Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What cartridge makes a better ***all-around*** cartridge than the .30-06?

For people who hunt brown bears,which ain't many.

280 AI

I started hunting moose and deer with a licence in 1965. I was 15 years old. I bagged my first bull with a 30-06 at close to 400 yards. It went down at the shot and stayed down. It was Dad's rifle with some factory ammo. I have killed a boat load of moose and deer over the last 55 years with a number of different cartridges, but the 06 certainly leads the pack. I have killed black bear with one, rabbits, and grouse.

I have other rifles, and I like some very much, notably the 6.5x55 Swede, and the 45-70. I also have a 300 WMag that has never failed to adorn the meat pole with tasty bits, but the 30-06 with bullets in the 150 to 220 grain variety have always flattened the game at which they were shot. My wife hammered he first moose at about 35 yards with a 243. I don't consider the 243 a moose cartridge, but it sure was that day. She liked my 06 so much that I shortened the stock for her and worked up some "pink bullets" for her with which she anchored a nice bull at close to 60 yards. (150 gr Barnes TSX)

I love my 6.5 Swede with 140 gr bullets, but over all, give me my 30-06 M65 Tikka with 168 gr Barnes TSX at 2900 fps.

No he didn't. I don't spend enough time at home to reload but I can afford all the factory ammo I want or need. That's why I go to work so I can buy things instead of make every dam thing myself.

A few, but, darn few.....When factory loads, availability, energy, and trajectory are put into the equation! memtb

If this ain't a popcorn eatin' thread, they don't exist.

All-arounder for North America points directly at the 30-06, even though many things have come on the market since its inception. Would be tough to argue that something like a 175 LRX at 2,800 isn't capable for practically everything. It's actually a fair bit of gun for 80% of the hunters in NA, as they could probably get by just fine with a 270, 280, or even one of the short actions like the 7mm-08 or .308. How many hunters in NA are really ever going to shoot a moose or a brown bear? Bet it's far less than 20%.

The venerable 6.5 Creedmoor.😁

But an awful lot of folks seem worried about running into them and want to know what sort of protection they need.

oximoron ?

moron of some sort !

I know this: I can make better ammo than I can buy and I don't have to buy brass again for every round.

Jerry

I got nuttin against the 280 or 280 AI....where you gonna buy 280 AI ammo ?

All around includes more than the cartridge itself.


Jerry

My Dad was a WW2 Pacific Theatre Vet. In East, Tx, he felt the 30-30 was a "Big Gun" and felt the 30-06 "was for killing Japs and ruined too da-ned much meat! ha Bear in mind, the deer are small and the hogs "had better been shot in the neck/head" so as to "not ruin any meat". that Great Depression really made him "opinionated", ha. So, I guess I would have to say "All Around Where?". Overall, with "custom handloads" yes, 30-06 can do it all, IMO.

The topic of Brown Bear does seem to come up an inordinate amount of times on this forum.

Didn't I read that Shoemaker killed a bear with a handgun, maybe a 9 mm?

Better question is how could you have avoided reading it around here?

The 30-06 is not always the best choice. But never the wrong choice

308.

Bolt gun for hunting, LMT MWS (AR-10-ish) for home protection.

Or, 6.5 Creedmoor for the same reasons.

You hunt bear, what 1% of the time if you don't live in the bush in Alaska or Canada? Most people don't hunt bear at all, and everything else has been done with a 308.

Why would you base your choices on bear hunting?

Done and done

++

308

It depends on what you hunt, where, and how many you plan to shoot. To me, all around has to include varmints, pronghorn, and elk, and maybe large bears, as well as deer, coyotes, and probably a few other things.. IMHO there is no such thing as an all-around cartridge. They're either abusive at the volume of shooting involved or inadequate for the game involved. If you leave off large bears and colony varmints, and restrict it to what's available in my home state (Oregon), then you can make a good case for the 7mm-08 and .270 Winchester both being better than any .30 caliber. There are better choices for individual animals and specific situations, but not by a lot. The only tricky part could be elk and either cartridge will get it done within any distance I really want to shoot.

Tom