Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles When will 30-06 not work?

This is truly amazing. How this old tired yardstick of a cartridge can inspire so much interest. I think it's testimony to the very reason the 06 has endured this long. It never gets old. I wish I had some way of tallying up all the threads on all the forums on the net,that revolve around the old 06. I'm obviously pro 30/06. Always have been. So,I'm a little biased. But,I can understand other folks not being in the cult.

I have a 7 Rem mag presently,that I am very fond of. It will do anything the Otter6 will. Just as well. Maybe a shade better with bullets under 150gr. Light .30 caliber lead core bullets get a little chubby and inefficient. On the other hand the old 06 can make good use of a 200gr bullet. It doesn't even need to be a monolithic. The 30/06 is what I call cup and core compatible. All that being said. Even though my T3 7 mag is a one hole wonder.Lots of cool factor. And just damn near perfect. If I had to choose between it and a comparable 30/06 as my go-to,one gun for all. Adios. I'll take the 06 purely out of some odd attraction to it. It just begs to be used. I can't explain it,but I believe it's the same voo doo that keeps us coming back to it. Even if for no other reason than to expound on it's virtues and it's faults.

To answer the OP. When won't it do? When in your own mind it isn't the best rifle for the job. You gotta have confidence in your rig. If you don't, you need a different rig.

Bob I am just being tongue in cheek. I live in Ohio And don't get to use rifles for deer thus my 243 is fine for groundhogs. You have forgotten more about this subject than I know.

Not sure where you're getting that from. (Perhaps I haven't been paying attention. ) I certainly don't know anyone who uses one (or several) who disses it. (It actually works pretty well for beluga hunting too, for younger hunters or those who can't take the recoil of many rapid shots of 375…) I understand it doesn't have the aura of some of the newer, smaller, faster, flatter ones, but she ain't a spring chicken anymore and I'd venture she's holding up better than most of the new ones will at the same age.

I always like to read raw genius from someone who hasn't a clue what they are talking about. Of all the assorted crap I've read here you moved up to a tie for 1st Place. Congrats....... Winner Winner Chicken Dinner........

The 30-06 will hardly kill most ground squirrels unless you hit them right. Most guys around here have learned to shoot shoulders just to anchor them. Kind of a worthless cartridge. Not good for much of anything, unless you need to clear a few japs off your bayonet. It's good for that.

Oh cmon old doe it was a joke lighten up and laugh. I was parodying the guys here who can't say Anything nice.

That had me laffin. So true and yet so not.

Just out of curiosity, anyone know where the .30-06 is in sales these days? Still #1?

Excellent title/thread idea.. I agree.. . Been using one since I was 12 and it's always worked great..

They are barely big enough for lizards. Shoot under them and let the rock shrapnel kill them . They work great on jack rabbits too...

I realize you were kidding just would like to point out that a 168 BT with a .490 BC going close to 3000fps don't exactly drop like a rock.

mjb I kind of doubt that....was just curious was all.

It worked well for this





And it's no slouch for longer range either



What else needs to be said ?

Always like looking at your pics Phil. Thanks for posting them. If you don't mind me asking. What bullet did you whack the bear with?

And Phil provides meaningful data - again. He showed uses that I've never considered, and likely will never do.

This thread is kind of a realization, at least for me, that the 30-06 covers almost all the ground almost all big game sportsman will ever need. As I explained in the previous 30-06 thread, I despised the 30-06 for years. I humbly submit I was wrong.

I've also come to the realization, painful as it is, that as I age (51 at the moment) I'm becoming less enamored with recoil. I've had magnum eyebrow twice shooting magnums at weird angles on game. I'm asking why should I put up with that?

As someone pointed out earlier in this thread, a guy must have confidence in his rifle. I have extreme confidence in my rifles and associated abilities within my self imposed restrictions. I've had zero faith in the 30-06 for most of my life for some reason. I'm seeing it in a much different light as I work through tolerating recoil to arrive at an end point. I don't need a 300 RUM to shot elk at 400 yards or less. I don't need a 257 Weatherby to shoot an antelope at 400 yards. I've always shot flatter shooting cartridges to give me the maximum amount of error when shooting at big game - what if animal X is 450 yards instead of 400? Truth of the matter all bullets starting dropping like rocks after 400 yards. You need significant skill and equipment to be able to shoot much past that distance. I have neither the inclination or desire to do that, so limit my shots to 400 yards. The other truism is that once 'big game' enters the equation, we all run up against the recoil equation. We could all shoot 30-378 or 50 BMG rifles to maximize the effective point blank range but who the hell wants to A. carry one of these, B. shoot it from a straight up or half quartering angle. Then there's the whole bullet integrity issue. To truly maximize a flat shooting rifle capacity, we need high BC's bullets. Truth be known most high BC bullets tend toward the frangible end of the spectrum because of the velocity envelope necessary to perform as advertised at distance.

I see how a laser shooter is a good idea for 'smaller big game' because the recoil investiment for the performance gain is fairly minimal making these type rifles very capable in the hands of those who take the time to learn to shoot at distance. My issue is very simple - reading the wind. I read an article lately that stated that a really good long distance shooter can read the wind within 3 mph. They used a ballistic program to show the differences in drift of a high BC bullet at 500-1000 yards for wind readings +/- 3mph. I left the article confirming that I'll never be shooting at long distance. Remember - this is a good wind reader. What about the average or not so good wind readers?

This factoid was proven to me when I was in my 20's. I stated in the other 30-06 thread that I've never shot at an animal past 350 yards or so. Not true - that should have said big game animal. We had a place to shoot woodchucks. It sat along a gravel road and we knew the landowners well. We used to bring a bench and sand bags set up in the back of a pick-up to shoot at them from point blank to way out there, I'm guessing 1/2 mile or so. In those days I normally used a 243 shooting various 70-100 grain bullets or my 280 Rem shooting 140-150 grain bullets. Shooting from a dead steady bench, the only reason to miss was mis-estimation of range or wind. After a while we figured the hold and distances so the major variable was wind. We soon learned that lightweight, fast 243 bullets would drift in a breeze enough to miss woodchucks at less than 300 yards unless you compensated for the wind. Very unscientific but did prove to me the impacts of wind. I've carried those lessons with me for the past 30 years. I know it is possible to shoot effectively in the wind but have also seen the wind change directions, swirl, and a bunch of other weirdness to know it can't be read accurately 100% of the time.

Great thread. The first firearm I ever owned was a 30-06. I still have that one. Its a great all around, get er done kind of cartridge. Now if I could just talk myself into not needing all of my other rifles things would sure be simple.

That's cooler than the other side of the pillow!

So the question really is: when will a properly loaded 30-06 not work and we need something flatter shooting or harder hitting to hit/kill our intended game?

I keep looking but haven't come up with anything yet. Give me a couple more decades and I'll get back to you.

The 30-06 is so good that pretty much all cartridge development since 1906, at least as far as hunting rounds go, has been superfluous and nothing more than mental masturbation for the rifle loonies.

Bought my '06 in 1974. Have acquired a few more rifles in different calibers and chamberings since then. All could leave (if necessary) except Grandpa's 99 .250-3000 and the '06.

I'll also say that with regard to military rounds, the .308 was a mistake. It's whole reason for being was commonality between machine gun rounds and rifle rounds with the understanding that riflemen needed a shorter round so they could carry more ammo. Well, the .308 is a little shorter but not much lighter and regardless, it was only the rifleman's round for less than a decade.

What we should have today are 5.56 rifles and 30-06 machine guns and sniper rifles with today's powder it would be a significant upgrade in performance.