Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Effective range of 30-06?

Bob -

Like you, I practice to 600 but don't consider myself a LR hunter. My elk kill in 2012 was my longest since I started in 1982 - 399 yards as measured with gps readings and Google earth. (This dummy left his rangefinder at home...) Shot was taken from a sitting position.

This picture was taken right after I took the shot. My cow is down in the circle.



It was a down-angle shot and this pic is of the exit side. .300WM/180g MRX but I think a .30-06 would have worked just as well.

My longest big game kill is with a .30-06 at 427 yds, LRF. It was a decent whitetail buck, the guy sitting in the fencecorner with me wanted to shoot him, but when I told him the range he said he was out - his .243 wouldn't shoot that far. (He's wrong, HE can't shoot that far.) I said that I'll take him and he called bullschit. I sat down on the ground, took a good rest in the corner post arrangment, held just above the back. Connected with the first shot. The buck turned around once and stood there. I shot him again, broadside, same distance. Heard the bullet slap, buck sat down and crumpled. "Holy Schitt!" I heard behind me. First bullet took him just behind the lungs, destroyed the liver. Second bullet went right through the heart. 165 gr. Nosler Ballistic tip at 2850 fps, 3-9x40 scope and a good rest. Haven't had the opportunity to shoot a deer farther since, as I prefer to get closer. The guy kindly helped me drag the deer out.

Selmer/CH: John Burns once said on here that,among honest men,400 yards is a long shot.I agree with him.

I agree, 400 yards is a fairly long shot if you're doing it in the offhand position.

bsa: Then it gets REALLY long...

The effective range of a .30-06 is something I've been giving more thought to lately. I have always had a self-imposed limit of 400 for my own shooting. Lots of practice combined with avoiding riskier shots has served me well so far.

Having said that, I shoot well enough from field positions that 500 yards is realistic for me to make well placed shots. Bullet expansion seems to be a limiting factor though. It seems that most bullets can't be counted on to expand below 1800fps reliably (according to the manufacturers and bullet testing) which would put the maximium range at something like 400-500 yards depending on the load.

The furthest I've ever shot a big game animal was 381 yards so I don't know from first hand experience what bullet performance is like in that 400-500 yard window. I'd really appreciate hearing about first hand accounts of the .30-06's performance at 400+. For me it is likely academic since I will probably still stick to 400 at my personal maximum but it is still an interesting topic.

500 yards with a good rest, plenty of time and no wind is a LOT closer than 300 yards without the same.

To be clear, my shot was on a still morning, easy to read the wind by the mist rising straight up, all the way to the deer, over the bottom. I nailed a 310 yd shot this fall with a standing rest on a nice bedded mule deer doe this fall with my .260 Rem. 15 mph wind quartering across. My charts and experience said that the 129 gr. Hornady would drift about 10" and drop about 6" from my sight setting. It was a much harder shot than the 400+ shot, but still dropped the bullet into the lungs, she got up, turned around, laid back down, dead in her bed. A good rest and practice make all the difference in the world...

It certainly does.

And yes, 400 looks like a hell of a long way - but I practice on 8" steel disks. The deer look wwaaayyy bigger than that! I used to spend afternoons shooting flickertails offhand with a .22 LR and 4x scope. I could pick them off at 100 yds plus back then. Not sure I could do the same now, with two kids and a full-time call with two congregations I don't have the same amount of trigger time.

Must be true, I missed a buck at 350 yards last fall but have been able to take all the other deer I have shot at with 30-06s from 10-280 yards. Nice to know that the 350 yard shot wasn't my fault after all.

Dumped this guy @ 426. Nice rock to rest on, no wind, knew I had to hold 18" high. Easy.