Thread: What to do with my Omark ?

Read German Salazar's 30-06 article on 6mmbr and go to it. Lapua brass, enough recoil to know you are doing something and enough downstream to get it done. The 1-10 is the limiting factor more than case capacity I think.

280AI

Originally Posted by NewbieZAR

280AI

Greetings,
Regarding the .30-06AI and the .30 Gibbs neither is that much better than the bog .30-06 loaded to the same pressure and the Cibbs needs a lot of case forming. Still if you are into retro and prepared to work for it. .30-06 AI could be a rechamber of your original barrel but not the standard 06. Wouldn't be worried about the 1 in 10 twist. At least its not a 1 in 14. There seems to be an Omark in my cupboard as well. Hmm.
Regards Grandpamac.

Been watching some of the 30-06 stuff by 4AW over in Aus.

He just took a bog standard 06, and reamed the neck quite a bit forward to use 230 Bergers. Pushing them at around 2640 fps out of a 26 inch 1:10 barrel !

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings,
Regarding the .30-06AI and the .30 Gibbs neither is that much better than the bog .30-06 loaded to the same pressure and the Cibbs needs a lot of case forming. Still if you are into retro and prepared to work for it. .30-06 AI could be a rechamber of your original barrel but not the standard 06. Wouldn't be worried about the 1 in 10 twist. At least its not a 1 in 14. There seems to be an Omark in my cupboard as well. Hmm.
Regards Grandpamac.

Comment based on your personal experience with that cartridge, no doubt.

Originally Posted by ebf

Been watching some of the 30-06 stuff by 4AW over in Aus.

He just took a bog standard 06, and reamed the neck quite a bit forward to use 230 Bergers. Pushing them at around 2640 fps out of a 26 inch 1:10 barrel !

Might have to have a look at that.

30-06AI make the most sense to me; good case capacity and (fire)forming brass is zero effort. I've always thought the more steps to prepping brass the more likely I'll make a clumsy human error that effects performance.

Greetings EBF,
I rechambered a Parker Hale 1200TX target rifle to .30-06 AI 30 years ago. The only minor problem I had was that the original chamber had been cut to 7.62 NATO specs and the Winchester cases showed a noticeable bulge just above the solid head. This may not have been a problem with Norma or Lapua cases. I worked up to 60 grains of AR2209 (the older and slower AR2209) for 2,830 fps. It was quite accurate in spite of a worn barrel. I just neck sized the cases with my .308 Win neck die, not willing to spend what the rifle had cost me just for the dies.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by ebf

Not shooting FTR anymore, so the Omark has become a bit of a safe queen.

Thinking about options for turning it into something a bit more suited to occasional ELR shoots.

Been talking to gundoc and Jaco Goosen, but keen to hear other opinions as well.

The bolt face does not have a lot of meat, so I am stuck with .470

H2O case capacities:

30-284 : 66.2gr
30-06 : 68.4gr
30-06 AI (assuming +5%) : 71.8gr

It is a single shot, so no mag length issues to complicate matters, and if I need to, happy to pull the bolt to get a loaded case out.

Guess what I am after is a 470 bolt face 30 cal chambering that would allow me to send 200gr + projectiles downrange as fast as possible.

Any better ideas than 30-06 AI ?

What to do with your omark?

You should shoot it, admire it for its simplicity but great accuracy and hug it every day. I saw a sticker on a guncase once that said "have you hugged your omark today"....it would be a full time job for me!!

Have you thought of rebating the rim of a larger calibre? 300wsm perhaps? I'm not absolutely sure if you could go that big but maybe.

1:10 will happily spin 220 gr projectiles even 250 if you go round nose. Ever since I got my parker hale in 3006 worked out I've become a fan of the cartridge it's so versatile.

Originally Posted by DGB

Have you thought of rebating the rim of a larger calibre? 300wsm perhaps? I'm not absolutely sure if you could go that big but maybe.

When you say "rebating the rim" do you mean opening up the bolt face diameter ?

If so, nope, not enough meat left on the Omark bolt to go any larger than .470.

Chop the barrel 40mm from the reciever, back bore and thread for a fast twist 6.5 barrell chambered in 6.5/284 or 6.5-06 ackley. That will get waaaay out there.

Na I've seen it before where people take brass and machine the rim smaller to suit the bolt face. Ends up looking funny a bit like the 450 bushmaster where the rim is much smaller than the base.no good for a controlled feed but ok for push feed or single shot.you have to turn each piece of brass but you can grind a cutter to the correct shape and its fast enough just dont throw your brass away!