Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats .30 Gibbs Project 2020

May have to try some of that Staball 6.5. Could be a contender.

Med river you bn use the Gibbs on deer yet? Mb

Not yet. Took it out one day on a timber hunt for elk. Was a joy to pack. Stock seems prone to showing abuse which is a little disappointing but most of my rifles I hunt with have a fair amount of character. I don’t baby them.

The next trip out I took my old reliable .300 Ruger out and punched my elk tag. Still have another cow permit for a different area. Would like to use the Gibbs for that.



With the rut approaching I am going to be more serious about buck hunting and plan to pack the Gibbs. I did take it out a few days ago to verify zero. It put 3 180 Accubonds into less than an inch and the cold bore was within 1/4” of where I expected it. That should work!

I guess I was a lax on posting. After my antelope hunt I dropped it off to get cerakoted only to find out the gunsmith was sent the wrong color. Rather than leave it there I picked it up and did some load work up with the 180 Accubond. My chrono went belly up so I didn’t have great data for a while (new one showed up this last week). I was mostly just looking for a hunting load. Best accuracy with the bullets seated just off the lands was with 65 grains of RL22. I started playing with seating depths and found my groups were much more consistent letting the Accubonds jump a ways. I ended up at 3.36” COL.

That seating with 65 grains put my average velocity at 2866, well below max velocity. I may play with some other powders next summer to see if I can get more speed and accuracy (not that it matters much, or at all).

I must say, I measured a few of the Accubonds to see how consistent the ogives were. I was not impressed. They seem to shoot plenty adequate for a big game rifle, I just expected a little more consistency.

Cool write up. The 30 gibbs cartridge is one I remember seeing in the cartridge of the world book a long time ago and wondered why it wasn't more popular. Seems like it would be a great cartridge. Supercharged 30-06 so to speak. Keep us posted.

Great and interesting write up! Been considering a 30 Gibbs ever since reading about Rocky(?) Gibbs in an old HANDLOADER magazine years ago. I’ve come close to starting a couple other projects that reading about the Gibbs cartridges fired up at least to the thinking phase: 270 Win Improved (got the reamer) and the 35 Brown Whelen or the 35 Gibbs. Thinking’s cheap, doing takes a few dollars.

I think they are fun projects as long as you don't expect magic and are good with burning a few dollars and hours for marginal gains. I am, so it worked for me.

Med River my nephew used his 338 boat paddle in Colorado to take a big cow a few weeks back with Fed Premium 210 npt's. Did you ever run that comparison between std 06 loads to same bullet weight loads in the 30 Gibbs? MB

Yeah, it is in the write up. 165-180 class bullets gained about 125-150 fps. 200 grains only gained 50. Interestingly, my current accuracy load with the 180 Nosler Accubond is fairly close to where my velocity topped out as an '06 with the 180 NBT, which erases some of the advantage (assuming I could have got comparable accuracy with it in .30-06 maxed out...I only tested for what I considered accuracy potential, did not do a full accuracy workup).

Rifle loony cartridge for sure. I bet R26 could be a winner as it almost gets the 30-06 up to the Gibbs velocities. When you got the ejector mark at a lower charge rate the case could have been a little short on head space and the sort of running start can give pressure indications. It was probably one from the bulls eye batch, with spring back the head space can be reduced especially if the FF load is light. Had this happen when forming 280 AI with Red Dot and going up one grain of powder fixed it.

I also annealed the necks and that helped to get more of a uniform shoulder and head space too.

Tejano,

Do you have load data for RL26 and 180gr. bullets in the std. 30-06?

Elk Country

Great info! Thanks

A little update...

After what seemed like forever and about 5,000 text messages and phone calls my cerakote guy finally got his stuff together and got this rifle coated. I had him weld the sight holes shut and smooth them out so it looked like a smooth barrel from the factory. He did a great job but felt terrible about the time it took and wouldn't let me pay him. Class act.

The CDS scope that had been on it went belly up and wouldn't track so that was replaced with a 3.5-10 with the B&C reticle.







He was supposed to leave the bolt body uncoated but now that it is coated I don't hate it. With the scope it is 7.6 pounds and the 22" barrel is sure handy.

Took it out Monday to zero the new scope and make sure everything was still good. Once I had the scope zeroed with the 180 grain Accubond load I easily started busting rocks at 300 with the 300 yard hash. Just need to take it out with a spotter to confirm my 400 and 500 yard drops.

I have lots of rifles but this one just feels good and I expect it will probably become my most frequently used mountain hunting rifle. Even with a modest starting velocity the accubond is still north of 2,000 FPS and over 1,700 ft-lbs at 500 yards. I can't imagine anything in NA I wouldn't shoot with that combo and it looks like the accuracy is there.

Great write up.
Interesting project.
Enjoy.

dave

I enjoyed reading your write up. There is almost nothing worse, when it comes to costing you money, than a set of dies, or a box of bullets, or brass! I have saved myself a bundle, on numerous occasions, by giving items away. One set of dies, which I kept, cost me well over a thousand dollars which I will never recover.
I think you might do better with 165's if you switch to 4350 or something closer to that burn rate.
I met Rocky Gibbs when I was 15 years old, and he was an interesting guy; especially to a young rifle looney. GD

I may have to give that a shot on the 165s. The more I shoot the 180s the more I wonder if I would shoot anything else.

I may drop down and see what kind of max I can get out if a 150 just for giggles and maybe antelope.

Read up on Hammer bullets.
That would be an interesting combo..
dave

I have heard a lot of good things about the Hammers. Sounds like they are super easy to get to shoot and perform well on the terminal end.

That can't be. You must not have a good rifle and/or you've got Leupold derangement syndrome.

Signed,
John Burns

Yep, I have been a gold ring fan for a long time...probably have them on 15+ rifles. That is the first I have had with a real problem. I have a VX-Freedom here on my bench that was sitting on a new Savage 7-08 of my buddies. He was pulling his hair out with the rifle because he couldn't keep it on paper at 200. We threw a Bushnell I had laying around on it and he was immediately making consistent hits at 200 and 300 yards.

I will continue to shoot Leupolds because I have had very good luck overall even though the do throw out a lemon every once in a while.