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

"Who uses a 06 and what rifle and load. ??"

Well.......to start, anything that Carlos Hathcock was involved with would probably be a wealth of good information for you........

Darrel Wick

Well one of my fav ‘06 loads is the 130 Horn over 59 gr BG at around 3,100 fps. It Whacks’em hard and exits WT chests with quick kills, mostly DRT. Accuracy is great. 125 NAB’s and NBT’s work about as well.

For lighter BG, you don’t really need heavier, slower bullets. Speed kills, although a heavier, slower bullet kills’em about as dead.

Hard to go wrong with the ‘06. Maybe one of the most versatile rounds out there.

Obsolete? Not hardly.

DF

Now, that's about as classic as it gets.

Those FN's are identical to the Browning, same maker, similar specs.

I've handled the Browning, not an FN.

The sleek lines are beautiful, a piece of art.

DF

My two .30-06’s are a 1974 Ruger 77 with a fixed Leupold 6x scope and a Tikka T3x with a Burris 2.5-10

I think it's a fine cartridge but it has been surpassed by more recent designs, which one will be the final successor is still TBD IMHB. Supply chain and user-popularity momentum will carry it well into the future if not forever. I have an M1903 in my lineup (cut to ~20 / manlicher stock). Possession is temporary while I attempt to find time to fix its cracked stock for my dad. Eventually it is slated to "go" to me but in honesty I will only be its custodian when dad goes... siblings have fond memories and would like to use it freely. In fact, the only reason I claimed it was because squabbles have already started and I am the oldest living son. I won't be surprised if it's not returned once I loan it out, but that is a separate matter for me to deal with.
I would pick an -06 over a 308 or Creedmoor if I was starting out and was OK with "mainstream only". It has had plenty of development support over its lifetime.

I was told that it was Col. Jeff Cooper that said:

“There ain’t many problems that a man can’t fix, with $700 and a .30-06!”

I don't think he ever said that .

I did hear an nearly identical version from a conversation with a crusty old hunting guide up in N.W. Montana in the late 1980's.

His saying was . -"There ain't too much that can't be fixed with 180 grains from a 30-06 ".

That fellow pretty much thought anyone who hunted Elk with less was either a Queer or a Communist.

I did not agree with his logic on that , but he was not wrong about the 'O6.

He also liked his 180 grainers to be Nosler Partitions

It works and is the easy button that gives you LOTS of options. Again, a very valuable commodity in today's environment.

Here is a conglomerate of targets of the only tests I shot in the last several weeks with an FN mauser stamped JC Higgins. Every time I went to the range I tried something new.

3 different bullets, and 6 different powders. Bullets were 150 gr spitzer FB, 165 gr spitzer BT, and 180 gr RN. This is not showing the best it might do, this is the only thing I tried. No trying a series of seating depth changes or trying a whole range of powder charges. First time and only tests with all of them in this rifle and includes cold bore shots. Two powder tests I tried 3 different charges a grain apart on each, two tests I just had 2 different charges 1/2 grain apart, and in the case of using IMR 4350 & IMR 4831 with the 180 RN, it was a single charge for each.

It almost always shot under an inch, and in several cases at or slightly under 3/4". Factory trigger and the majority of these were shot with an old Tasco 3-9 that's pictured here and on it now. There's $1500 rifles with $1500 scopes that wont do that with everything across the board you load up for them and throw at them first time out.

Found this on line.

Remember "With $700 and a .30-06"
I've heard and read this phrase many times and never knew where it came from. The whole quote is:

"But ain't many troubles that a man cain't fix with seven hundred dollars and a thirty ought six."

Well I just found out where it came from. It was a poem was written by Lindy Cooper Wisdom, Col. Jeff Cooper's daughter, in December of 1995. It is called..."Grandpa's Lesson."

Here is the entire text of the poem:

Pappy took to drinkin' back when I was barely three.
Ma got pretty quiet. She was frettin', you could see.
So I was sent to Grandpa and he raised me up real good.
He taught me what I oughta and he taught me what I should.
I learned a heap 'o lessons from the yarns he liked to tell.
There's one I won't forget because I learned it 'speshly well.
"There jist ain't many folk who live a peaceful, carefree life.
Along with all the good times there'll be lotsa grief and strife.
But ain't many troubles that a man cain't fix
With seven hundred dollars and a thirty ought six."
Grandpa courted Grandma near the town of old Cheyenne.
Her daddy was cantankerous - a very greedy man.
He wouldn't give permission for a fancy wedding day
'Til grandpa paid a dowry--biggest ever people say.
Her daddy softened up when Grandpa said that he could fix
Him up with seven hundred dollars and a thirty ought six.
Grandpa herded cattle down around Jalisco way.
Ended up behind some iron bars one dusty day.
Seems the local jefe craved my Grandpa's pinto mare.
Grandpa wouldn't sell her so he lit on out of there.
Didn't take much doin' 'cept a couple special tricks
plus seven hundred dollars and his thirty ought six.
Then there was that Faro game near San Francisco Bay.
Grandpa's cards was smokin' hot and he took all one day.
He woke up nearly naked in a ditch next early morn'.
With nothin' but his flannel shirt, and it was ripped and torn.
Those others were professionals and they don't play for kicks.
He lost seven hundred dollars and his thirty ought six.
He begged some woolen trousers off the local storekeep there
Who loaned him both a pony and a rifle on a dare.
He caught those thievin' cardsharks at another Faro game.
He got back all his property and also his good name.
He left one bleedin' badly and another mostly lame.
My grandpa's trusty rifle shoots just where you choose to aim.
Grandpa's slowin' down a bit and just the other night
He handed me his rifle and a box sealed up real tight.
He fixed me with them pale grey eyes and this is what he said,
"You're awful young but steady too and I will soon be dead.
I'll bet this here old rifle and this honest money too
Will come in mighty handy just as readily for you.
There jist ain't many folk who lead a carefree, peaceful life.
Along with times of happiness, there's always woe and strife.
But ... aint many troubles that a man cain't fix
with seven hundred dollars and his thirty ought six."

That poem should be required reading in all public schools.

Agree.

Woke crowd would have a kitten.

DF

DF,

That poem is very cool. I had never seen it before.

And it begs the question - why do so many folks online that qoute the last not properly attribute it to Cooper's daughter?

I even recently saw one mellenial Youtube "gun expert" spout the " $700 and a 30-06" line as though he himself made it up.

If it's worth repeating , it is worth giving proper credit- just as people do with Townsend Whelen's qoute about "the 30-06 is never a mistake".

Agree.

DF