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

Like I said, I'm not much of a bolt guy, and I just picked this one up a couple of weeks ago from a local gunshop. 1965 vintage, 30-06, unmolested, probably sat in a closet for 40 years judging from the dust in the barrel, and I doubt it had 10 shots fired through it, let alone prolly never killed anything.

Gunshop priced it at $250 because it didn't have a magazine, LOL, I'll take them like that every day of the week. Cleaned it up, scoped it and bore sighted it.

Qtips cousin wants me to come hunt with him next fall so I'll bring this guy but I'll rename it .30 Whelen first to make sure it has enough zip to kill a whitetail, LMAO.

I have not shot any deer with a 30-06 in a few years now just because I have been using other rifles and loads. I have a few that I have not "blooded" yet, so I am using them for the fun of it, and have been doing that for about the last 8 seasons.


But I do have a large number of deer to my credit that I have killed with 30-06 rifles. The 2 that I have killed the most game with in that caliber are first my M1895 Browning lever action with iron sights and second, my "scout" I made on a Mauser with a 19" barrel.

I have also killed a handful with an M1 Garand and a Browning BLR in 30-06, as well as various other rifles I have used and owned in the last 50 years.
Some seasons I have been using a 30-06 as an elk gun, but had some deer tags in my pack too, so when a deer was seen I shot with what I had.

winkman,

WISHING I could find Model 760 rifles as nice as that one ANYWHERE for 250.oo = My estate sale specials ALL need refinishing but for 100 to 125.oo, it's hard to argue.
(That's how I ended-up with over a dozen of them.)

Since I retired, I have a lot more time than $$$$$$.

yours, tex

I really lucked out on that one, every once in a while this blind squirrel finds a nut.

I've seen this happen before around here in NJ. Can't hunt with a rifle in NJ, so someone wants to hunt with their friends at their deer camp in the Catskills in New York State. They buy a rifle, sight it in, go for a year or 2 and see nothing so stop going cause the license is to expensive and either sell the rifle or put it into a closet till he's passed and whomever inherited it sells it. In this case, a guy inherited it and wanted to unload it and the gunshop told him it would be a hard sell because it didn't have a magazine, LOL.

The last thing I'd ever need is another gun, but when I find bargain like that, it's simply to hard to resist.

I'd gladly take them like you find them also, needing refinishing for the price you mention. That "RKW bowling pin finish" that Remington puts on the wood is a bit of a pain to get off but I've done a few and it's well worth it.

wink-man,


Fwiw, I simply ALWAYS strip the factory "plastic finish" OFF my hunting guns, as I find it UGLY & use a hand-rubbed oil-base or MIN-WAX for a semi-glass look..
(On one "estate sale special", I stripped off the finish & was very PLEASED to find a BEAUTIFUL piece of crotch-grain walnut underneath.)

yours, tex

I found that load worked well in my ‘06’s as well. I also had 53 grains of IMR 4064 give great accuracy with several different 150’s in all my ‘06’s. One particular, a Ruger No.1 RSI put three Barnes XLC’ s into such a tiny hole at 100 yards I had to flip the target over and look at the hole with a magnifying glass to make my dad believe it was three shots and not one and two complete misses.

To All,

My "small to medium game load", at the old-school .32-40 WCF velocity (as designed for me, by my little brother for coons/rabbits/foxes/coyotes/pests), does a creditable job of KILLING WT efficiently out to 100M+. = WT deer just aren't that hard to kill at "brush country" or "woods" ranges, presuming a good shot.
(NO place that I hunt can you SEE a WT at over 50M & in many spots on our lease you can finally/clearly SEE a deer at 20M.)

This load is a 150 grain flat-nose PBCB, in front of 12 grains of GREEN DOT. - It's downright CHEAP to load, too.

That "small-to medium game load" is also EXCELLENT for training new shooters, as it has a mild "KICK" & NOT even a LOUD report, out of 7-9 pound rifle with a 22-24" barrel.

Fwiw, when I was stationed at Ft. Indiantown Gap, the local PA G&FD said that the average range from muzzle to deer was less than 60 yards.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to All from both of us.

yours, tex

I'd not worry in the least about getting a top shelf recoil pad installed by a good smith. Sounds to me like you're going to keep it in the family anyway so what does a steel butt plate do for you except cleaning your sinuses on every shot and giving you a bloodshot shoulder. Go red pad on that bad boy and enjoy hunting with it.

Ok, Tex is posting as "Darla". Interesting. But anyway I live in Annville which you know is where Ft Indiantown Gap is located. I grew up hunting the base when it was still US Army. The National Guard has made you attend a class and enter a drawing to hunt there and I don't need all that aggravation.

moosemike,

Fwiw, "DarlaG" is my much-beloved spouse & I'm having a "log-in problem" currently with using my own account. = I suspect that you know that married couples often read over each other's shoulder & MAY make comments of their own using their husband's/wife's "screen-name"..
(My current "log-in" problem will be fixed but I know not when exactly.)

