Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Any love for the 30/06

30/06! Is it slowly dying or do we still love and use the 30/06 to hunt with? Who uses a 06 and what rifle and load. ??

My favorite bigger caliber. Used one for almost 40 years. Favorite is an early mountain rifle 700 in 06. Now wearing a Grayboe, leupold 3.5-10 and a Timney trigger. Shot the same load of IMR4350 over a 165 gr Ballistic tip for almost 30 years. I've also got 06s in 7600 , 760 , couple other 700s , model 70 and a 742 and 7400.

Have had them for years but finally killed my first deer with one last fall. I had always grabbed something else when it was time to hunt. Was lucky enough to find one that shoots tiny groups with 180 gr Bondstrike loads and have procured enough ammo shoot it regularly for a long time. Have another that shoots great w/ anything you feed it. They aren’t flashy but get it done.

It’s a proven killer with manageable recoil. Hard not to like. Edk

I've used various 30/06s for the last 30 years. Currently I'm using a JC Higgins 50. Load has always been 150 ballistic tip or accubond with 52 of 4064

Killed a lot of elk with 30-06, as a matter of fact I'm looking for another 06, just haven't made up my mind which make and model.

The 30-06 is (or at least should be) timeless. It'll do most everything well. Favorite load is IMR 4350 pushing a 200 gr Partition.

I have 3 and another a Kimber BGR 30-06 on the way. I like hell out of them. I load 150 partitions with 59 grains of IMR 4350. That will work on anything I’m gonna run across.

Yup.


For the closest thing to a one-size-fits-all rifle cartridge the 30-06 has yet to be beat.

Where I live, Blacktail dinks at under 150 yds are what I hunt, too much meat damage with full house loads, so I like the old M-72 GI match load (or Fed GM Match, same-o)...165 gr or 180 plain base of any make, 48 to 50 grs of IMR 4895 depending on brass capacity...gives around 2650, 1 moa in many rifles, minimal meat loss.

I don’t shoot or use mine much but I’ll never be without one.

Does any MFg make the GI match load any longer. ??

I killed 3 deer this year with 30-06s. I have 2 vanguards a deluxe and a plastic stock for bad weather days. 165 gn Speer SBT over IMR 4350.

only have 2 steyr mod m . both shoot so good I won't say for being acused of being nuts. Nosler 165 bt and par for over 30 years. I have a bunch of other but they are my go to guns.

Typically we have used 165 c&c (mostly interlocks ) and 4350 for deer and black bear. The last two black bear we took traveled a total of maybe 10 yards between them after being shot. We were suitably impressed.
On my to do list is to try some 150 with 4895 for a deer load with the goal to reduce recoil a bit for practise and as a deer load for less experienced shooters coming up!

Yes, after all these years I still handload, shoot and hunt with the 30-06 cartridge. Most often with my Remington 700 CDL, topped by a 6x Leupold. It's taken grizzly, black bear, elk, mule deer, antelope and probably something I'm forgetting. Typically use a 165 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip at 2940 fps via H4350, but have also used a number of other bullets and a couple of different powders in recent years including Ramshot Hunter, and H4831. Berger's 180 gr Elite Hunter did well on a muley buck at 350 yards, and Hornady's 178 gr ELD-X did well on a cow elk at 405 yards. For the grizzly I loaded 200 gr Nosler Partitions, which worked well.





Regards, Guy

Not really, only have about a dozen. Bought my first one in 1978. I don't necessarily hunt with them as age and health limit me to hunting only a couple of times a year. I do like shooting them, especially with reduced loads. If I want to check the accuracy of one it's 57 grains of IMR4350 and a 150 Sierra FB or a 165 Ballistic tip. Like Hanco, his favorite load or mine will take care of anything I'm likely to run across in Middle Tennessee. It's been a long time since I've seen a Mastodon or even one of those Terrasaurasis or whatever they are in Tennessee. I believe it's with us to stay.
Take care,
Rick

Yep I have a few. Have any number of cartridges to choose from but a 30-06 in one form or another accounts for probably 80% of my shooting in a yr.

Made sure I had plenty of everything needed to keep them all fed fat and happy, which was way easier and cheaper to do than some other cartridges. Wouldn't be without one, I like them. Not fussy across a broad array of bullets and powders. Easy to make work at the bench and in the field.

Can make them shoot very well at easy 300 Savage or 308 levels, or turn up the heat. They will work well with about anything you throw at them. Was always a valuable cartridge, but even more so in today's world IMO.

I think I'm at 6 right now. 3 pumps, 2 bolts and an autoloader. If I had to go to one gun/cartridge it would be a 760 in 30-06.

I love how you can use the brass to make 35 Whelen brass out of it ! Is that what you mean???? 😂😂😂😂