Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 30-06 is still a great cartridge

rabst,

Off the top of my head can think of 14 species of big game my wife and I have taken with the .30-06, pronghorns, whitetails, mule deer, caribou, bighorn sheep, black bear, elk, gemsbok, red hartebeest, kudu, blue wildebeest, red stag, feral goats and pigs, and no doubt some I've forgotten. Among mine were one of my biggest caribou at 450 yards, one of my biggest mule deer at almost 400, and my biggest bull elk at 250.

Now, we have taken quite a bit of other big game with dozens of cartridges ranging from the .22-250 up, but there isn't one I can think of that wouldn't have died pretty quickly when shot in the same place with a boring old 180-grain bullet from the .30-06, and that includes Cape buffalo.

As with boring old fixed-power scope, rifle loonies these days often think nit-picky details about cartridges, rifles and scopes make far more difference than they actually do. What does make a big difference is good bullets put in the right place.

The 30-06 needs no promoting.
If you travel to hunt, and your ammo doesn't show up you can usually find ammo for it anywhere in the world.

As JY Jones did in his book, One Man, One Rifle, One Land (I have if on my coffee table) he killed every species of North American big game with his Remington ADL in 30-06 with mostly 165 gr handloads, he did use 180s on occasion when merited for larger game. As I recall, he even had to have his rifle barrel trimmed back an inch or so when it wasn't shooting right. His scope was rudimentary by today's standard and I do think he replaced it once during his odyssey.

This is spot on.

Tradition dies hard in the rifle world, and that is what keep the 30-06 going. With modern powders and modern bullets, there is always a better cartridge than the 30-06 for any chosen application. People are free to shoot whatever makes them happy, and if that is the 30-06, then more power to them. But please spare us the "30-06 is the best cartridge" pablum.

JMHO

My first centerfire rifle was a 30-06. Had a choice between a Parker Hale Safari with way too much Euro influence for me, and a 700 BDL. The Remington got the nod. Ammo was cheap and easy to find. Shot out a couple of scopes. Would've been a good choice if I lived somewhere with moose and big bears.

My nieces new husband has been packing around a hand-me-down iron-sighted & butchered ariska and has decided to join the 21st century. He asked me what cartridge should he choose for the new rifle.

I told him to walk down the ammo aisle of his favorite sporting goods store and figure out the top 3 cartridges based on bullet weight offerings and vendor offerings. He reported back:

1. .30-06
2. 308 Win
3. 6.5 Creedmoor

I'm meeting him at the range this weekend with hunting rifles for all 3 on his list for him to shoot and get a feel for.

Both my 30-06's wear 4X scopes. That's the way my grandpa always did it. His Husqvarna 30-06 always wore a Leupold 4X. My dad on the other hand always had a 3-9X on his 7600 Carbine. My Grandpa even took pronghorn with just his 4x scope on the Husky 30-06. I guess that kind of swayed me in his direction. I have made my longest shot to date, a 300 yarder, on a buck with a 760 Gamemaster 30-06 and a Bushnell 4X scope.

I have four, my favorite next to a 7 mag. The 7 mag really ain’t no better.

Funny thing you should mention Husky 30-06. I just had a Husqvarna 640 barreled action D and T'd for a scope and bedded into a stock I had laying around. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet as die to a car crash my doc has forbidden me to shoot anything harder kicking than my .223 Rem. He's afraid it my worsen the damage on my fractured sternum. Looks I'll have to wait probably another 4 to 6 weeks before I can pull trigger on that one.
Paul B.

I have used a 243 and 338 along with starting out with a 308. I learned through field autopsies that all modern can and will cause chest cavities to turn to jelly. The 06 became my round of choice as I have loaded from the 125 to 220 but usually just keep 180s in my ammo storage. Pronghorn, mulie, whitetail and elk have all dropped on one shot, though the last elk took 2. As a bonus I have also learned to use plastic sabots to turn it into a 223 on steroids, the 30*06 remains a very interesting round.

I had a 30-06 a lot of years ago and never shot it. If I needed a big gun I took my 308. Have a 30-06 I inherited in 1995 now and finally starte using it about 4 yrs ago. It's my elk rifle! Wouldn't bother me one bit to load it up with 200gr bullet's and use it for Moose and Grizzly Bear. Eleanor O'Connor had killed one elephant in her life. According to Jack, she did it with a 30-06.

