.30-06 Accelerators

[Aix sponsa]

So, I have a few boxes of .30-06 accelerators... 55 gr with that plastic sleeve to make it fit the barrel. Anyone ever use these things successfully? I don't think they are made anymore. Any idea why? Maybe the sleeve gums up your barrel? I thought of a possible legal issue (maybe I'm wrong), but if the bullet is in a sleeve...and it never touches your rifling...then....well, nevermind on that LOL. ----- Anyone have anything good to say about a use for them??

 

[TexasRifleman]

I tried them back in the 80's when they were all the rage, I could never shoot very well with them. I dunno, seemed like a good idea at the time, but so did parachute pants

 

[Al Thompson]

Accuracy sucked on the ones I played with (late '80's).

 

[NCsmitty]

It's really difficult to keep the bullet concentric in the plastic sabot. Running them through the magazine will invariably knock the bullet off center, because the sabot cannot be secured in the case with much tension.
Subsequently, the accuracy will suffer from the poor bullet alignment. But they're fast.



NCsmitty

 

[ol' scratch]

Didn't they push the 4000 ft/ps envelope? My father has talked about these and mentioned that they weren't very accurate due to a few factors.

 

[highorder]

t's really difficult to keep the bullet concentric in the plastic sabot.

In addition to that, consider the sabot a really bad crown. As it separates it isn't doing the bullet any favors in the stability department. I shot a box a while back and couldn't do any better that 5 moa @100 yards from a rifle that usually printed 2" groups.

 

[Jim Watson]

Unpredictable. Back when they were new on the market, I tried them. Sometimes I would get a good group, more often bad, usually pretty mediocre. There was no correlation I could find with a clean barrel, a bullet fouled barrel, or a sabot fouled barrel.

I guess the best use would be for called coyotes at moderate range.

 

[Picher]

I tried them, but shot in my free-floated barrel, they printed about 5 inches low at 100 yards. I wasn't going to use that many, but might have if they'd printed close to the regular zero.

I wanted to use them for woodchuck hunting, but never did. Accuracy was passable, but not as good as I hoped for. They shot inside of 2" at 100 yards in my Savage, but that rifle shot handloads about 5/8" at that distance. My old scopes back then didn't have re-settable zero knobs.

 

[briansmithwins]

I used some on feral dogs back in the day.

They bring new meaning to the phrase 'hydrostatic shock'. One dog I hit had the contents of its chest tuned to goo that ran out of the exit wound. Ribs in the path of the 55gr were just vaporized.

55gr with a full .30-06 powder charge makes for a zippy little number.

BSW

 

[taliv]

I never wore parachute pants (although in truth the reason was lack of funds and not an excess of good taste or judgment) or try accelerators, but I have played with the sabots you can buy from EABCO. they're interesting, but I can't hit much with them, and i could rarely get them to chrono either, since the bullet and sabot separate and the chrony throws an error

 

[ms6852]

Highly inaccurate rounds to shoot. I missed a coyote at 90 yards shot very low. Missed the second one at about 102 yds. I compensated for the low shot and missed on the high side. Switched to 125 grain for coyote and varmints which are quite accurate to about 165 yards. Also happened to kill my larget buck and 11 pointer with 125 grain.

 

[buttrap]

I never had much luck hitting with the things too though I have not tryed them since around when they first came out.

 

[rocky1]

So, I have a few boxes of .30-06 accelerators... 55 gr with that plastic sleeve to make it fit the barrel. Anyone ever use these things successfully? I don't think they are made anymore. Any idea why? Maybe the sleeve gums up your barrel? I thought of a possible legal issue (maybe I'm wrong), but if the bullet is in a sleeve...and it never touches your rifling...then....well, nevermind on that LOL. ----- Anyone have anything good to say about a use for them??

Not sure if they were ever "legally" outlawed, but yes there was a great deal of concern raised over these rounds by law enforcement. Not only because the projectile had no land and groove trace on it, but also because they were supposedly capable of penetrating body armor of the day at rather amazing distances.

While they were reportedly real fast, there never was a whole lot said for their accuracy. Between debate of the legalities and liabilities of the round, and their so-so performance, I think they just kinda quietly went away.

 

[rodregier]

(I heard past stories of them being used by poachers on occasion.)

I handloaded some in .308 Win. Poor accuracy and very different "zero" from regular ammunition discouraged me from pursuing the concept further. I didn't have target knobs on my optic at the time either. (which would have permitted compensating for the different zero).

Shorter range varmint hunting using a .30 cal rifle would probably be the most compelling application. Just keep in mind that wear on the barrel throat would probably be worse than with "normal" projectile weight ammunition on a per-shot basis. That could become an issue if you shot a lot when varminting...

 

[Aix sponsa]

Switched to 125 grain for coyote and varmints which are quite accurate to about 165 yards. Also happened to kill my larget buck and 11 pointer with 125 grain.

With your 125 gr bullets, are you shooting for the vitals or neck? Some people like to shoot for the neck for several reasons (if they're confident enough to take the shot, especially with smaller gr bullets---not saying 125 qualifies as "small")

 

[BrocLuno]

Use in single shot mode only. Mag fed, they will distort. Not very accurate, but all in the vital zone on a 'Yote. Need their own zero, but in excess of 4000 FPS

I still have few boxes for when I want to show some speed to the unsuspecting

Were also available for the 30-30. Put some real surprised looks on folks faces when a 30-30 reaches out and pops a milk jug at 250

 

[OYE]

Accelerators are still being made. Midway has them listed for about 35.00 last time I looked ( last winters catalogue #33 ). I also purchased several boxes many years ago at well under half that price.I've had good luck with them in two different 30/06 's when the bores are very clean. Both guns group well inside of an inch circle consistently if I do my part. One rifle a model 70 Winchester shoots them 9 inches higher than 180 grain core locts at 100 yds. An old 721 Remington will shoot them an inch higher at 100 yds than 180 grain core locts, so go figure that. I generally use the 721 since I don't have to
change the scope. For coyotes mainly.

 

[briansmithwins]

Not to give anything away, but rifle bullets* will penetrate the body armor that cops typically wear out to the distance where the average shooter could hit a man sized target.

BSW

*.223 and up.