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30-06 A.I
telohf
Member Posts: 913 ✭✭
Anyone here convert their 30-06 to a 30-06 Ackley Improved? If so tell me the benefits(if any). Any velocity difference or accuracy and such. I normally shoot 165grn bullets at about 2700fps. I am considering doing the chambering. thanks for any info.
Comments
Good 'ole .30-06 is hard to beat.
Additionally, rechambering to AI is not as simple as just running a reamer into an existing chamber since that would leave the chamber too deep to safely use regular .30/06 cartridges. For the job to be done right, the barrel has to be set back (usually one turn) and then the chamber cut to the proper depth. If you have to pay someone to do that, the money spent would go a long way toward the purchase of a rifle in one of the .30 cal. magnums.
EDIT: I stand corrected! I have Ackley's book on the shelf, too and should have referenced it. I confused the remarks in the old Speer Wildcat #4 reloading book with Ackley's. A saying from the old small-town doctor years ago comes to mind; "My memory is what I use to forget with!"
Ackley himself didn't think much of the improved .30/06.
Mr Ambrose appears to be confused on what PO Ackley's opinions were. Quoting from P.O. Ackley's Handbook for Shooters & Reloaders: "This and similar improved version of the well known .30/06 have developed into quite controversial cartridges. Actually they have a great deal of merit and for handloaders they can be highly recommended. Various articles have appeared in sporting magazines written by individuals who do not believe in the "improved" idea. Invariably loads appear in these articles which do no credit to the cartridge while the loads which really show something have been carefully left out. A cartridge which has gained such world wide popularity does not do it without merit. Since its introduction just after World War II it has become one of the most popular of all wildcat or improved cartridges. Cases are made by firing factory loads in the improved chamber, and of course factory ammunition can regularly be used in the improved chamber without serious loss in velocity. This cartridge is particularly good with bullets of 180gr or heavier and with these bullets it equals the standard factory 300 H&H magnum factory loads."
"didn't think much of" seems to be inaccurate.
A larger case needs more gas to make the same pressure. The downfall is, that to gain the speed, you will need a couple more inches of barrel to do so. It is also much easier to make an AI chamber, correctly, on a new barrel blank, than it is on a barrel that has been chambered in the parent cartridge. It is not as easy of a chore as just sticking in the proper chamber reamer. The barrel must be removed from the rifle, a couple threads removed, so you can clean up the old chamber, and a couple more threads added, new shoulder formed, and headspace set properly.
As suggested, a 300 Win Mag, in either the belted original version, or the more efficient Short Magnum version, would be the way to go.
Best
EDIT 1
quote:the 30-06 AI is in the 1973 Hornady Handbook and states "the 30-06 improved showed that more powder is burned to produce the same or lower velocities, proving each rifle and cartridge is a law unto itself" page 227.
Not all powder is the same, and it all depends on what barrel length we are talking about. In order to make it work out, it needs at least a 24 inch barrel, and it will favor heavier bullets.
Anyone here convert their 30-06 to a 30-06 Ackley Improved? If so tell me the benefits(if any). Any velocity difference or accuracy and such. I normally shoot 165grn bullets at about 2700fps. I am considering doing the chambering. thanks for any info.
I say go for it! The .30-06 is an awesome chambering and I know guys propelling 208's out of 20" barrel at 2700 FPS past 1K yards (http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f17/short-barreled-30-06-06ai-140892/). Those same guys also pushes the Berger 215s and 230s way out there.
With the AI's extra capacity gain, faster twist (to stabilize the heavier and higher BC bullets), and longer barrel augmented with the new powder and barrel/bullet coatings, who knows what you might end up.
I have a .270 AI with 30" Lilja barrel 1:8' 3-groove propelling the 175gr Matrix VLDs at 3000+ FPS with my hand loads ... not too shabby, but that's JMHHO.
Good luck, cheers!
the 30-06 AI is in the 1973 Hornady Handbook and states "the 30-06 improved showed that more powder is burned to produce the same or lower velocities, proving each rifle and cartridge is a law unto itself" page 227.
The problem is that "each rifle is a rule unto itself" means that two rifles that appear to be identical may produce differences of a few hundred feet per second with given loads and a given load may produce considerably higher pressure in one than the other. But Mr Ackley does clarify this- I don't recall where, but if pushed I could look it up= the jist of it was: a rifle barrel will always increase the velocity potential when it is chambered to a cartridge with higher capacity. My guess is that Hornady didn't test the barrels chambered as 30-06 then rechamber them to Improved and check the difference. To take some barrels chambered for 30-06 and compare them with other barrels chambered for the Improved proves little except that the Hornady people likely had an agenda.
the 30-06 AI is in the 1973 Hornady Handbook and states "the 30-06 improved showed that more powder is burned to produce the same or lower velocities, proving each rifle and cartridge is a law unto itself" page 227.
Ackley is definitely ahead of his time but 1973 is a long time ago and many advancements in bullets, barrels, powders, primers, etc., since then.