Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Tell me about the .30 Gibbs

A good friend and confirmed gun slut has come up with a Springfield action that, based on rumor and folklore, he MUST have chambered for a custom .30 Gibbs.

Problem is, we can find folks with the proper reamer, but no solid loading or performance data. Yes, I know. He'd be much better off with a .30AI, but he has already AI'd just about everything worth AIing.

So if anyone can offer a good data source or good data it would be helpfull. About the only advice I don't need is what a bad idea this is, having already deduced that. He remains unconvinced.

thanks in advance

O

Actually, he would be better off with a plain old boring .30-06, but I doubt that opinion will persuade him--even though I have fooled around with various improved .30-06's, including some that have the shoulder moved forward.

I did a 30 Gibbs once, won't go there again. Making the cases was a PIA, if he really wants something more than a 06 I'd encourage him to AI the bugger.

Dober

Or buy a .300 WSM or .300 Winchester Magnum.

But that wouldn't be "special."

No ma doubt...

Dober

Well, he already has a 30 AI and a 338/06AI that cost more than I make in 3 months, and a .35 Whelan AI. So it seems Ackley's improvments aren't enuff. Now he wants to play with Gibbs 'improvements'.

He's asked me several times what I know about Gibbs wildcats, which is ZIP. Folklore has it that the .30 Gibbs rivals the .300H&H. So I said,"Just get a .300H&H". But that is not exotic enuff.

So where does one find info on the 30 Gibbs? Does Waters books list it?

o

Well in general all this "improving" turns out not to be much at all. I winced when my gunsmith who is also a good shooting buddy "insisted" that I go with his 30MC instead of a plane jane 06. However, now that rig is done its one of my favourite spotlighting guns - and we do alot of that here in Oz. An 30MC is pretty much a Gibbs - short neck shoulder pushed forward but shoulder angles may be different, also case taper.

28 inch 1:14 twist barrel specifically to shoot the low weight bullets like 125gr TNT @ 3500fps. This it does with about 65gr of W760 instead of 10gr more in a WSM and maybe 18gr more in a Win Mag. It just shoots bullets up to the 155 Lapua Scenar or Berger VLD's really well. I never specifically fireform - just size the neck up to 35 cal and size down to create a false shoulder. Hunt with this fireform load which is just 1 gr less powder,same POI and sub 1/2 MOA. This combination just works.

For a specialised gun - yeah go for it -its interesting and I find the reloading aspect fun. For a general hunting gun forget it.

Now let me tell you about my 22/6mm Improved? No I won't. What a headache!

regards,
JohnT

I'm betting a 30 SAUM is damn near identical, brass easier to find, etc.

I can't understand the AI thing on fairly straight wall cases. We have every flavor of cartridge under the sun in about any powder volume you care to tolerate.

I'm getting boring in my old age.............

Wolfe Publishing has a CD of Gibbs info. and Quick Load lists it on its cartridge list. Z-Hat has a reamer available and dimensions on the 4D web site. Case volume is 71.5 +/- grains of water.
Performance should be equal to .300 WSM +/- if loaded to equal pressures especially if it is loaded to a "long" length. It should just about equal a factory .300 H&H.

Rick Jamison did an article where he compared the 30-06, 30-06AI and 30 Gibbs. He used pressure trace equipment and loaded all three to standard 30-06 pressure which was 49,000 to 50,000 PSI. It was in the February 2006 issue of Shooting Times. He tested a variety of bullet weights and concluded the AI gains an average of 66 FPS over the 30-06 and the Gibbs gained an average of 104 FPS over the 30-06.

If it is like a .300 H&H, why not go that way? Still pretty rare bird to have in the field, if that is what turns his crank. And a lot less headache.

docbill,

Naw, the .30 Gibbs isn't going to match the .300 WSM, because it doesn't have as much powder room. The .300 WSM holds about 75 grains of water with a 180 seated, and I doubt that the .30 Gibbs holds as much as 70 grains.

That said, it would fit right in between the "vast" gap between the .30-06 and the .300 WSM.

MD:

Your right if the 75 gr for the WSM is with a seated bullet. The data I have on the Gibbs is for total case capacity. The 2 references I have show 71gr. total +/-.

Huh - I think the 30 SAUM is in that vast gap as well <g>

FWIW My SAUM holds 67 grains (Rem case), 06 holds 62 (WW case) grains of water with a 180 Nosler normally seated - at least mine do. I'm sure certain powders will be compressed with those capacities.

So it seems that all the little gaps have been filled....

I remember when the Gibbs and Viola were au courrant, I would not go back there.

I slid into any gap with my .300 RCM.

It is going to Oregon at the end of October to see if I can shoot a blacktail buck with it.

As I have gotten older I have much less tolerance for wildcats, and I pretty much won't fool with them anymore...

jim

I think it was 1956 or 57, I got the Gibbs craze as all the gunworld was dancing in the streets over his new revelation...

The best I ever got was maybe 100 FPS, but I had the only chronograph for 10,000 miles I'm sure...

I bought a set of "Hydralic case forming dies from Gibbs" another revelation of the highest order...You filled those puppys with 30 wt. oil and hit the plunger with a hammer and viola you had a Gibbs case, or at least that was the plan..In reality you squirted oil all over the shop, all over yourself and your clothes, the oil soaked kids screamed and ran yelling to mama, daddys gone nuts, and the windows blew out and cuss words echoed into the surrounding canyons of the ranch house...and the case was still a standard 30-06 case except it was full of oil!

Shortly thereafter and three soakings in gasoline and other oil cutting products, and several baths, and a couple of showers for me and the kids, a clean me dumped those old Gibbs rifles along with my expensive case forming dies and reloading dies, on some other poor soul and I ended up with his old pre 64 300 H&H, an outdated old gun that had seen its best days or so I was told. I still have that 300 H&H and its probably the last gun I will ever part with..:) It still shoots 1/2 inch groups with most loads, all loads to the same POI, and it will push a 200 gr. Nosler at an easy 3000 FPS, and can only be bested by the 300Wby and a couple of those new big 30s that go bang too loud, kick the bejesus out of you and they only beat my H&H by 100 FPS..

My uncle had a .240 Gibbs when I was a kid and 35 years later I can still vividly remember him cussing the case forming dies.

Ray,

You should seriously think about doing a book like Elmer Keith's HELL I WAS THERE. You have had a very interesting hunting life and long experience with firearms, and are a great story-teller.

If you ever decides to do it I would help in any way possible.

My friend, Grady who came up with this project, doesn't have a home computer. Probably because his spends his money on custom wildcats. Next time he comes over I'll pour him a glass of Ol Stump Blower and let him read this thread.

No doubt it will convince him to go ahead and try to find a Gibbs hydrolic case die, too.

O