AI conversion

[scope eye]

If you are a reloader with any experience, there is no reason not to go they AI route, just the brass savings alone are worth the price of admission, not all cartridges respond well or see any gain to AI, but they 06 family is one of the ones that responds to it the most and sees some of the most gains, no matter what barrel length, in fact a excellent way to regain lost velocity from a shorter barrel used for hunting or light weight is AI, with no ill effects and if ever you get caught short on ammo, non AI ammo will work just fine.

Dean

[243LPR]

Well the barrel I ordered is not in stock like I thought. Plan changed and ordered a Criterion from Jim. A little more money but should be worth it.Also have some Lapua brass coming for it. Just need some dies and bullets and warmer weather.

[mattri]

Glad you found what you were after, Jim is great to work with.

As far as the re-chambering goes, let's say that you want a 6.5x55AI. Instead of using a factory 6.5x55 chamber would it be better to use say a 260, so you have the room to cut the proper length?

[scope eye]

AI they existing chamber is easier, but on they other hand once it's in the lathe, it doesn't really make any difference.

Dean

[bootsmcguire]

Glad you found what you were after, Jim is great to work with.

As far as the re-chambering goes, let's say that you want a 6.5x55AI. Instead of using a factory 6.5x55 chamber would it be better to use say a 260, so you have the room to cut the proper length?

If you are hand cutting, the 260 chamber would have you there for awhile and it would be very hard to keep the reamer straight. If you are using a lathe, then either would work, but all else being the same I would probably go with the 260 as a donor just because you would have a bigger window to check when coming up on your target depth and work to it appropriately, but the parent chamber will work fine, you just have to remember to take a bit off the breech before running in the reamer, otherwise you end up with the situation I described above in post #11.

[yobuck]

Yobuck, I had a 25-06 AI and 200 fps gain with almost all loads is easy. To get the 400 fps gain it was a lot of increased pressure and hard on the brass. Also hard on my ejector. I shot two deer with AI but it was just to explosive. Went back to a standard 25-06. But, fast was cool.

youve just described my short mag experience. for me its about shooting them not tinkering with them.
till i got the short mag straightened out satisfactorly it had lost its appeal to me.
200 fps gain would work for me, anymore would be a bonus.