I dunno know about anyone else, but the number of times I have sat down with a new factory hunting rifle and had the loads jive exactly with what the manuals say I should be getting velocity wise ,have been infrequent. There is always some kind of difference that we can talk about when it comes to this cartridge or that giving as much or more velocity,but I have been disappointed more often than not when I expected a smaller case to do the job of a larger one.
I think this is because of the differences in barrels and throats more so than anything else (and maybe likely the manuals are using different powder lots,tight pressure barrels, different barrel lengths, etc).....whatever.
You can play games with barrels,lengths, and throats in your custom barrels and chambers,use some miracle powder, load to higher pressures,and get some cartridges to look as good as some larger one's, or better than they should.I have generally found this approach unsatisfactory and I have done plenty of it.
But IME at the end of the day the only really certain way to insure you will get to a certain velocity level is to buy more case capacity in the form of a larger cartridge.
With very few exceptions (usually having to do with inefficiency),I have never failed to see this approach work to perfection.
Personally I would run the 06 "as is" and if I wanted "more" I'd grab a 300 WSM or Win Mag...this will end all speculation and eliminate a lot of drama....OTOH maybe speculation and drama is what this is all about.
