25-06 Ackley Improved
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- Опубліковано 9 вер 2024
- In this video I talk about a very good wildcat cartridge. I go over the history and ballistics of the 25-06 Ackley Improved. I compare it to the 25-06 Remington and the 257 Weatherby. Hope you enjoy the video!
This is the real gunsmith Randy Selbys favorite cartridge! He should know he’s been making rifles longer then most of us have been alive! lol 😂
He made mine. Outstanding!
@@TODinWY what caliber was the rifle in bud?
@@TODinWYmade one for me as well. A takedown switch barrel in 25,30,&338 - 06 all AI. Perhaps a quicker twist than the 10, would have stabilized some of the newer bullets from. Hornady better? 338 AI was silly on my part just a strait up 338 - 06 but I was looking for extended case life.
@@patrickgallagher4344 Randy's favorite caliber.
That's why I'm here. I was just watching his video where he says you can push 120 grain bullet 3450 ft per second with that 25.6 do you have the right to.
Thank you for this long overdue video. The plain 25-06 is Loved by many. Most people that have it for whitetail, won't hear of anything else. The 25-06 Ackley is phenomenal.
Thanks for watching and commenting!
This is a cartridge I almost never mention to anyone just because it’s almost unheard of. Too many want factory offerings in both rifle and ammo but with this you can’t get that. I appreciate you covering this 🙏
I've got 2 vanguards, a 25-06 and a 300 win mag. I really enjoy both and they do the job everytime on anything.
It is a cool cartridge and glad you did a video. A couple people on the forum shoot this cartridge and have achieved excellent results especially with Hammer Bullets. I’ll stick with my .280AI. Thanks
I fire formed with 14.6g of bullseye, filled the case with cream of wheat, and piece of paper towel stuffed down in to keep the mess from falling out. A perfectly formed case is the result. I push a patch down the barrel every 25 rounds.
The advantage is brass is available. Federal and Nosler brass is soft in the case head, you will lose primer pockets.
Winchester Brass is great. Lapua is the very, very toughest in 30/06. The Easy button is the 25/06 brass, but we have not seen Winchester brass in a few years.
We have been shooting the 110g Nosler accubond and the 115g Berger with some amazing accuracy, and deer just flop. The old 117g Sierra btsp is a bullet that just hammers deer hard, but the BC is not that good for 500-600 yard shots.
With a Gentry muzzle break this cartridge indeed becomes one of your favorite, hard-hitting cartridges of all time. With some of the new HIGH BC bullets, very long range shooting is now a Reality.
So glad you covered this cartridge. My dad and I saw a nice Ruger M77 ( the older one with the tang safety) in a pawn shop for a pretty decent price but we didn’t end up getting it. Later on I got to thinking that it would be a perfect rifle to convert to 25-06 AI and do a few upgrades to it and make it an awesome deer and antelope rifle! So I have been looking into the 25-06 AI a little and it’s great to see you cover it in one of your videos. Next time I am in there I may have to see if they still have that old rifle!
Great video, thanks for the video!!...it seems to me there is still good reasons to follow the good old calibers and its siblings , 30-06 parent case availability for cases, new 130ish and a bit more heavier bullets coming out, a selection of slow powders and given is a relatively barrel burner it seems a 1 in 8 / 1 in 7 twist will get with a 26" tube will be a real good contender for a not magnum related caliber. Personally I¨ll go this route for my .25-06 Ruger No1 when the rifle needs rebarreling, heck possibly sooner!, the lack of bolt action will give me enough room to put a longer barrel to squeeze maximum velocity and still be a handy hunter rig. Thanks again for the effort!. Regards from Argentina, D.
Great video! The 25-06AI is one of my favorites. Thanks for posting this.
Thanks for watching!
I own a Savage model 110 heavy barrel 25-06 i run 85gr nosler with reloader 19 an she's moving along pretty fast
It is impressive; I have a 257 Robert's A.I., a 250 Savage A.I. and a 257 Weatherby. I love them all, surprisingly, the 250 A.I. is very close to the Roberts A.I., with 87 grain. I am getting 3380 FPS and 3409 fps out of them. With heavier bullets the margin gets bigger with the Robert.
