gibbs

[cliffe]

has anybody here had any experience with the wildcat case designed by rocky gibbs? they were 06 brass made with a 35 angled shoulder and came in 6mm on up. cliffe

 

[cliffe]

i thought some of the older guys here would have a little insight on this chambering. gibbs lived in idaho, maybe someone in the western states could shed a little light on this?these rounds were based on the 06 case but the shoulder was 35degree and the neck shortened to increase powder capacity and were faster than the normal 06 based case rounds. by how much i would like to know. thanks hopefully for a reply.... cliffe

 

[Tommie]

I've read about Gibbs chamberings and my local gunsmith shoots a 6.5 Gibbs, but to my knowledge there just aren't that many people shooting Gibbs stuff these days. From what I've been told, Rocky's advertised velocities were pretty optimistic. When owners of his guns tried to duplicate his velocities, very high,i.e. dangerous) pressures resulted.

Tom

 

[cliffe]

i'm still wondering if anybody has or had one and what type of velocity they were really capable of. they should be capable of more velocity than a ackley improved round or a standard style 06 case as they have more capacity. with ANY round you still have to start lower and work YOUR load up and look for signs of pressure. i think the ackley and most wildcats went to the wayside when the magnum rounds started to appear and were faster from the factory, along with some good press for the magnums. i thought maybe some of the older guys like catshooter or ray had a couple of the gibbs chambering and could shed some light,they always tell it like it is..... cliffe

 

[Tommie]

Glad I'm not considered old!

 

[cliffe]

heck look at the history lesson we got from Catshooter on all those old military rounds and their origins cliffe

 

[Cheechako]

Rocky Gibbs' line of 9 wildcats were all based on the 30-06 case and ranged from 6mm to 35 caliber. There's no doubt that they were an inprovement over the parent case. But you have to remember, back then there weren't a lot of cases to work with. The 30-06 and 300 H&H magnum were what the majority of the wildcatters used when looking for increased velocity. Today, the selection of brass is so large that hardly anyone goes to the extremes that Gibbs did. It's a lot of work.

Here's an 06, and 06 Improved and a 30 Gibbs. You can see the improvement.

FYI, the Gibbs cartridges that I have in my collection are 6mm, 25, 6.5mm, 270, 7mm, 30, 8mm, 338, and 35. All made from military 06 brass.

Ray

 

[yat3b35]

Back when I was a youngun I had my smith Charley Starner,RIP) build me a 240 Gibbs on a 1903a3 Springfield.It had a Star barrel 28' heavy varmint contour 1 14 twist. I used Denver 43 military brass. The Denver 43 was tops back then.I used Sierra 75 gr hp bullets and when they would stay together I could get 4060fps out of it.In the early 70's the jackets on them would let go if you shot them to fast,needles to say 4060fps was to fast.I ended up going with a Nosler partition bullet 85gr I think.It sure was a lot of work making cases for it,but a lot of fun when the bullet would stay together. Hit a groundhog and it would explode. If I remember correctly I only got 800 rounds out of it before it started shooting groups like a scatter gun.Lord that was nearly 40 years ago. Darn I'm getting old.

 

[Ackman]

Mine's a .240Gibbs. In a well put together gun this cartridge is very accurate.....mine is very well put together and as accurate as the 22BR and 6BR. I was lucky enough to buy this gun completely tweaked with loads developed, ready to go. Two barrels, both untapered 28' PacNor, 13' twist. Making brass is time consuming and for this one it's nice to have a fireform barrel. The load is IMR 4831 with a 70BT doing 4100 and it does a real good number on rockchucks. Still it's a conservative load for this cartridge. The Gibbs is potent and accurate also little known and seldom seen. The gun now wears a straight 30' Krieger barrel chambered for 6mmAI. That cartridge also shoot 70's at 4100+ using less powder, and brass is much easier to make.