30-06 accelerator
 

i found some at my local gun store and was thinking of try some out. are they any good? is it very accurate in most guns? i just want it to thump some yotes so i dont need super accuracy. i like the idea of a 55gr bullet travling at 4000fps it just sounds like a good pest control round for around the farm. your thoughts.

RE: 30-06 accelerator
 

I wonder if a bullet traveling that fast through a gun that wasn't intended for that velocity, would it wear out the barrel?

Tom

RE: 30-06 accelerator
 

I suppose it'd be ok, but the accelerator's seem to be hard to come by, and expensive for a .22cal projectile. If you want to try them for the fun of it, go right ahead and let us know how it works out.

I'd suggest one of two options. Either start handloading and load your rifle with 110gr V-Max bullets (I'm assuming that you have a .30-06, or other .308cal). The other option if you don't mind buying a new rifle (and IMO the better option), would be to get yourself a .22-250 Rem, or if you really crave speed over everything, even the .204 Ruger. My personal choice was, and still would be, the .22-250 Rem. It's cheap, available, and factory loads seem to be accurate enough and are usually loaded pretty hot. It won't push a 55 grain bullet at 4000fps, but it'l get it to 3600, which is fast enough and easier on a barrel. If you want a truck/tractor rifle that's going to get beat around a lot rather than a nice varmint rig, I'd look at the H&R Handi-Rifles. They are cheap (around $200), durable, more accurate than they ought to be for the price, and you won't feel bad about the occational scratch from rough handling. That would be my first choice if I needed a truck gun.

Mike

RE: 30-06 accelerator
 

Gopher Slayer,

The Accelerator rounds are not known for being accurate, and you can expect 2" or more groups at 100 yards. Since it is a sabotted round, the 55 grain .223 bullet does not come in contact with the barrel, so undue barrel wear is not a problem. You would be much better off loading or buying .30-06 ammo with a 125 grain bullet in it.

Don

RE: 30-06 accelerator
 

It's time to have HuntingNet's own version of "Myth Busters!" :D[8D]

Barrel "wear," or more accurately, barrel EROSION, is not caused by the contact between the bullet and the throat/rifling. The bullets simply aren't hard enough, or going fast enough, to actually wear the barrel. The cause of throat erosion is actually from the superheated, high pressure gases that are the product of rapidly decomposing nitrocellulose based smokeless powders. Just like water carved the Grand Canyon, high pressure/temperature gas carves out the rifling in the barrel a few molecules at a time, concentrated at the throat where the pressure and temperature are highest. If you notice, all cartridges that have the reputation as being "barrel burners" burn a lot of powder for their caliber (overbore) and are high pressure cartridges (60kPSI+). If you've ever shot a large volume cartridge you'll know that the barrel gets a lot hotter than a small volume case of the same caliber (i.e. .300Win Mag vs. .308 Winchester, .22-250 vs. .223 Rem, etc...). They also have in common high peak pressures. The combination of the two factors, aggravated by not allowing the barrel to cool between shots as is often the case with a varmint rifle, is what causes barrels to wear out. That's why it's critical, when shooting a magnum rifle, to allow the barrel to cool for 2-10 minutes between shots depending on ambient temperature to preserve barrel life, and why hard core prairie dog shooters rebarrel their rifles as much as once or twice a year and might take two or three rifles with them to dog town and alternate to allow them to cool.

Mike

RE: 30-06 accelerator
 

GopherSlayer,
Just some food for thought. the 7.82 Lazzeroni Warbird, with a 130gr catridge, will push that .30 cal at 4007fps. It's a heck of a lot more accurate than an accellerator. Much more expensive , though. The accelerator rounds should be a lot of fun, but they're getting hard to find in my neck of the woods.

RE: 30-06 accelerator
 

I read in cartridges of the world that the accelerators were often as accurate as your gun. So if your gun shoots 1.5" at 100 yards than the accelerators should be close to that.

RE: 30-06 accelerator
 

I tried the Accelerator in both 30-06 and 30/30 when they first hit the market. I think it was the late 70's maybe the early 80's; I'm getting old.:eek: Anyway, accuracy was about what you would get shooting regular weight bullets. By that I mean that they will not turn a 30-06 into a serious varmint rifle.

Give them a try but if you want a varmint rifle I would suggest something getting something more suited to the job. A 223 or even a 22-250 would be much cheaper to shoot than a 30-06 loaded with Accelerators.

