30-06 A.i.

[Alex]

Hi y'all,

My main hunting rig is a Ruger M-77 in 30-06. I just had it free floated, is a very good shooter close to MOA.

Lately I was looking at the 30-06 Ackley improved. I am very interested in this calibre for quite a few reasons. #1: the extra 200 or so fps. witch would be great for 200 gr. slugs. The cases are easy to make. Also I could still use factory ammo in case of need.

What do you think? How much will it cost to rechamber the rifle; do I have to have my Bbl. stamped? Oh and before you ask; no I don't NEED it, but I figure why not, if it's not to costly it will add a little "je ne sais quoi" to my gun.

Thanks,

Alex

 

[1899]

It will not add 200 fps to a 30-06, when loaded to similar pressure. My buddy just had one done, and we are getting set up to fire-form etc. I can not imagine that any gunsmith would do the rechamber without stamping the barrel. It should cost you around $125 or so, more if the 'smith doesn't have the reamer.

edit: you will also need a set of dies.

 

[harv3589]

Here is a link to a list of calibres and what they gain in changed to an AI.

http://4-dproducts.com/ackley_info.html

 

[Oscar Makonka]

Shooting pal had his 06 rechambered to AI and gained approximately 20 to 30 fps over when it was in it's standard form. Not much improvement for the extra powder burned. Now it goes about the same speed as my standard 06 which was about 20 or 30 fps faster on average than his before the "improvement". Individual rifles results may vary but the 06 AI is known as one of the most inefficient of the AI family.

 

[Brambles]

There was an article on just this topic in one of the shooting magazines. They wanted to see if the difference between a 30-06, 30-06 A.I. and a 30 gibbs.

Basically the conclusion was that the A.I. didn't give a whole lot more power. It just had a cool factor. The gibbs gave about 100 fps more but required more labour to form the brass since the shoulder was moved forwards.

The test were done with loads of the same PSI for all the cartridges and fired from the same rifle, after the rechambering of course.

The 30-06 is great just the way she comes.
I actually have my first 30-06 coming in the mail shortly. Another one to add to the family

 

[Alex]

Here is a link to a list of calibres and what they gain in changed to an AI.

http://4-dproducts.com/ackley_info.html

According to this chart I will be getting the extra 200 fps. Is this accurate or not?

 

[guntech]

According to this chart I will be getting the extra 200 fps. Is this accurate or not?

You may or may not. EVERY rifle has individual characteristics. You can not predict that every rifle will have the same gain. Barrel length also has an influence on the percentage.

P.O. Ackley did extensive testing and in one case with two factory rifles with consecutive serial numbers and identical barrels, one rifle gained 100 feet per second more than the other with the same load.

You will not know what you will get until you test it..... you should chronograph it before and after with reasonable loads.

 

[David Henry]

A.i.

I chamber both the 30-06 Ackley and the 30 Gibbs and there are pros and cons to the geometry of each of the modified cases. If you are an experienced reloader then the Gibbs is head and shoulders above the A.I. but from a practicle low maintianence case standpoint the A.I. makes the most sense. I am not the first to make this remark but if you take the time to read both of P.O.Ackleys excellent reloading manuals it will be evident that a lot of the data presented on his improved cases was not collected from chronograph results but that of a good imagination at the typewriter. For some reason Ackley and Gibbs did not hit it off together and neither one credited each other with any sort of achivement in their fields. D.H.

 

[Andy]

Here is a link to a list of calibres and what they gain in changed to an AI.

http://4-dproducts.com/ackley_info.html

That chart is meaningless. To what pressures are the factory loads, and to what pressures are the Ackley loads? Anyone can get 2900 fps with a 180gr bullet from a non-improved 30/06 (and without their gun blowing up) if they just use enough of a fast enough powder.

Much better would be a comparison of powder capacities. A general rule of thumb is that for every 4% increase in capacity you can expect approximately a 1% increase in velocity at equal pressures. If your improved version of the 30/06 increases case volume by 6% then, you should expect about a 1 1/2% incease in velocity for each bullet weight on average.

 

[harv3589]

It was just a chart that I found on the internet while doing some checking around on AI gains. Thought would give just a general idea on improvements.