Also, as I've said elsewhere on the forum, THE GOOD BOOK says, "They shall become one flesh" when they marry, so I don't see that as a problem that's even worth anyone commenting upon..

Fwiw, I had been stationed elsewhere by the time that the hunter's safety class at FIG was announced (as a result of several hunters shooting other hunters, at several US military facilities) & later was implemented as "official policy", Army-WIDE.
NOTE: I was an Army Rangemaster for over 20 years & have numerous times encountered "hunters", who didn't know the MINIMUM information on how to use a firearm at all, much less safely. - I've also met "hunters" who had never even FIRED their firearm, when they arrived on post.
(I remember one "hunter" from NYC, who was checked-in by a military game warden & was found to have put his 3x9-power scope mounted on the receiver of his brand new Remington Model 700BDL in 7mm magnum, BACKWARDS.)

Hunt lotteries are commonplace in 2018 (at every Armed Forces post/camp/station that I know of,) because of the HUGE numbers of people who want to hunt on military reservations.. = Fwiw, I was NOT "drawn" this year for WT at our local Army training area.

I will be, after 01JAN18, be hunting "invasive species", i.e., feral hogs & Axis deer on the post, most every day as there are way too many .of both on post. - NO bag limits, either. = My deep freezer is nearly empty, too.

MERRY CHRIST-mass from both of us.

yours, tex

No Darla, I have no idea about such things. My wife wouldn't go anywhere near a talk forum.

moosemike,

I'm curious: Does your wife hunt, fish, camp, own/shoot firearms, ride horses, etc?? -

I do all those things, once again, since I met/married an outdoorsman.
(When dressed up, I may look like a "girly-girl" & "professional woman" but away from my office there's still a side of me that's the "tomboy", under the make-up, skirts & lace, that I was when I was 12. - I'm even shopping for a pick-up to pull my horse-trailer.)

As to being on Internet forum, I belong to several Internet camping/horses/firearms/hunting groups & have also been "permanently banned" from several "news commentary sites" for posting conservative Christian comments & for attacking the Far Left morons.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, DarlaG

Not sure how many deer and hogs I've killed with a Remington 742 semi-auto 30/06 with factory Remington 150 Core-Loc bullets. I'm not sure what the FPS was, but it knocked everything around with deadly force. Never lost a deer nor hog... and I've shot them all over the body... but mostly in the front parts...LOL. Blood was never an issue. Big exit holes and easy blood trails to follow, because MOST would run some distance before giving it up. I never really thought twice about finding the critter or not, because that 06 was lethal. I haven't shot it in years, mostly trying other calibers... like most other hunters are doing today. I do have a Savage bolt action that I might load up some rounds for it, but I would like to try a bullet that has more DRT ability.

I probably put it down because I got into long range coyote hunting... and then starting using those longer range calibers for deer as well.

The 06 would always blow out pretty large exit holes, so I guess, most of it's energy was still cooking on the exit side. Now that I reload, I need to rethink a good bullet load for my savage 30/06... something that will produce more DRT kills, since I need them to fall right there, from long range shots on power lines... logging roads... and clear cuts. WHY...??? because it is really TOUGH to locate the spot where it was standing when shot in low light evening conditions... and then have it run off into the woods.... but a whole LOT easier to find it if they are DRT in that open pathway.

You just gotta LOVE the 30/06. It would be my choice if we were limited to only one caliber.

Yes to all the above except fishing. She hates fishing.

This will be my #1 rifle for most of my hunting next year...standard grade M70 .30-06, Lyman 4X. Shoots 180 grain Win Power Points quite well.
Bob

I think they were designed for men and meese.,

moosemike,

Please tell your wife, "Hi", "Good hunting" & "Best Wishes" from this "Tex-Anne" by adoption & that this forum (and other outdoor websites) needs a lot more estrogen..

Sincerely, DarlaG

moosemike,

Please tell your wife, "Hi", "Good hunting" & "Best Wishes" from this "Tex-Anne" by adoption & that this forum (and other outdoor websites) needs an infusion of a lot more estrogen..

Sincerely, DarlaG

moosemike,

Please tell your wife, "Hi", "Good hunting" & "Best Wishes" from this "Tex-Anne" by adoption & that this forum (and other outdoor websites) needs an infusion of a lot more estrogen..

Sincerely, DarlaG

rickt300,

For your information, my husband (Tex) uses & often hunts Whitetail Deer & Axis deer with a Remington pump rifle in .30-06. - He calls that "rather beat-up looking" rifle, "The Pickup Gun" & keeps it loaded with his homemade gas-check cast bullets, in front of 13 grains of Red Dot shotgun powder.
(Tex says often to new shooters that, "Whitetails just aren't that hard to kill & most any .30-caliber cast bullet load that is moving over 12 or 1300 feet per second will work just fine, at the distance that most deer are killed here in south Texas.")

MERRY CHRISTMAS from both of us. - "Jesus is the reason for the season".

Sincerely, DarlaG