Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 30-06 too much for deer?

I killed my first deer in North Carolina with my .30-06. More followed. I used 150 grain Sierra Gameking bullets and IMR 4064 powder. I still do. I don't think it's too much gun because it doesn't destroy a whole heck of a lot of meat. I've found bullets sitting in the far side of the animal's hide. Spent. It never blew big holes through them like my .300 WSM does, so I would not say "too much gun." A clean kill and not a lot of meat destroyed would be my goal, and a .30-06 does that.

Any chance you're using pretty close to 52 grains of powder?

The 30-06 Springfield is the standard of the world.

It's not too much rifle for deer.

Of course it may kick and not be as light as some what to carry however it's in the middle of just right!

I shot my second deer in VT in 1954 with a 30-06 handload I made. The rifle was a sporter P-17 Enfield my late dad and I blued and put a Bishop stock on.

The bullet was a 180 Sierra BT over a full load of 4350. The shot was about 50 yds.

I'm a sissy. 48 grains I think.

So you are shooting a 300savage-06. Not a bad idea, especially if you think standard 06 is too much for Bambi or whatever. 30-30wcf-06 is also available. Both are fine calibers hiding in 30-06 rifles everywhere.

The 52 grain load is a classic that has worked well in a lot of rifles. It's about max at standard 30-06 pressure which means it isn't ragged edge.

I agree with you completely. If all I hunted were Doe and yearling bucks I'd just use a .22-250. But the mature bucks are what I'm really after so I carry more gun.

I've found that any flavor of .30-06 150 grain bullet at about 2900 fps is pure magic on deer.

With apologies to a C&W singer whose name I can't recall:

"Too much gun, what's that mean?
Like too much money, there's no such thing!
It's like a girl too pretty, a car too fast . . ."

I ain't never had too much gun!"

Just another of the benefits of handloading

I was hunting West Virginia one year and found an unusual loaded round near the parking lot of the public hunting ground I was at. I have found plenty of loose rounds (Guys loading their pockets in the dark) and sometimes whole boxes. That was the first time I ever found a .416 Rigby. Kind of makes a 30.06 seem lame. What ever makes you happy. I never really hear about "Too much" gun, usually the arguments are over "Not enough" gun.

For 108 years the .30/06 has demonstrated competence in most everything asked of it. Why question it now when we have the best powders and bullet selections in ballistic history.

You guys need a drink. Come to think of it, I do too.

so is it age, weight or antler size that makes them harder to kill? my wife took a 3.5 yo 180 lb (dressed) 4x5 WT last year with a lowly 6mm-223 head on, right in the chest. bullet went 2' before stopping in the guts, deer ran 50'. they don't become bulletproof over time.

When is a cartridge to much? I have used a 30-06 on deer and elk with great success. Never had a doubt about it abilities.

I agree, 99% of centerfire cartridges are plenty to kill deer with, regardless of the deer's age/size

I don't think it is a matter of needing a bigger cartridge for trophy's. I think it is a matter of just feeling like you have a more capable one. Not unlike guys having a go to rifle. Some guys just have a certain rifle they feel has never let them down. So much of our hunting habits are slightly superstitious. For years I wore the same Carhart coveralls and old plaid wool shirt. Same knife, same hat same gun. Then as I got new guns, knives and such I would filter the new in. I squeezed into those Carharts the last year I wore them and I believe I even cut a patch off that old wool shirt to carry once it got to small and battered to wear.

In my mind that is the same as guys feeling they need a bigger caliber for trophy deer as apposed to just a normal hunt on the back 40.

Not here in NEPA....wish I had a dollar for everyone that I know who used one.

Asking if a 30/06 is too much for deer is like asking if size 12 shoes are too big-
If the shooter is a 90 pound 12 year old and the rifle is an ultra lite 30/06 pushing 220 grain Noslers over a red line load of 4831 and the deer are 50 pound Florida Keys deer, it might possibly be too much.
If the deer are 300 pound northern whitetails, and the hunter is Lanny Benoit, it probably isn't too much for deer.

I guess one could ask if a 12 gauge is to much for rabbit?

As usual the conditions under which you hunt deer are quite important also.. Hunting private land with long seasons and either sex hunts make for a hunt where the hunter can be selective about the animal and shot he takes.. As someone pointed out if you hunt for mature bucks on public land, it is more difficult to get a good shot especially at good bucks.. When I was a kid, my grandfather shot a .30-06.. He killed a couple deer with a .32 spl. then decided he wanted something else.. He hunted with the old 06 the rest of his life.. One year one of our neighbors bought a .222.. It was new on the market in those days.. The first day he succeeded in crippling a pretty nice buck and it got away.. As the incident was discussed around the fire that night, grandfather's comment was, if that sob had a rifle instead of a mouse gun, he would have gotten that deer..
When you shoot small guns, they work much of the time, but when something screws up, it is the animal that suffers..