Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 30-06 55gr. Accelerator

Hi there shooting experts. Can anyone tell me about his experience of 30-06 Accelerator accuracy. All I have heard is that, of course, the velocity is high (4000 fps.+ at muzzle) but how accurate?

Thanks, Kakali

I was a one-rifle hunter for several years. I had a 30-06 and if I wanted to reach out and touch ground hogs at 100 yards, I'd use 30-06 Accelerator. I was using a Remington 742, and the loads weren't strong enough to cycle the action, but they were accurate enough. In those days, I was able to keep a 4" group with that rifle with both my deer loads and the Accelerators. Now that I'm a more mature shooter, I can get about 2" groups with the 742, but I haven't tried accelerators in it for years.

When I went to a second center fire rifle, it was an old beat-up Win 670, again in '06. It shot well, and I could nail groundhogs all day with it and my trusty accelerators. I called the combination "The Vaporizer" -- what it did to ground hogs was terrifying.

Once, to show a friend what I could do with The Vaporizer, I placed a couple tightly capped 2-liter bottles filled with water out at 150 yards and touched off a 180 gr deer round into one. The bottle stayed up with a nice .30" hole in and out. The water drained out. I then touched off an Accelerator at the second.

There was a 10 yard diameter plume of water. We started picking up small pieces of the plastic bottle at 15 feet. There were no pieces larger than 4" across. When we re-assembled the pieces, it appeared that the bullet had deformed the bottle like a fist punching the front. We found an exit hole at the top, near the cap, where the 55 grain bullet had spun out.

I haven't shot the Accelerator in 10 years. 670 has become my 200 yard deer rifle, and I now nail groundhogs with a Savage 340 in .223. However, I still have a few boxes of Accelerator left, and I recently purchased 100 plastic sabots, and I'm going to start experimenting in sabbotted .308 and 30-30.

I did have one other friend who got hooked on the Accelerator in 30-30. He used it in a Contender and had very good luck on groundhog and nuisance deer control. He kept his dogs fed with ground venison.

The Accelerator can be fairly accurate, but it depends on the individual rifle. Some folks I've mentioned it to said they couldn't get a good grouping at all. I was lucky with 2 rifles that seemed to digest it without a hiccup.

Friend of mine shot quite a few of them several years back. Really liked them but he said that about 1 in 10 would be a "flier". I don't know if it's happened to others but that's the only experience I've had with them.

Where can one pick up the sabots to load accelerator rounds? Steve

Look on EBay for "sabot" or check these guys out:

J&D Components

Another option. I loaded up 110 grain v-max's behind H322. Amazing combination and you don't have to fool with sabots. In my wife's Ruger mkII 06, they shoot 1/2 inch groups consistently. No hunting round has ever shot better than an inch with consistency in that rifle. They're flying around 3500fps and make holes that are un-flippin-believable! I haven't shot any ground squirrels with them, but the couple coyotes that got in the way of them were damn near torn in two -- devastation!

VERY soft on the shoulder too! -- just a thought...

Thanks for good answers all of you. I am getting to understand that good accuracy is possible with this round. But doesn�t Remington still make them factory? And can you please give me a little info about how to reload these. I have only reloaded the usual cartridges (no sabots).
Thanks, kakali

Well, I'll be! I'd thought they'd discontinued them ages ago. I checked Midway, and sure enough, they're still being made:

Midway

The price is outrageous, but there they are.

That 110 grain option sounds really good, and easier than messing with sabots. I'd purchased some Hornady's that small a year or so ago. #2 son was looking to shoot a real he-man rifle, and I found some recipes on Hogden's site. What I didn't realize was that #2 is a budding young recoil hound. We started the day with 110 grain kiddie loads and ended up shooting 165 grain full-house deer loads.