Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 30/06 Ai thoughts?

JB and or Dogzapper- have either of you and or anyone else here chiming in worked with a 06AI?

Seems to me Steve that I once read that you had done some work with one.

Many thx

Dober

Mark, I'm not JB or Dogzapper but I picked up one recently. A Rifles Inc Strata. I'm getting 2926 with 165 Pt's and shooting between 1/2 and 3/4 very consistently. It also loves flat base 150 Hornady Interlocks. It has a 22" barrel with about 1" of that being a VERY noisey brake. It is going back to Lex shortly for a cap.

I haven't shot it enough to tell how long the brass will last with that load but it extracts very easy and doesn't show any other pressure signs.
You ever get over here you are welcome to wring it out.

Mike

Friend Mark,

Yep, I shot a .30-'06 Ackley for deer and elk for quite a while. That was noticed in the industry and I was asked by Nosler to write the lead-in for the '06 Ackley in one of the Nosler Manuals (I've forgotten which one).

The data in Nosler Five and Six is good fired data.

Experimentation showed me that, at least in the three barrels I worked with, the .30-'06 Ackley is best used with relatively heavy bullets. Basically, 150s showed very little advantage, ballistically.

The 165s were easy to get 3,050 to 3,075 fps with acceptable pressure.

I ended up using the 180 Hornady BTSP Interlockeds almost exclusively. My load was 62.0 grains of RL-22 in Winchester cases, using WLR primers. The muzzle velocity in all three 24-inch barrels (two Schneiders and a Pac-Nor) was almost exactly 3,000 fps.

Cases lasted quite well, so I'd have to suppose that the chamber pressure was within bounds.

Any questions ... just ask away.

God Bless,

Steve

PS. I still have a memory picture of one decent 5X5 bull that suddenly showed up at about fifty feet. He was motivated, so I shot him quickly and precisely between the eyes. Both antlers wilted ... Damn, it was funny.

Motivated I like that...

Once upon a time a cow elk popped up at about 5' from me she was motivated as well, to stomp me that is till I stomped her first with a 165 Sierra HPBT to the chops...grin

Wasp, keep me in the loop sounds like a nice find.

I wonder how a 06AI case would fit in a T3 clip?

DZ-thx for the info, I thought you'd written for Nozler about the round. Did you ever try the 190 Horn or 200 Noz?

Thx
Dober

Dogzapper-if I recall right you also spent time with a 338/06 how do you comp the two? I've used the 338/06 quite a bit and love the round.

Thx

Dober

Steve's .30/06 AI intro is in Nosler #4

This thread has set me to thinking again and that is always a dangerous thing.

Steve:

Have one throated for the heavies. What worked the best for you with the 200g?

Appreciate it,
tom

Actually, the 190Interlocked was a pure gem, too.

The 200s just plain kicked too hard. And I tried them.

Actually, one of the coolest kills I ever made was a loooong spike. He suddenly appeared at fifty-yards in the fuggin' THICK FOG. I had a Ruger Number One-S in 45-70 in my hands ... 350-grain Hornady @ 2,200 fps. I centered the shoulder with 3X Leupold and shot.

I went up in recoil and the bull simply frickin' disappeared.

I came down and the bull was GONE.

F**K, did I MISS???

I climbed up there and the bull had taken a snow-nap right sincerely there. Dead as can be.

The Hornady made a .45-caliber hole in ... and a .45-calibdr hole out.

Pre-expanded bullets are sometimes very, very good.

Steve

Mark,
In the late 70s I had Les Bauska in Kalispel rechamber my .30-06 to .30 Gibbs. He didn't have a Gibbs reamer, so he used an Ackley reamer and pushed in to the Gibbs shoulder depth.

I was getting just under 3000 with 180 gr Partitions, and that was my primary elk/moose load for about 25 years. Case life was good, and most days a quarter would cover 3 shots at 100 yds.

One day out at Logan, I chronographed 20 shots at one sitting and they averaged 2996 fps, and all 20 hits were inside 1 1/2".

A mishap fireforming 6 or 7 years ago damaged the chamber. Montana Gunsmiths in Billings tried to fix it, but it wasn't quite right, so I retired it and built my .300 Weatherby.

Thx-that's good info. I can't splain it but this is one round that's always perked my fancy. I kind of think of it as a poor mans 300 WSM...grin

Dober

How about 200's in the good ol' 338-06?

Mark, I think the most useful wildcat on the '06 case would be the 30-280AI. Brass already available...just neck up and fire. The neck is shorter leaving more room for powder but you still have the advantage of the AI shoulder. Makes alot of sense to me and even thought about a 338-280AI at one time. If you have the Wildcat book by Wolf you can read a good article on a 338-270AI. powdr

Mark, here is a link to some previous posts on the Strata.
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...6155172/Re_30_06_Ackley_Info#Post6155172

Can't help with the comparison, but I have to say Steve's article on the 338-06 still sits on my desk.

I can hear the wheels of that brain of yours turning all the way across town... it's scary man!

Very scary, we may be a 30 cal fam yet...

Dober

Well, the world didn't end yesterday so I suppose anything's possible

Seems like a 300 WSM for people with a standard bolt face and action.

I've always called the 300 WSM the 30-06 Ai +P

Nosler no.5 has 30-06 Ai data and shows 2,985 with a 180 and 62.0 of RL22 (24" bbl.)... however, all the other 180 loads listed with other powders are below 2,900, and it doesn't list any 165 over 2,950 which is kinda strange given the RL22/180 load.

Doesn't JB have some sort of formula to determine speeds of Ai's over their parent case?

Thanks Steve--the 190 Horn had never crossed my mind. Was RL22 the powder also?

Got a big ole pussfied pad on it. Was hunting elk with my CO transplant daughter this past year, holding both the AI round and her 7-08 cartridge next to it in my hand...you've got to wonder...

Dober, it was an old itch here too, but got sidetracked by the sevens AIed...am running a 24" but if I did it again it would definitely be 23.5...:)