The 250 Savage A.I. case is very similar to the Creedmoor case.
I always thought the 6.5 x 55 Ackley, in a modern rifle would be sweet.
I got one with a 7.5tw 26" barrel. Best decision on a cartridge I've made. I have 5x fired brass that I've never had to trim. If you can find RWS 270win brass it's better than Lapua for fire forming. Norma 270win brass is pretty good also. If your chamber is set up properly by your Smith you can use factory 25-06 ammo in a pinch.
The down side..... my rifle loves retumbo and RL26 which have been extinct for almost 3 years. Fire forming can be easily done during barrel break in and my fire forming loads were still 1/2moa just not as fast as fully formed loads.
Berger publishes .25-06 AI load data for their 135 grain LR Hybrid using a 26" barrrel. One very interesting load is the following:
Alliant RE 26
Min. 53.0 grains @2812 FPS
Max. 58.2 grains @3063 FPS
Approx. fill ratio of 91%.
This load provides the best speed per volume of powder of more than a couple dozen tested.
According to the Berger calculator, at 500 yards this load would deliver around 2550 FPS, 1950 ft. lbs., -36" drop, and 12.5" wind drift (15 mph 9 o-clock). A very potent and flat shooting round for sure.
Thank you for posting. This is my goto cartridge for just about everything. Not enough is said about it.
Thanks for watching
What twist rate is your barrel? What bullets? (I MIGHT make a custom with a custom barrel, with that, I can get any twist ... Do they make a HIGH BC bullets???
You could look for a Weatherby ULW in .25-06 and have it set back and re-chambered. I decided to re-barrel because I wanted 26", and a faster twist. I have a "LITE" in a very light package. Shoots bugholes.
I've never even seen a 25-06AI or any of its stats until now but I agree with you that it probably is in the top 3 AI designs. And compared with the 257 Weatherby, it fills some big shoes. In terms of power, not many Weatherby cartridges withstand much competition and this cartridge really does! Thanks for a really great video introduction to this cartridge.
Really enjoyed this!
I’ve done 3500 with a regular 25-06 with ttsx bullets behind some H1000. I have put a fast twist barrel on this thing and improved it. You can go 3400 fps plus with the 135 Bergers
Enjoyed the video
Thanks for watching!
The thumbnail image you used (the .25-06 Rem vs. .25-06 AI in front of the smoke gray frankford arsenal box) is actually one of my pictures I took of my .25-06 AI case next to a standard .25-06 Rem. and posted on LRH and LRO...I used to go by MudRunner2005 before I got banned from both forums. Glad to see someone using it for views...Just wish my videos would get this many views and subs... LOL
Thanks for the picture! Sorry for using it without your permission...
Excellent video! I’m sure you are referring to bolt action cartridges for the most part but in my opinion the two cartridges that gain the most in their Ackley versions are number one-25-35 Winchester and number two-348 Winchester. I can get over 200 feet per second easily out of my 348 without even pushing it. If you’ve ever seen the factory cartridges it’s not hard to see why.
257 Roberts A.I. is another great A.I. cartridge.
My choice in 25 caliber.
Mike, P.O. thought the 250-3000 AI was the cartridge that most benefitted from his improvement.
This looks sweet. With high BC bullets coming in the 25s, this could be a awesome opportunity for a custom rifle. Maybe would need a magnum length action for the long bullets though??
Would be perfect for the high b.c. bullets
Would love to see the drop and drift chart with a 200 yard zero which is much more conducive to longer range shooting.
Got lucky last year and got 25-06 hornady factory loaded 25$ box and got 15 boxes lol I'll never run out of brass hopefully
22-250AI be probably funnest speed wise
I have one, from H-S Precision when they were still in Arizona. I vividly recall the first crow I took with it. It was vaporized. Rained black feathers for what seemed like many minutes. 😅 This gun put 5 shots of the Winchester Supreme factory load into 1/4 MOA @ 100 yds, while fire-forming of course.😊
Love my 25
Interesting round
If someone handed me a 25-06AI cartridge, like the one shown in the thumbnail, I'd think it was a Weatherby load at first blush until noticing the absence of a belt. That is an extremely blown out shoulder.
to give a second life to the bushings already used what should I learn and what tool is used
25 cal is so underated. I personally think 25 cal is the best bullet diameter for a short action especially for a 308case . 6.5 cm is a tad slow with the highest bc bullets and 6mm is a bit too fast. 25 cal is right on prefect
Wasn't willing to AI my Browning Medallion (1st Gen), but leaning towards AI-ing my Savage mdl. 110.
