performing stand-up comedy. ...

, 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. David Caig remains in the business as a consultant.

Production

The rifles are hand-built. Accuracy International introduced their new

AS50 The AS50 is a Semi-automatic rifle, semi-automatic .50 BMG anti-materiel precision rifle manufactured by British firearms producer Accuracy International. It enables operators to engage targets at very long range with high Accurizing, accuracy us ...

.50 BMG calibre

semi-automatic rifle A semi-automatic rifle is an autoloading rifle that fires a single cartridge with each pull of the trigger, and uses part of the fired cartridge's energy to eject the case and load another cartridge into the chamber. For comparison, a bolt-a ...

at the 2005 SHOT Show 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 The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

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, Eurooptic 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 A magazine is an ammunition storage and feeding device for a repeating firearm, either integral within the gun (internal/fixed magazine) or externally attached (detachable magazine). The magazine functions by holding several cartridges with ...

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 SIG Sauer CROSS is a light-weight bolt-action rifle manufactured by SIG Sauer's North American branch headquartered in Newington, New Hampshire in the United States, as a "precision hunting rifle" designed to "meet the demands of both precisi ...

, 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 The Ruger Precision Rifle (RPR) is a bolt-action rifle introduced by Sturm, Ruger & Co. on 17 July 2015. Models The RPR was originally announced in the following calibers and configurations: * .308 Win. with 1:10 twist, barrel, weighing * 6 ...

, 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 Ru ...

models and some new production models by

Remington Remington may refer to: Organizations * Remington Arms, American firearms manufacturer * Remington Rand, American computer manufacturer * Remington Products, American manufacturer of shavers and haircare products * Remington College, American c ...

(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 metal A bottom metal is a firearm component typically made of metallic material (such as aluminium alloy or steel), that serves as the floor of the action and also helps to clamp the receiver onto the stock. The bottom metal also frequently incorpor ...

s") are available for several different rifle models and are made by several different manufacturers. Many conversion kits require fitting ("inletting") by a gunsmith. In addition to Accuracy International, there are now aftermarket manufacturers offering AICS-style magazines, such as

Magpul Magpul Industries Corporation is an American designer and manufacturer of high-tech polymer and composite firearms accessories like M-LOK. Magpul Industries takes its name from its first product, the MagPul (Magazine Puller), an accessory for th ...

, 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, an ...

length cartridges) and

SR-25 pattern magazine An SR-25, AR-10 or LR-308 pattern magazine is a type of detachable firearm magazine based on the original Armalite AR-10 "waffle" magazine design introduced in the late 1950s, used for .308 Winchester and 7.62×51mm NATO cartridges. The design has ...

(for 7.62×51mm NATO 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