But........ it IS .... I mean, no shame in that, it's over 100 years old. But things have advanced a bit since 1906.
Great cartridge, one of the legends. But technically speaking, obsolete is a pretty good word for it.
The Chevy 350 small block is still everything it ever was.... but it's obsolete. Doesn't mean it doesn't work, just that the state of the art has left it behind.
God I love trolling!
Technically speaking, it uses the same quality brass and the same primers, powder, bullets and rifles as any modern cartridge. Nothing obsolete there.
That leaves only case capacity and shape and caliber to argue about. Competing case capacities vary from smaller and generally less versatile to shoulder-busting, retina-detaching cartridges like the .30-378 WBY and .300 RUM that use powder by the gallon. The .308 Win, ,30-06 and .30-30 are easily the most popular .30's when measured by Federal's 2015 sales. Granted, Federal doesn't offer many of the other cartridges but the variety of the offerings by different vendors that sell pretty much everything tells pretty much the same story - the .308 Win, .30-06, .30-30 and .300WM are easy winners in the popularity contest.
Some would argue the ideal cartridge would be some combination of shorter, longer, skinnier, fatter, belted, use either smaller or larger diameter bullets or have some other feature, Regardless of such features, I can't think of any modern cartridge that can lay claim to being the most versatile hunting cartridge available with the same authority as does the .30-06.
With "obsolete" being a highly subjective standard, it would seem most shooters (who vote with their wallets) and vendors agree the .30-06 is far from "obsolete".
Last edited by Coyote_Hunter; 05/06/17.
Coyote Hunter - NRA Patriot Life, NRA Whittington Center Life, GOA, DAD - and I VOTE!
No, I'm not a Ruger bigot - just an unabashed fan of their revolvers, M77's and #1's.
