Remember the Remington ‘Accelerator’ rounds…?

[AJMD429]

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Gotta wonder if that’s what Charlie Kirk was shot with, although I’m not convinced that the accused was the actual shooter. A young fool like that probably wouldn’t even know about that cartridge that was produced back in the 70s and 80s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlEJuO0ZGEc

However, someone who is setting him up as a fall guy might’ve supplied him with some….

I do quibble a little bit with Martinson’s description of the 30–06 power level versus 308 and 300 Win Mag, but I think he was simply trying to make the point that the 30–06 is more powerful than a 308 by at least some margin.

I wish he would’ve checked a Remington Accelerator in his testing, but you don’t see many of them around.

[JimT]

I still have some for the .30-30.

accellerator2.jpg

accellerator.jpg

[Bronco]

How accurate are they Jim?

[JimT]

How accurate are they Jim?

Been a long time, but they were as good as any factory load. I guided a friend's wife hunting Javelina. She had a Model 94 Winchester carbine 30-30 and was using the Accelerators. We got onto a herd that were playing peek-a-boo in and out of a catclaw thicket. She sat down and waited and when one came out and gave he a peek she rolled him over at better than 90 yards. It worked well ... lots of internal damage to the lungs/heart etc. when I cleaned it for her.

[marlinman93]

I had a box of Remington .30-06 accelerators and found them less than satisfactory myself. I also was given 250 .30 caliber accelerator bullets to try to work up loads with. I never got loads made up that were anywhere near as accurate as the loads I made for my .22-250 Remington. I think the issue is a .55 grain bullet in a .30 caliber sabot being pushed down a typical .30 caliber barrel doesn't have the same twist rate as any .22CF shooting the same 55 gr. bullet. Then there's the issue of sabots coming off the projectiles, and how that might affect the bullet?
If these worked great at typical varmint rifle distances they'd have lasted longer, but they weren't much good at further distances.

[JRD]

A former Remington engineer I know once told me they were kind of a novelty to get varmint rifle ballistics from a deer rifle- but with accuracy that was mediocre at best. He didn't expect to ever see groups of less than several inches at 100 yards.
The main issue was the consistency (or lack thereof) which the sabots released the bullets with.

[JimT]

Out of my Model 94 Carbine the Accelerators averaged 1" at 50 yards and 3 1/8" at 100 yards. (iron sights) The only factory loads that were more accurate were the Winchester 170 gr. Silvertips. Of course this is one gun and caliber and that don't really tell you anything other than they worked OK in that gun.

[JRD]

Jim,
You make a very good point. A group of approximately three inches at 100 yards with an open sighted lever gun is good shooting and perfectly satisfactory to me.

However, if you swap to a scoped bolt action that you'd expect near 1" groups from, then getting three inch groups from Accelerators wouldn't be as satisfactory.

I suppose it's all relative to your gun and how your particular batch of ammo shoots. I also got the sense that it wasn't that Accelerators never shot well, but that the accuracy would vary from lot to lot due to normally inconsequential variation in the plastic resin.

We can also infer that there are probably similar considerations in modern inline muzzleloading sabots for accuracy- but 44 cal bullets in 50 cal sabots have more inertia and are likely less sensitive than 22 caliber bullets in 30 cal sabots.

[earlmck]

Waste of time figuring out how an '06 figured in our shooting: that rifle and shooter were just decoys to divert our attention from some Deep State actor. Another Sirhan Sirhan so to speak--"shooter" still doing time for killing RFK who was 6' out front of RFK while RFK was being killed by a contact wound to the back of the head.

Do you suppose they can pull it off again?

[JimT]

Do you suppose they can pull it off again?

Sure. When the media goes along with whatever narrative is being spun.

[GunnyMack]

Yup, I remember seeing those, I was working in a sportshop as a teenager. There were boxes of them on the shelf but I dont remember ever selling any.
It's a matter of barrel twist. You would have to get a barrel made for 30 cal with the proper twist for 55s.

Sabot tech has come along, think about muzzle loaders and slug guns. My Savage 220 with 3" Remington Acutip slugs will shoot one hole 3 shot groups at 100 IF I do my part. I have a Knight ' rolling block' that shoots almost as well with a sabot using .452" bullets. Again IF I do my part. Both are very accurate and work very well.
I've developed a load for the Savage that uses the Lyman pellet style slug that shoots about 3" at 100, I cut 20ga hulls and make a 2 part sabot that grabs the slug enough to get it to actually spin unlike the slug in a wad. At 5 bucks each for the Remington it won't take long to pay for the mould I bought.

[marlinman93]

My custom built Pattern 17 Enfield with a Douglas Premium barrel in .30-06 can easily keep 5 shots under 1" at 100 yds. But with Accelerators the same gun wont keep under 2" at 100 yds. My Remington 700 in .22-250 keeps 10 shots under 3/4" at 100 yds. easily, so I never saw a use for the silly Accelerators.

[FLINT]

I for sure used to see those on the ammo rack when I was younger. It seems like they were sold into the 90s maybe. Or maybe they had just been sitting on the shelf for a decade.

[JimT]

I for sure used to see those on the ammo rack when I was younger. It seems like they were sold into the 90s maybe. Or maybe they had just been sitting on the shelf for a decade.

I bought the ones I still have in the late 1980's.

[AJMD429]

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Speaking of sabots, someday I want to try developing a 50 cal saboted load for my BHA 500 S&W; I see sabots for 30, 35, 40, 44, and 45 caliber pistol bullets.

Like noted above with muzzleloaders, it might be pretty accurate. Part of the reason such loads may be more accurate than using a 223 bullet, and a 30–06 is that at least pistol bullets are sort of close to the round balls and short stubby bullets muzzleloaders are designed for.

Or I could put a 30 cal sabot in a 50 cal sabot and use a 223 bullet; it might not be very accurate but I’ll bet with the right powder it would be flying pretty fast…