Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 06 case-just about perfect.

You've said a lot of over-the-top nonsense on this thread, but this one takes the cake.

And, LBob, you can't seem to have an adult conversion involving differences of opinions without throwing out childish, condescending insults...

Are you seriously suggesting that an adult male shooter with no physical infrmities should be concerned about 300 WSM recoil? I will be the first to acknowledge that there are some women, children, and people with various injuries that hunt for which a recoil reduced load is a good idea. But that's a special case, and not a particular strength of the -06 either.

I just refuses to tolerate nostaligic nonsense. There are plenty of things that are old that are crap, and the -06 case happens to be one of them. If people want to engage on the technical merits of the design rather than blather about WWII that's different, but I'm unlikely to get many takers because it was and is an obviously inferior design both for military and hunting applications, abeit for different reasons.

Thank you for confirming my point

In other words you have nothing of technical merit to say and are butthurt. Got it

Yep. Baseless insults and faulty logic seem to be all you got. Adios. Gotta clean out my sock drawer...

One nuthugger down!

I used a .30-06 for many years before "upgrading" to a .300WM. After several years and a fair pile of dead critters I can't think of a single shot on game that I took with the .300 that would have been impossible or even unethical with a .30-06 (thanks in large part to laser range finders). The only significant difference is my original .30-06 was a finicky featherweight that would throw a wild cold bore. My .300 is steady eddy in the cold bore department. When compared to the .300WM I happen to appreciate the '06s 2" less barrel length, more rounds down in the mag, 17+ less grains of powder and a little less abuse on the shooter all while doing about the same amount of heavy lifting.

I recently acquired a very consistent .30-06 that will likely see more action in coming years. It will for sure be in Alaska in September in my son's hands. I will likely have my .35 Whelen. One rifle with 165's at 2900 and one with 250s at 2625 should cover things pretty well near or far...all from the same case.

Lb are you related to Mike Werner or just his Sock puppet? 30-06 might be disaster to you but the wsm's are all but dead sales wise. Those are the facts.

Popularity has very little to do with quality. McDonalds makes the most popular hamburger in the US. They do not make the best.

The WSMs are plenty well supported for anyone who wants the advantages of shooting them.

If the question was what case is most popular, you'd get different answers.

Ran over to an older neighbor and sprayed weeds around his place. Got to see his trophy room, pretty impressive seven by seven elk times four. All with a Remington 721 in 30/06 and 150 grain bullet. He’s too old to hunt now and takes pleasure in telling the stories of each animal killed and giving his stuff to grandsons.
He had given the 721 away and bought himself a browning 300 wsm. Gave that to his oldest son as he couldn’t stand it. Don’t know why, maybe I’ll ask.
Growing up with a featherweight model 70 in 06 was sure an interesting trip. Prairie dogs to bull sharks and lots more.

Frank, you can't throw bull sharks out there and not tell the story!

C'mon man!

After reading through all the thoughts here I've come to the conclusion that Llama Bob doth protesteth too much. I may not have as much experience on some big game as most on here but I have taken enough deer and elk to at least form a reasonably solid opinion of what works and what doesn't. Case in point, I was banned from a site dedicated to the short magnum for making the comment, "If one already has a .300 Winchester magnum, I see no need to get or replace it with a .300 WSM. The both do literally the same thing."
There's a damn good reason the 30-06 is still around. I just flat out works. When I do an elk hunt, regardless of what I plan on for the hunt, the back up rifle is always a 30-06. Sometimes a 30-06 backs up the main rifle which is also a 30-06. Not very often but it does happen. I like playing with other cartridges. It's fun and educational but there wills always be a 30-06 in the wings. Why? Because it works.
Sorry Bob, your arguments just do not hold water.
Paul B.

Thanks for answering. Nothing wrong with those choices at all. At my age and stage I will stick with .30-06. It is good enough, I have confidence in it, and I have plenty of components for it. The powder/primer/case/bullet availability issue counts for something these days and I don't have to experiment with loads.

You won't get any argument from me about the 30-06 being good enough. That's very different from "about perfect" obviously. I have one of the Portugal M70 FWTs in .30-06 as a camp/loaner gun. Forget your gun or ammo, or your gun or scope goes toes up, you get to shoot 180gr Core Lokts. Serves you right Seriously, it is an OK setup. You can abosolutely take game with it. I can think of exactly zero circumstances when I'd swap it for my M70 classic .300 WSM shooting 200gr Terminal Ascents though.

Component availability can be funny - I set up the .28 Nosler during the pandemic, and it was expensive but everything was available. Last I checked .30-06 brass is range pickups only. It's not always easier to bring up the common cartridges during a shortage.

Absolutely.

The .30-03 was the perfect case.



Just wait, though.

In a few years? Your .300 squat-n-loud will be just nostalgic nonsense, too.




GR

Put me down for being a fan of the 30-06 and all the others, that have come from this case.

LB, your haughty and condescending stance is telling, and a turn off to most thinking folks, especially when you offer nothing but "opinion" for your supposedly desired discussion of "technical merits". You inserted the fuzzy term "nostalgia" apparently as an intended means to generally criticize the actual knowledge and insights gained by hands-on efforts and outcomes experienced by thousands of shooters. Attacking the persons or the alleged "nostalgia" is weak and not productive - and certainly not related to any "technical merits". If you have half the brain and knowledge you pretend, you do know that "technical merits" are simply that - estimates of potential success based upon assumptions about comparative designs - not on-target outcomes. These "nostalgic" folks you decry are evidence based. And, it was you that blathered about military usefulness and flatly condemned the 30:06. What is your platform, anyway?

Oh, we've got a new nostalgia nuthugger lined up

The -03 was such a disaster we didn't even try to use it before [bleep] it. It was the result of the idiots in army supply thinking they needed to resuse Krag bullets.

The .270 derived off the -03 was almost an improvement, but Winchester being ingorant of the effect of twist rate chose the wrong one and crippled their new bore diameter. Had they simply copied the twist of the 7x57 they would have been much better off. Combine that with an inefficient case with too small a capacity, and they've got an also-ran round.

There are no realistic concerns about the longevity of the WSM case. With 10s of thousands of rifles and 5-6 brass manufacturers it'll be around in a centrury. If we're not using it, it'll be because something yet better has come along, which will put the -06 (and -03) yet farther behind.