"Within reasonable shooting distances", are you kidding? A 30/06 can drive 200 grain bullets in excess of 2700 fps. When this is done from a modern short magnum, this is a long range, killing machine. Why, from a 30/06, is it suddenly a limited performer?
Now, while I believe everyone should confine their shots to reasonable distances, to call the 30/06 "limited" in this regard is just silly.
My 6.5 Creedmoor will drive a 140 to just over 2700 and this is considered to be a fine long range combo. My 30/06 will drive a 185 100fps faster but it's "limited". A 270 drives 150's in the mid-2900's. A 30/06 does the same thing with 165's.
150TTSX's at 3050 fps will shoot flat and kill anything. The 30/06 isn't just versatile and it's not a compromise; it's a damn fine cartridge. GD

If memory serves me correctly, he switched scopes when his rifle began grouping erratically. That didn't fix it and the problem was discovered to be a bulge in the barrel under the front site. He had the barrel shortened and I believe put the original scope back on to finish his quest.

"Greatness" is a matter of definition, and some folks will define it in different ways then others.

If greatness is a function of a cartridge having the ability to preform the most missions well, I would say the 30-06 is the greatest cartridge ever made and is likely to stay that way.

Any other cartridge that would duplicate it's versatility would shoot a bullet of the same SDs and BCs, and the same weights from smallest to largest, at the same velocity, and cover the same ground, to do all the same things. And playing "new guy" and being equal to the "old guy" with a 114 year head start in the race gives ZERO chance of winning that race.

There are those that love to say the old 30-06 does nothing perfectly.

Well I would disagree, but lets say just for the sake of this argument they were right.

Ok.............show me a single shell out there that does it ALL better ------with the same or better bore life -------and the same or less recoil ---------in a the same weight or lighter weight rifle!


In other words a shell that does 30 things 85% well is greater (to my way of thinking) then a shell that does 3 things 100% perfectly well, but is lacking in bore life, user friendliness, or ease of carry, and has even sight disadvantages in the other 27 things.

I own eight '06's, from lightweight skinny 6½ pound Mauser sporter up to and including a 14 pound bull barrel Type-S Springfield target rifle, with stops along the way for pre-64 M70's and other products of the old Springfield Armory. I load everything from 150 grain cast plain based bullets at 1100fps up to full snort 220 jacketeds (on occasion, mainly for use in the bull gun) and everything in between. The loads match the rifle du jour and the purpose at hand. Pretty darn versatile, and good for anything from backyard tin cans through Cape Buffalo, as Mule Deer said (although there aren't many Cape Buffalos left in my neck of the woods). Like Mathman, I load the '06 down to heavy .30-30/light .300 Savage levels to tame the bite of the little Mauser-- its light weight+very narrow butt plate makes for harsh pain in my neck and shoulder when fired with factory-level stuff-- and the deer I've killed with it failed the breathing test when shot with it. What's not to like about the venerable .30-06??

.308Win - real world ballistics are just as good and in a shorter action, making it better.

So you think the 308 will fire 180 190 200 and 220 grain bullets "just as good" as the 30-06?
Please show me how.

In my 50+ years of being a gunsmith and a hunter, a shooter, I have never seen one 308 I would rate as "better" then a 30-06 of equal quality workmanship. Not one.

I do not say the 308 is not an excellent shell. It is---------- and I have owned and used many of them. I have killed game with them from squirrels to elk and use the round in military designation to fight with. I agree the 308 is extremely good.

But the 308 are absolutely not better, and neither is a short action. Short actions are not in any way "better" ----unless it's an auto, pump or lever action and in some cases not even then. As good in the best cases---- but never better.

Besides, the post is about cartridges specifically. Not guns.
As an example an FN-FAL is a better rifle to fight with as compared to a Ruger #1 in 30-06 ----but that is NOT an argument of one cartridge over another. That's more about tactics which can be employed with one type of rifle that can't be used with the other. the cartridge is not really central to that comparison.

The .30/06 is never a bad choice for hunting.

Mine is currently shooting 220 grains. Maybe this fall I'll go with 130s.

-Jake

Every cartridge is a compromise, some too big, some too small, some too much recoil, some not enough range, some "not enough gun" - with the 30-06, you compromise less than any other choice. 100 years and counting, just about perfect for anything!