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

Good man, finally coming to your senses... Gave up on the stubby wanna be huh? Where is Brad anyway?

Mule Deer - Just to clarify, I never said the 30-06 is not an effective or otherwise good cartridge. I have indeed noted 458Win's signature line many times. No doubt he is in the top 0.01% of skilled hunters and guides in North America, and probably higher than that. That he will let a client hunt a brown bear with a 30-06 says more about his level of backing skills than about the cartridge, itself. And I still say that the pull of tradition is strong in the rifle community, but tradition is not the same as rational thought for making a cartridge choice.

Again, I am not saying the 30-06 is a bad or ineffective cartridge. If the only cartridge in existence was the 30-06, I would happily go forth and hunt everything up to elk with it. All I am saying is that especially with modern bullets, it is no longer the best cartridge, as so many traditionalist claim. Modern bullets, especially all-copper bullets like the Barnes and Hammer bullets have caused the 30-06 to be supplanted by the .308Win, the 7mm-08, the 270Win, and probably a few others. Such cartridges will kill an elk just as well with an all-copper bullet as the 30-06, and will do so in a smaller/lighter/faster/flatter shooting package and with less recoil. And, those cartridges will not be unnecessary overkill on smaller animals like whitetail deer and antelope. If a person prefers tradition over "smaller/lighter/faster/flatter shooting package and with less recoil", then that is their choice, but that is getting back to the "tradition over rational thought" point, and certainly doesn't make the 30-06 the best cartridge.

If a person wants to hunt big bears, then unquestionably there are many better cartridges than the 30-06. For a start, I think most experienced big bear hunters would say a .338WM is a preferable minimum. And the number of people who will actually hunt big bears is a tiny fraction of the hunting community. That the 30-06 can be pressed into service on a bear hunt with a good guide backing you up I don't believe is relevant to the majority of North American hunters, nor is it necessarily an indication of a great cartridge.

If a person wants to hunt with a 30-06, then more power to him. But liking a cartridge, or that it has been around over a hundred years, is not the same as it still being the "best" cartridge.

And for all those that are now going to line up to say a Barnes TSX/TTSX failed them on their last elk hunt, please note that there are plenty of failure of lead bullets, too.

JMHO.

Nah. I have 100 pieces of virgin Lapua 308's and a box of Bergers ready to be assembled.

My signature line pretty well explains my view on the .30-06.

Got my first in 2006 after doing without since I started big game hunting in 1982. Currently have three.

What can they do that my other rifles cannot? Nothing.

What can my other rifles do that a .30-06 cannot? Not much.

But as an all-around one-gun solution, the .30-06 is still hard to beat.

So if I'm reading this right with the Barnes mono bullets the 270, 7mm-08, and 308 have all taken a quantum leap forward in performance thus rivaling the 30-06. But the 30-06 evidently gains nothing from these all copper projectiles and therefore cannot outpace these smaller cartridges? So in essence it's a draw between the 30-06 and the lesser cartridges?
LMAO!
The worst part is this guy is actually serious!
Do people even think about what they post before they send it?

Of course the 30-06 benefits from all the technology improvements. That seems so obvious I didn't think it needed to be explicitly stated. Sorry for not being clearer.

The point is, with the technology improvements, all cartridges got better. Now, the aforementioned cartridges function really well on elk on down to antelope, etc. And, the 30-06 is overkill in an unnecessarily heavy package. If folks want the heavy rifle overkill, that is their prerogative. But, that doesn't mean it is still the best tool for the job.

I am not trying to convince anyone who loves shooting their 30-06 to change to a different cartridge. All I am saying is that the 30-06 is no longer the best cartridge for the majority of hunters.

I think I've explained my position well enough that people who are open-minded have enough info to understand my point. Whether they agree is up to them. The close-minded people will never try to understand what I am saying, so there is no point continuing to explain to them. Consequently, this is my last post on this thread. Thanks everyone for the interesting responses.

shinbone
you said above,

"And, the 30-06 is overkill in an unnecessarily heavy package. If folks want the heavy rifle overkill, that is their prerogative. But, that doesn't mean it is still the best tool for the job."


I've been in this thread all the way. I don't think anyone BUT YOU are saying the 06 is the BEST. O P title is
"the 06 is still a great cartridge""

I think YOU need more exposure to new rifles today. The 06 does NOT have to heavy.

