Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Why Did They Develop the 30-06?

As the story goes, the Spanish American War taught the US Army that the 30-40 Krag was an inferior rifle to the German Mauser. So they copied the Mauser but with the same .308 diameter 220 grain bullet used in the Krag. They gave it another 200 fps velocity and needed a rimless case for clip loading, resulting in the 30-03 and the 1903 Springfield rifle.

A short time later, they decided that a lighter spitzer bullet was better and settled on a 150 grain bullet (I believe) at 2700 fps. Instead of loading this in 30-03 cases, they shortened the case neck. This required rechambering all the existing Springfields. They called them all back and shortened the barrels one thread, resulting in the 30-06 Springfields having a 23.79" barrel instead of the original 24" barrel.

Why did they go to all this trouble? Why not just load 150 grain bullets in 30-03 cases?

The cynic in me says "government contracts" to do all the extra work as part of the t&e for a "new" cartridge fit for the USA.

the cartridge was a resign to optimize for the newly developed spritzer bullet. The gun redesign was adjusting to the new cartridge design.

They figured some knotthead would use the longer necked cases and neck them down to something ridiculous like 27 cal.

Naw, it was so people could bitch about the boring old .30-06.

I'ts cuz' the 7x57 was already taken!-Muddy

There's a lot of truth to that.

You guys crack me up. <G>

Relaxing way to go to bed.

Because, one time, man needed to achieve perfection.

Speaking of, I was able to score a good deal on 48 pounds of HiVel #2. Anybody got a good load with that for the ought six?

Say what you want, but the Springfield Armory provide the Army with small arms that worked well for any given time- The Spainish American War was at a time when small arms and cartridges were in transition, TR sorted it out when he became President and the rest of us got a pretty good hunting cartridge out of the deal They shut down Springfield Armory during LBJ's time- much to the loss of the Army!

The shades of Springfield Armory gather in a mob behind the ghost of Townsend Whelan, and give you the bird.

As far as I can see , he's just scowling at the screen, wearing a somewhat disgusted look.

GTC.

I'm guessing it was to fix a minor feed issue. Easier to revamp the brass than to revamp the action.



Shod

Maybe to keep the ogive of the shorter spitzer bullet out of the case neck?

Who knows?

Yup.

God spoke to them and said "Let there be light"

I think the Spanish had the 7mm Mauser and the Americans had Krags with black powder and trapdoors.

The Germans had the 8x57 in 1905 that would do 2900 fps with 150 gr.
Work up a load to brass yield, back off a safety margin, and you would have the same load 110 years later.

By 1906 the 8mm would be the cartridge to beat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.92%C3%9757mm_Mauser

http://www.nramuseum.org/media/940564/guns%20of%20the%20spanish.pdf

Yes, I've read or read ABOUT that before.


MY ? is WHY NOT develop the 06?

IMO - NO OTHER cartridge, domestic or foreign, has the successful HISTORY of the "venerable" 30.06

Jerry

The reason for the reduced neck length was due to the shorter bearing surface of the new pointed bullet.

Frankford Arsenal experimented from May 1906 with a version of the then new spitzgeschoss (pointed bullet) which the Germans had introduced in the previous year. The FA version was a 150 grain flat based design with a long ogive and short bearing surface of 0.255", on an overall length of 1.15". The bearing surface was much shorter than the round-nosed 220gn of the .30/03, and the case neck was shortened to suit it.

It was then found that the long jump to the rifling with the new design in the existing rifles resulted in poor accuracy, so in the latter half of 1906 the chamber specification was changed, resulting in the need to set back barrels on existing rifles, and on October 1906 - after a very short development time, the Model of 1906 was officially adopted.

It didn't quite end there though. Among other things, the bullet design was soon revised to increase bearing length to 0.33" (July 1907) and then, after problems with holding even that bullet in the neck securely, and trying various crimp methods, the bullet was modified to a cannelured form (Feb 1909). With some minor variations that was more or less it until after WW1.

In 1909 too DWM approached the Ordnance Office about royalties for the copying of their S-ball design, and when this was refused it led to litigation, complicated by WWI, which eventually and somewhat circuitously resolved in DWM's favour.

Don't you guys read?

The 30-03 was visited by an angel, and told it had found favor with God.

He said to the 30-03 that it would be visited by a Holy Spirit.

9 months later, PERFECTION.

Probably worth noting that there were other bullet designs tried at Frankford Arsenal too. There had been quite a number trialled in the Krag, for example, of all sorts of designs. In the development of the .30/03 there were several types tested too, including various versions of the 220 gn RN (three cannelure, single cannelure, no cannelure, no cannelure and with a taper to the bearing surface from .308" to .307" at the base) as well as a 180 gn solid copper bullet of streamlined shape based on the French Balle D.

There was also, in 1905, a request for a soft-point bullet for the then President, 100 of which were hand-delivered to the White House.