The Remington Accelerator line, including the .30-30 Win. load seen here, was not inaccurate, but fell short of modern standards for accuracy.
One of the most radical ammunition introductions occurred in 1977. Between then and 1979, Remington introduced its Accelerator line of ammunition, which it had engineered to essentially turn a .30-30 Win., .308 Win. or .30-’06 Sprg. deer rifle into a fast-stepping varmint rifle. The concept was straightforward: By encasing a .224-caliber bullet inside a plastic .30-caliber sabot, it allowed those cartridges to shoot the smaller caliber (and much lighter bullet) at fantastic velocities. As you can imagine, Accelerator loads immediately grabbed everyone’s attention.
For those who may not know, a sabot—pronounced sa’bō—is a device that allows a projectile of a smaller caliber to be fired through a barrel of a larger caliber by surrounding the smaller-caliber projectile and keeping it centered and filling the firearm’s bore. The sabot separates and falls away from the projectile a short distance from the muzzle. This is the same/similar concept used for the excellent performing, armor-piercing, fin-stabilized, discarding sabot (APFSDS) ammunition used for the 105 mm and 120 mm main guns on the M1 Abrams family of tanks. The sabot concept has also been successfully used with shotgun slugs and in-line muzzleloaders, and is still common today.
Remington .30-’06 Sprg. Accelerator ammunition—the first introduced—flew off the shelves, partly because of its revolutionary concept, but also because of positive reviews by writers. In the “1978 Gun Digest Annual,” Bob Steindler wrote, “In three ’06 rifles used to test the Remington Accelerator round, the new round gave me 1.5 to 2 MOA with considerable consistency.” Reports like this and the notion your .30-caliber deer rifle could become a varmint rifle was all consumers needed to make them spend their money.
The problem was, gunscribes like Steindler who were singing the praises of Remington’s Accelerator ammo either had rifles that shot a lot better than those of the average man, or they were taking liberties. A few years later, when Ken Waters wrote about new ammunition in the “Gun Digest Annual”—specifically the then-just-recently announced .30-30 Win. Remington Accelerator load, he said, “As of this writing, I’ve yet to test the .30-30 Accelerators, but will be more concerned to see what level of accuracy can be ob-tained than to verify velocities. The .30-’06 Accelerators showed widely varying degrees of accuracy grouping.” That is gunwriter jargon for “this stuff just doesn’t shoot very well,” and by 1979 everyone who had bought a box of Accelerator ammo knew it.
Interestingly, though I cannot remember or find any reference to the notion, the lighter weight and smaller projectiles used in Remington Accelerator ammunition would have also worked better for self-defense indoors, where overpenetration could be a concern with common-weight, .30-caliber bullets. Of course, back at that time, self-defense/personal protection was not discussed as often in the gun press as it is today.
… the lighter weight and smaller projectiles used in Remington Accelerator ammunition would have also worked better for self-defense indoors …
I recently dug out an old box of .30-30 Win. Accelerator loads and tested them in my Winchester Model 94 truck gun, which has a 20-inch barrel and XS Sights. At 50 yards I fired two, five-shot groups from a sandbag rest and the average group size was roughly 2.5 inches. That’s not terrible, but common 150-grain .30-30 Win. loads generally group around the 1.25-inch mark out of that rifle. I could darn sure shoot a lettuce-grubbing groundhog out of the garden or a murderous home invader with that Accelerator load at close range, but at 100 yards it would have been difficult to hit a baseball. What surprised me the most was how consistently the ammunition performed. The average velocity was 3,301 fps, with a standard velocity deviation of only 8.9 fps.
I’m not sure when Remington discontinued its Accelerator line of ammunition, but it’s been gone for a long time. However, a few boxes do show up for sale online from time to time, usually at ridiculous prices.
The E. Arthur Brown Company (eabco.com) will sell you 100, .30- to .224-caliber sabots for less than $20 and they can work in any .30-caliber rifle cartridge or even the .30 Carbine. It also showcases a special case-neck expander and a special bullet-seating die for sabots. And, the company has a good bit of sabot/bullet-load data for several .30-caliber rifle cartridges you can access on its website.
If you do find some of the old Remington Accelerator ammo or create your own sabot bullet loads, there are some guidelines you need to follow. Primarily, never use a saboted round with a rifle that has a muzzle brake or a suppressor attached. This is because early sabot separation can potentially cause problems with brake or baffle strikes. Second, for best accuracy results, clean your bore to remove all the lead and copper fouling. Also, 50- to 60-grain .224-caliber bullets typically work best with sabots and rifle-twist rates from 1:10 to 1:12 inches. And finally, don’t expect reliably out of a semi-automatic rifle.
There’s really just not any practical application for saboted rifle loads. Most folks who have a .30-caliber rifle also have a .22-caliber centerfire. (Everyone has an AR-15 in .223 Rem. or 5.56 NATO, right?) I’m sure there’s a survivalist somewhere who believes that in some sort of apocalyptic situation, having an ammo can full of .30-30 Win. or .308 Win. ammo loaded with 55-grain, .22-caliber bullets in sabots could be useful. Maybe so, but I think the best need sabots fill for most shooters is just to feed a desire for novelty and experimentation. I messed with them a bit back around the turn of the century in the .308 Win., and quickly found out there were a hell of a lot of other more practical things for me to waste my money on.
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