.30-06 and IMR 4955 or Superformance

Hi fellas, just my 2 cents here. I read a book by J.Y. Jones, One Man One Rifle One Land. This guy takes one of every large wild animal in North America including all the big bears with a Rem. ADL old school, wood stock, 30/06. He had a gun smith set the rifle up for him and load up the ammo, this was in the days before Superformance and other newer powders and bullets like we have today. I'm "NOT"saying the 30/06 AI or the 300 WM isn't a better cartridge and would have been a better choice, just giving high 5's to the 30/06 just the way it is. BTW if ya get a chance to read this book it's a pretty good book.
 
Sorry Muddy, didn't mean to back you into a corner a bit like I did.

The '06 ai has one thing going for it that I didn't mention. If you want to run a non-standard throat (very long) like a few do in their '06, you should re-chamber to ai to keep your ammo away from a standard throat chamber. You can get a bit of usable capacity in this cartridge by long seating pills, and the ai case keeps this ammo from becoming a rifle killer in a standard chamber. You still will not pass 300win/wsm speeds, but you may get to around 1/2 way between the '06 and 300win. That aint a bad place to be if you don't want heavy recoil but still need decent performance.

It's all good bud, I didn't take that way. I was just saying that I agree with you, that it should not be pushed that hard unless you really know what you're doing, or understand the risks involved, and that if you are wanting .300WM velocities, it's best and easiest to just get a .300WM.
 
Hi fellas, just my 2 cents here. I read a book by J.Y. Jones, One Man One Rifle One Land. This guy takes one of every large wild animal in North America including all the big bears with a Rem. ADL old school, wood stock, 30/06. He had a gun smith set the rifle up for him and load up the ammo, this was in the days before Superformance and other newer powders and bullets like we have today. I'm "NOT"saying the 30/06 AI or the 300 WM isn't a better cartridge and would have been a better choice, just giving high 5's to the 30/06 just the way it is. BTW if ya get a chance to read this book it's a pretty good book.

Sounds like a good read, and something I should check out. I've never heard of it before now.
 
After reading a bunch of internet hoopla, I was not a huge believer in the .30-06 AI...Until I built one. I already had 2 Ackleys at the time, so I was already aware of all the benefits of the Ackley case design, and the 40º shoulder and the low wall taper. So if I built an '06, it would definitely be an AI version over the regular Springfield version, just for the case benefits, if nothing else. I was getting components together to build my .280 AI, and then a buddy of mine told me had gotten a new factory Remington take-off 26" heavy .308 Win barrel and wasn't going to use it because it was a 1:12 twist, and he only wanted what he paid for it ($50). So, my .280 AI got put on hold, and I decided to build a .30-06 AI instead, since all the parts were there.

I was never a fan of the .30-06. My uncle has used one my entire life, along with most of the hunters I know, and so have probably 50% of the hunters in Alabama. You go to just about any hunting camp and I bet at least 1/2 of them are using a .30-06, and 1/4 of the rest are shooting a .270, and the rest a mixture of magnum and other random cartridges.

So anyway, my smith told me that since I was already aware of the gains of AI'ing a cartridge, since he had already built me a .25-06 AI and a .300 Ackley, that I would notice only a small velocity increase in my .30-06 AI... So, I still went ahead with it. And after forming cases, and doing some load workup, this thing is WELL over standard .30-06 velocities. Granted, I'm pushing them to the ragged edge of sanity, but I am not seeing any excess pressure signs other than slightly flattened primers. And my cases still look good after several firings. I have noticed that the Ackley Improved cases seem to handle pressure better. But when you do find the max pressure, you're on a razor's edge between being fine, and over pressure. The signs don't seem to appear like they do in normal case designs, where you can see gradual pressure signs. The Ackleys you go 1/2-grain too hot, and you're blowing primers.

So, that being said, just be careful, but if you do your due-diligence, and slowly work up in .1 or .2 increments (which is a good idea when dealing with ANY wildcat cartridge that does not have any published load data with modern powders and bullets), you can get some great velocities at non-excess pressure levels with slow burning powder and 185's in the .30-06 AI.
Hey Muddy, what powders are you having best success with in that 30-06 Ackley?
 
I get 3000 fps with my Rem long range, with 168g Nosler Long range accubond with R#22 and cci 250, very small groups.

Lapua brass is in a different league when it comes to taking pressure with heavy bullets at peak pressure accuracy nodes.

I hunted in Az with a guy that had a 30/06 AI, and he shot 180g partitions at 2950 and 200g Partitions at 2850 using R#26 with Fed 215's, and he had a long throated 26", 10T three groove Lilja barrel, #5 contour, LAPUA brass takes some serious pressures where other brands will NOT! He used A Rem 700 action with a Wyatt's mag box, BDL floor plate.
 
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The '06 has been the standard that all others are compared to for so long that it is just not sexy anymore.
Six years later and still true.... all the more so loaded with 180gn HHs


American Storm GIF
 
Not surprising, an over six year old thread reresected,,,, no surprise, this fine cartridge has been being reserected for over a century! But then that's because of it's no fad or frills, totally capable performance when fed right! The more we see with new innovative components, the more we see it continue to improve!

165 grain quality hunting bullets to 3000 fps are possible with todays modern slow burning powers like H4350 is good medicine up to elk sized game. I prefer the 180 grain quality hunting bullets for Elk or larger and loaded to 2850 is no problem with todays powders from H4350sc to IMR 7828sc when loaded into the Lapua brass and ignited with the 215 Federal primers, and accuracy will equal even the latest and greatest fad cartridges we see today!

We'll see but my money says this trend will continue as long as we ignite smokeless powder, and hunt big game with it!
 
I have used RL-26 with great succes.
Pre-64 Winchester model 70 24" barrel.
shooting the 180gr Swift Scirocco at 2945 FPS avg from my lab radar.
I have not used 4955.
 
I have used RL-26 with great succes.
Pre-64 Winchester model 70 24" barrel.
shooting the 180gr Swift Scirocco at 2945 FPS avg from my lab radar.
I have not used 4955.
Makes me wonder how RL26 would do with a Berger 185. If 2900 fps is doable in my 22" Model 70 that would be some good elk medicine out to 700 yards.
 

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