Standard rounds through a 30-06 AI?

[Ben Long]

A friend of mine has a 30-06 AI he inherited from a friend. He's got a supply of hand-loads from that friend, but is not a handloader himself. Given the current ammo shortage, he asked me what is the consequence of firing standard 06 ammo through an AI. I know it will reshape the brass. But is it bad for the gun? Will it make a practical difference in, say, hunting ranges under 200 yards?

 

[Redman]

No problem that is how you fire form the brass.

 

[std7mag]

As Redman said, it's how improved cartridges are fireformed.
You might, might, notice a slight velocity reduction if shooting over a chrono from standard 30-06.

 

[Brian in Montana]

I'd think your friend should take up handloading, or find a friend that will load for him. Shooting standard 30-06 ammo through it's AI counterpart is fine to do, and safe, but he's kind of selling himself short in the long run by not utilizing the full potential of the cartridge.

 

[brockel]

Turns the 30-06 into a hot 308 is all

 

[MT_Chad]

It should still shoot fine at 200 with standard ammo. I haven't seen much accuracy difference when fire forming brass for my dad's 257 AI. Your friend should start reloading though, Ackleys are awesome.

 

[magnum44270]

No issues. He will just have to resight in for the standard stuff, and now his used brass will be fire formed to the ai

 

[ImBillT]

I’ve seen fireforming loads shoot small and large groups, and Ive seen them shoot similar POI and wildly different POI. Make sure the headspace is good and go shoot it. Velocity will be a little lower than they would be from a standard 30-06 barrel.

My wife asked to go deer hunting just a couple days before season after having said that she wasn’t going to this year. For a number of reasons it would have taken me quite some time to get her gun ready, and I had not been expecting her to shoot it this year. A little examination of reloading data revealed that I could fairly easily load a 140BT(which I had) for a 280Rem at the same velocity as I was shooting a 180VLD in my 280AI. The result was a substantial reduction in recoil that would be tolerable for the wife who expected to be shooting a .243Win. So I loaded them up in unformed brass, and checked zero, sure enough at 200yds they were dead on. Groups weren’t too good. That’s probably partly the 140BTs and partly fireforming. Had velocity been different, there would likely have been a shift in POI. Sometimes it’s small, sometimes it’s pretty substantial.

Then the wife decided that she didn’t want to hunt this year.

 

[Don Fischer]

easy way around it. Buy yourself a new 30-06 and trade with him!