Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Surely none of you are crass enough to use a 30-06 on deer!

Picked up a barreled action 30-06 rem 700 mountain rifle from a fire member a few weeks ago for what I thought was a steal. My buddy had a synthetic mountain rifle stock that had some issues that he gave to me( I resolved those issues). Shot a doe with it yesterday after sighting in the day before. Very pleasant to shoot, and I’m an admitted recoil pansy. With cheap federal ammo it was close to MOA, could not be happier. Shot was about 150 yards off hand, she went about 20 yards and that was that. I have a bunch of rifles, and the logical part of me knows I could use this rifle and this rifle alone for all my big game hunting till the good Lord calls me home. That won’t happen in the foreseeable future but it sure could.

MM

Guess I’m the outlier here. I’ve never killed a deer with a .30-06. I once had one...an 03A3 that had been nicely “sporterized” by having the barrel cut and crowned at 19 inches and the original stock nicely reworked into a “Mannlicher” style....glass bedded barrel and action...really a nice job. I got it when I was 16. Paid $37.50 for it at the lgs. Dumb enough to let an acquaintance borrow it and I never saw it again.

Closest I’ve ever come to getting another is the .308 I’ve killed the last couple deer with.

When I was 12 I thought the 30-06 was a requirement for Deer hunting. My Dad always said the 270 was just a groundhog cartridge. He always used a 30-06 but always had a lot of respect for the 7mm Rem Mag too.

My favorite 30-06 is a lucky rifle so it always gets taken on the last couple of hunts at the end of the season. I have used 180 grain bullets in it since the mid 80's and it has never failed to put the bullet in the right place. Lately I have been switching off between the Ballistic Tips and the Partitions with nothing but excellent results. As for recoil a properly stocked and padded rifle should be within the use parameters of all but the wimpiest snowflakes.

I have 3 .30-06's.. One I have never shot, my grandfathers I killed a deer with may 15 years ago.. The adl, I just purchased, was used on one antelope a couple years ago.. I always think I will take them, but seldom do..

ACK!!!!!!!! 30-06 is the preferred choice of road-hunters, gut-shooters, and leg-blower-offers world-wide.

30-06 is the frumpy hairy-armpits and in desperate need of a bikini wax cousin to the sleek, sexy, impeccably groomed sweetheart supermodel 270Win.

Proud to say I've NEVER carried a 30-06 in the field!

The .30-06 and .257 Roberts stayed home this past deer season, harvested this year's buck with my .35 Whelen.

Still hunt them with a 30-06, although I'm not much of a bolt guy. And if you rename it the .30 Whelen it makes the cartridge less boring and much more interesting and it still manages to kill them just as dead.

I've carried my Sako 06 for 40 years, but after setting my 13 year old up with a 6.5 swede this year, I about set one up for myself but I'm just not there yet.

Love my 30-06. Hammers deer with authority

You can't go wrong with the .30-06 and a good 165gr bullet IMO. Although I prefer to use my .260Rem for deer, I've killed 2 mule deer with.a 30-06 shooting a 165gr cartridge (165gr Hornady SST and a 165gr Nosler AB), neither of which took a step after being shot. I only took those two rifles afield because I hadn't killed anything with them at the time.

I have shot most of my deer over the last 45 years with the 30-06 with the 30-30 a not so close second. Not coincidentally, both of those calibers are still my main choices.

I wasn't aware you were gay until you just busted right out the closet and went full Liberace.

I have a Whelen also, I tend to use it on feral hogs when hunting heavy cover or at night but the 30-06 does the same job so well and attached lights tend to stay on the 06 a bit better!

Yes I am crass.

Behind the 270Win Candelabra:

[img]https://beta-static.photobucke...920&height=1080&fit=bounds[/img]

rick

Yes I'm crass enuff to own, shoot, hunt & kill with the Old Workhorse.

I killed a few WT in 2016 with mine and each time it brought a SMILE to my face.

I feel it's UN American NOT to own and hunt The Venerable Veteran.


Jerry

I dabbled with new fangled chamberings for a while 30/06, 270, 308, and 300 win mag...eventually gave up on the high tech stuff and went back to the 8x57.

I agree cowboy Tim.

Them Krauts knew the deal with the 8 x 57.

Minutiae

I have two, one of which is a stainless/synthetic, which gets a lot of playing time. I didn’t reload for years and had plenty of success. Reloading has made both rifles shoot better and made hunting more fun for me. It is hard to beat the versatility of a stainless/synthetic .30-06.