6.5-06 Ackley Help!

[sandman264]

I have a 6.5-06ai I built on a savage action with a wilson 26in 1in9 barrel.

Right now im shooting 130 normas at 3325fps so I would think 3200 should be very achievable. It is a flat shooting rifle and the normas sure tear up coyotes.

Something you might consider is building a 6.5-280ai then you could buy factory brass already formed. After I built mine I wished I would have gone that routte.

Love the ackleys have a 243 also and both can sure shoot.

Good luck

 

[3006savage]

I have a 6.5-06ai I built on a savage action with a wilson 26in 1in9 barrel.

Right now im shooting 130 normas at 3325fps so I would think 3200 should be very achievable. It is a flat shooting rifle and the normas sure tear up coyotes.

Something you might consider is building a 6.5-280ai then you could buy factory brass already formed. After I built mine I wished I would have gone that routte.

Love the ackleys have a 243 also and both can sure shoot.

Good luck

Sandman would you mind sharing your recipe for 130 grain Normas. I may give them a try along with the 130 Scirrocco and Bergers.

 

[sandman264]

sent you a pm let me know if you get it.

 

[Harpy]

3006Savage,
Who sells good 6.5-280ai brass?

Thanks

 

[ACKLEY NUT]

I have a 6.5/06 AI with a Douglas Supreme 26" medium heavy chrome moly barrel in 1 in 9" twist. It really shoots 120 Nos B Tips. I am getting 3300fps with AA 3100 powder. .6 moa. @ 500yds (5) shots and 1" moa at 800yds (5) shots. I can't seem to get 130/140gr. bullets to perform that well. I think if you are going to shoot the heavier bullets you may need to go with a faster twist maybe a 1 in 8 1/2" or a 1 in 8" twist. I really like mine but if I had it to do over I would get a little faster twist.

 

[dwm]

This is really fascinating.

What do you guys expect the throat/barrel life of this configuration to be?

Similar to a hot 6.5x284?

I was also interested to hear the answer to the 6.5x280AI question. What about chambering to that?

Nosler makes 280AI brass, could potentially skip fireforming, ...

The velocity numbers are impressive. (at least to a 260 owner ...that is built on a long action, hint, hint ...).

 

[Dano1]

The 6.5x.280 AI would still have to be fireformed to fit the chamber, but not to the same degree as going from a 6.5-06 A-square to a 6.5-06 AI. The shoulder would still have to be formed and straightened out when necking down a caliber.

A 6.5 Gibbs still has greater case capacity than the 6.5x.280 AI having a shorter neck and shoulder that's pushed even more forward.

Barrel life should be on par with a 6.5x.284. 1500 rounds should be easy as long as the bbl is well taken care of.

Mine should last me my whole life. I'll probablly fireform 200 rounds and then shoot it enough to get to know it and develop a good 120g load and then I'll use it for hunting on occasion.

Does any one out there have Data for the 6.5-06 using RL-22. I've got a couple of pounds and I want to use it for Fireforming....

thanks,

Dan

 

[Ridge Runner]

from what I have saw and read nosler brass is junk!
I think the most you could get from the 06 based cases is the 6.5 gibbs, either reamed to 30/06 length and use lapua cases or a 270 and use norma cases.
I can run 140's at 3340 fps from my gibbs using win brass and get 3 loadings per case, and groups are now staying around 4" at 850 yards. the gibbs has 72 gr of H2o capacity.
RR

 

[azsugarbear]

I had Kirby Allen build me a 6.5-06 AI a couple of years ago. It was based on a Lawton 7000 action with a Lilja barrel and Manners ultralight stock. It was designed as a medium weight rifle to be used on thin-skinned game in AZ deserts. A secondary purpose was to be a practice rifle where I could develop my l.r. shooting skills. My other l.r. rifle is a 12.5 lb. 277 AM - a barrelburner to be sure. I hope to get 2000+ rounds out of the 6.5-06 AI.