Nice breakdown. If you want to see another quarter bore wildcat. Check out the 25 SST from Sherman Wildcats. It is an absolute beast.
The 25 cal is almost my favorite. I've got them all fr9m the 25-35 through the wild cats. I kill elk with the 25-06 AI.
Beautiful Cartridge, more speed. Weatherby been doing this for longtime with lots of Cartridges
Another 2 ai cartridges are the 243ai and the 270ai I own both and they perform well above what most people think. Awesome content mate
Thanks
@@ReloadingWeatherby I'm pushing 130gr vlds at 3315fps in my 270ai
@@bradleytyrrell4417 That's pretty crazy
257 Wby with the 100 grain TTSX is load I shot the last mulie with...the one that got away. 😫
Yeah... that sucks
Mines to good shooting to change to AI but been thinking on find something used cheap to make one
Extra capacity will be nice with these new heavier bullets
Yep! You could have a sweet long range rifle.
I’m blowing out brass for the .25 Sherman LA right now…@@ReloadingWeatherby
What would we have if we took the 6.5 rpm Weatherby case and necked it down to. 257 dia.?
A clone to the 25-06 AI... maybe a little more power.
I have a FN mauser action in 30-06, i was going to build a custom 30-06, been thinking about making it a 280 AI. NOW, HUMMM 2BIT 06, AI, hummmm
P.O.Ackley said this cartridge offered the least improvement of his improved cartridges…2506 cases tend to grow in length with each resizing…the improved version fixes that but fireforming or trimming once for the life of the case is easier to me….2506 really doesn’t need improving…I’ve used it for 35 years in Nevada open sagebrush it doesn’t need improving.
Never said it needed improving. Some people just want to be different and a little more power
Aahhhh, 25.06 AI. 24" bbl, increase the twist rate. Load up the long high bc ace bullets. 131-135 grain im guessing. Could be on to something with this one.😮
Work the numbers on the 6mm prc
105 grain @3400 with .531 bc
Sounds like a great wildcat
Love it. But the best AI? For me 30-30 AI in a Savage 99! It blows people's minds at the range.
Interesting
257 roberts ai to me is the best gain and there’s load data.
That's fair
@@ReloadingWeatherby you are right about 25-06 AI though and it has better brass life.
I'll take a 250 Savage Ackley Improved - a Short Action Bob. Now to get Nosler to submit to SAAMI.
@@anthonykaiser974neck that up .007" and...wall-la! 6.5 Creedmoor.
The standard Bob has been chambered in short actions.
@@luvtahandload7692 the word is "Voila!" meaning "there it is," from French.
I am considering a custom target rifle in 25-06, and trying to determine if the fire form needed to go AI would be worth it. Also having a hard time funding Go/No-Go guages.
Good luck!
P.O. Ackley put a book out that has reloading data
You are right, but the data is too old to be of much help. No new powder data.
The old powders still works
That's great information. Thank you
Well since you are a big 270 win fan I think you should look into a 270 ai.
I'm a big 270 fan? I'm not reloading 270 Winchester haha
@@ReloadingWeatherby I know you are cause you loaded heavies for it. Cause I watched the video
@@barrymunns7706 I appreciate you watching. I'm a much bigger fan of Weatherby cartridges. But the 270 AI would be cool
use 30-06 convert with dies to 25-AI much cheaprt to shoot than a weatherdy
Are you factoring in that you can reload 257 Weatherby for much cheaper as well? I did the cost for you even with the inflated prices. 25-06 AI should be around $1.67 to reload. 257 WBY is $2.05 to reload.
🥵
Impressive, but not enough improvement to bother. Imo
Hornady makes 25-06 brass, i've been necking it up to 6.5-06 AI which I think is a much better cartridge.