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

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.

V -


I call it my "606" ! AKA- 6 OH 6.

Jerry

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?