RE: 30-06 accelerator
 

For the most part, that's been my expierence with them. You just have to try them in your rifle, just like any other ammo you would buy...

Drilling Man

RE: 30-06 accelerator
 

So your saying that metal on metal contact of the bullet travelling down the barrel doesn't cause any errosion. Well jeeze, I might as well drain the oil from my car and drive it arround since that contact isn't wearing........ Yeah the throat is wore through the combustion gasses, but the faster something moves the more potential it has to cause mechanical errosion.

RE: 30-06 accelerator
 

Totally different situation.The oil in your engine does reduce friction but it also carries away heat created by friction which is what will destroy your bearings and pistons.On the other hand the bullet is only in the barrel for an extremely short period of time so other than in the throat area,virtually no wear takes place.

By the time any significant wear due to friction takes place,the throat will be non existant,so wear due to friction is not a factor in barrel life.

RE: 30-06 accelerator
 

Dritfrider explained this real well . . . . the copper jacketed bullets going down the steel barrel can eventually wear it out, but I'm guessing it would take 50,000 rounds. The throat and rifling immediately ahead of the throat is where the erosion takes place.

I built a local prairie dog shooter a .221 Fireball bench gun about 14 years ago. We used a full profile blank 27" long. About every two years, he comes back with a shot-out gun. Each time, I set the barrel back about 2.5"; re-thread it and re-chamber it. It seems to shoot as good or even a tad bit better each time we do this. Last time around, the length was just under 18" - so its about last dance for this Shilen 1:14 - that now has close to 25,000 rounds through it.

RE: 30-06 accelerator
 

The friction in an engine is a totally different situation. First of all, the cylender, pistons, connecting rods, bearings, journals, etc...ar all made of similar hardness metals, usually iron or aluminum, but because their hardness is similar a lack of lubrication, coupled with both the persistant heat of conbustion and the heat generated by friction, combined with the heavy force loads, will cause an engine to wear out. How fast it wears depends on how hard its run. A piston or cylender is nowhere near as hard as the steel in the barrel of a smokeless firearm, not even close. At the same time, the copper or guilding metal over a lead core, or even a pure copper bullet, it much softer than even iron or aluminum. Not to mention the fact that many metals, like copper, lead and brass, are "self-lubricating" to a degree because they are so malleable and ductile (ever hear of a brass bushing? Copper, brass and lead also will not emit sparks when rubbed on another metal, if you'd even been inside the turret and powder magazine of a WWII battleship you'd see that just about every metal-on-metal surface is brass to prevent metal sparks which could ignite the powder bags). With a copper jacketed bullet, the copper yields to the steel, not the other way around. Like Roskoe said, and I will concede this point, like any other surface to surface contact, the copper will eventually, over many tens of thousands of shots, wear the rifling a tiny amount, but the time it would take to create any detectable wear is generally well beyond the service life of the throat of any barrel. The throat will erode thousands of rounds before the rifling further down the bore erodes, and will have the greatest negative effect on accuracy. Once the throat is shot out, the barrel is toast unless it is a straight taper barrel like the one Roskoe mentioned. If bullets were made out of iron or anything other than the mildest steel, then actual bullet wear would be a serious issue. In fact, many eastern bloc countries used actual mild steel jackets for their bullets for lack of copper and zinc to make guilding metal. However, to preserve barrel life the bores were usually chrome plated. Chrome is much harder and wear resistant than mild steel, which meant the barrels would last beyond a few hundred rounds.

If you don't believe me, go find a gunsmith with a borescope and have him show you how a bore erodes. You'll see that while the throat is gone, the rifling just 2-3 inches forward of the throat shows no detectable wear. It's the truth, go see for yourself.

Mike

RE: 30-06 accelerator
 

It's true, the bullet itself does very little to wear the bbl. out! Guilding metal is much softer than bbl. steel.

I once read about a guy who fired some unbelievable number of bullets through a bbl. useing compressed air instead of gun powder, and he STILL didn't wear out the bbl.!!! He did it to study bbl. wear.

I forget the number but i think it was something like 100,000 bullets, and then pretty much gave up!!

Bbl. wear comes mostly from generated heat in the throat area of the bbl..

Drilling Man

RE: 30-06 accelerator
 

i have some of the accelorators but i have yet to shoot them. the ones i got were like 28 bucks a box. the 125 remingtons shoot very well. but you can try them and see what you think.