MY 06 is lighter than my 6mm Rem. BOTH are Rem Model Sixes.


I weighed this AM my

T 3 Lite SS 270 Win --> 7lb 6oz
T 3X Lite SS 7 RM --> 7 lb 9 oz............with IDENTICAL scopes.

Jerry

Yes , it is a great round- better than ever. We are surrounded by selection that might duplicate the 30/06 but they have flaws as well.
Adequate for our interior Grizzlies, Moose , Elk and beyond .
Bullets have improved so incredibly much, it steps up every chambering and we often don't the heavy recoiling rifles of the past .
Bullets like the TSX, Swift, and Nosler PT changed the rules completely. The only problem with the Nosler Partition in the 70's is nobody could afford them.
We also thought- just get a bigger gun, it became a fad.
Like all fads they are poorly grounded.
The 30/06 is the gold standard now( and then), and is better than ever.

This should help!!!!

Why this old cartridge is still the best

30-06: Opinion: the 30-06 is dead

Best cartridge ever: the 30-06

Classic cartridges: Is the 30-06 Springfield all you need?

The truth about .30-06

The 30-06 Sucks??

30-06 Springfield, If you could only own one rifle cartridge

Five reasons why 30-06 Springfield is best

The 30-06 is still a "great" cartridge, even as subjective as "great" may be. As someone else stated, modern propellant and bullet improvements have improved it beyond what it was in the past. These same improvements have occurred across the board and thus narrowed the gap which existed in the past. Some cartridges benefitted more than others from all of the across the board improvements. Some just needed less "improving" than others. The amazing thing is that most criticisms of the 30-06 (and other cartridges) are not directed at what it is or what can be done with it; rather, they are directed at what it is not. That's why there are so many other choices.

shinbone,

"That he will let a client hunt a brown bear with a 30-06 says more about his level of backing skills than about the cartridge, itself.'' This quote from you has a bunch of implications.

One is that you firmly believe the .30-06 is incapable of killing brown bears.

Another is that somehow Phil Shoemaker allows brown bear clients to use what YOU consider an inadequate cartridge, because he can then get in on the action.

The last time Phil used "his level of backing skills" with a .30-06 to follow up a wounded bear, the client had wounded the bear with a larger cartridge. He is willing to take clients who use a .30-06 (or 7mm magnum or even a .270) because they generally shoot well (unlike many who use harder-kicking cartridges), and Phil personally knows the .30-06 will work fine on brown bears if the hunter shoots it well.

I stopped reading right here.^^^. John's post sums it up perfectly. Thank you.

I usually don’t hunt with the 06 anymore but I don’t think there is a much better round out there. I killed deer out to 300 yards with my encore 30-06 pistol. 150 pro hunter leaving at 2650 FPS was deadly. Nothing fancy or newfangled but very affective. Ed k

And in closing, I will simply say I have tried a lot of the "newer" cartridges , some larger, some shorter, some flatter shooting , many newer and more fashionable but I have yet to find one any " better" for all around hunting than the 30-06.

130's are actually great WT bullets. At 3,100 fps or so, they hit like a magnum, will exit a WT, leave a lot of destruction between holes.

And, isn't the 220 NPT one of the best penetrating loads for big stuff?

I don't think there is a more versatile round anywhere.

.308 will do pretty much the same thing until you get to the heavier bullets. '06 is the winner with heavies.

Someone said the 7RM was about the same. To me the only advantage would be with LR where it's a bit flatter. Killing stuff, not really much difference, IMO.

DF

I think after reading everyone’s responses i may just order me a new rifle later today in the good ol 30-06 ... my other 06 needs company!

R B

And I'm going to hunt my 06 this Fall. 2016 was the last season I hunted mine. Killed 3 or 4


Jerry

THAT is as GOOD a verification as can be had. mic drop !!


Jerry

Y'all made up my mind for me as to what this weekend's range session will entail. Two Springfields, a Garand, and a pile of various loads are cased and ready to go. Supposed to be sunny and cold enough to justify recoil absorbing winter coat padding. (We had a saying: "Shoot Garands in the summer and Springfields in the winter.") Heck, maybe I'll throw a pre-64 M70 into the mix for a "civilizing" influence on the rest!

Take a bath once in awhile and maybe you won't need to shoot your critters from so far away.