Load development was lengthy. As it turned out, the Lilja barrel turned up its nose at the J-4 jacketed bullets (Berger & Wildcat). Other 140 - 142 gr. bullets were tried (Amax & SMK) with reasonable success (.75 MOA groups). However, I knew the rifle should do better, so I dropped down to the 130 gr. NAB. With a little tweaking, my groups dropped down to .50 - .60 MOA. Pet load was 56.2 gr. of H4831 SC.

Bottom line: the 6.5-06 AI has been a great round. Mild recoil, easy reloading with high BC bullets readily available, great accuracy and very lethal out to 800+ yds. But each rifle is different. Whether off-the-rack, or as custom build - there are no guarantees. Find the limits of your rifle. Match them to your own limits - and then be happy!

 

[3006savage]

With 6.5-06 AI many of the chambers are tight neck. The best option with the tight neck chambers is the 25-06 Norma brass necked up to avoid neck turning the cases. When necking down larger calibers the neck can thicken requiring turning in order to chamber properly. Even though the cases are stretched more the primers are usually what fail first so case life is good.

 

[outofayr]

Dano:

For my 6.5-06AI, I started out fireforming from 25-06 brass with RL22 and was losing a lot of cases. A switch to 4895 helped a LOT for getting cases formed without the losses, and switching to 270 brass pretty much eliminated the losses. I do, however, use RL22 for my full power loads. My rifle likes 53 gr RL22 with 140 AMAXs for 2980 or so. I could get faster, max was around 3250 fps, but 2980's where the accuracy was best, around 0.5 MOA or less. With 120 BT, I worked up to 58.5 gr RL22, but they just never shot as well, best being around 0.75 MOA.

Luck,
Brian

 

[Dano1]

Brian,

Thanks for the Tip, I've actually formed my Brass using .270 Win Brass. I have a new can of IMR4895 and I'll probablly be using 120g Speer Hotcores Flat base to do the Fire Forming and BBl Break in. As they are really cheap. I'll have to see what I can find for data to keep it safe. Do you think H4350 Would work?? It worked for my .30-06 AI as did H414.

I have RL-22, but only 2lbs so I'm a little hesitant to work up a load when there is only one source here. And they are always out of powder. There are several sources of hodgdon and IMR powders and I've thought of using Retumbo, H4831, H1000, US869 and IMR7828, simply because of availability.

My bbl is a 1-9" Twist so I'm leaning to do full power loads with a 120g-130g bullet. I'm leaning towards a Berger 130gVLD or even a 130g Accubond.

Thanks again,

Dan

 

[RockyMtnMT]

Dano:

For my 6.5-06AI, I started out fireforming from 25-06 brass with RL22 and was losing a lot of cases. A switch to 4895 helped a LOT for getting cases formed without the losses, and switching to 270 brass pretty much eliminated the losses. I do, however, use RL22 for my full power loads. My rifle likes 53 gr RL22 with 140 AMAXs for 2980 or so. I could get faster, max was around 3250 fps, but 2980's where the accuracy was best, around 0.5 MOA or less. With 120 BT, I worked up to 58.5 gr RL22, but they just never shot as well, best being around 0.75 MOA.

Luck,
Brian

Brian,

Did you gain anything by doing the ackley?

Steve

 

[azsugarbear]

When it comes to fireforming cases, I used 15 grains of bullseye (other pistol/shotgun powders of similar burn rate also work well) and then filled the balance of the case up to the neck with cornmeal. Top it off with a little piece of toiletpaper stuffed down the neck. This helpful tip was given to me by Kirby Allen. Cases came out perfect. I saved $$$ on bullets & powder and saved some barrel life as well. Additionally, barrel was easy to clean (no copper fouling) - even after 100 rounds were fireformed. As a precaution when using this method, I would remove the barrel brake (if you have one) so that none of the particles catch in the baffles of the brake. I used this method for fireforming 25-06 brass to 6.5-06 AI, and the 338 Lapua brass to 277 AM.