Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Is the the 30-06 still the king of whitetail cartridges?

The one thing you never want to be without is a good 30/06.

It's hard to beat a .30/06 with the large variety of bullet weights it has plus the capability of driving those bullets at reasonably high-velocities.

It's also hard to beat a .270 (a .30/06 case necked down to .277"), especially if the ranges are long. The ".270 vs .30/06" argument has been going on since the .270 Winchester cartridge was introduced in the 1930s (1935?) and will probably never stop creating passionate responses from either cartridge's proponents.

The "bride-waiting-in-the-wings" is the .308 Winchester... a shorter bolt-throw plus slightly better accuracy (than the .30/06) may eventually topple the "king" (the .30/06).

Personally, I'd rather have either a .30/06 or a .270 than a .308, but that's just "me". Old farts like me like the old cartridges.... heck, I hunt whitetails with a 57 year old (1953) Model 99 Savage lever-gun that was introduced well over 100 years ago in a caliber (.300 Savage) introduced 90 years ago (1920)... how's THAT for being a "modern hunter"?!?

Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

I love my 300 Savage as well.

But, I can't argue that the 30/06 has killed more deer than anything else out there. So, by that standard, it's king.

It's also probably the easiest caliber to find in any store in America. Also king there.


Still, I wouldn't trade my 300 Sav for a 30/06 ever. I confess though that I am bias and sentimental.

Lots of deer killed with the old 30-30 to.....

FACT!

Doubt it .... unless it is bi-. It's spawned too many other fine offspring to be 100% gay

The .30-06 is the Swiss army knife of lower 48 hunting. It is one caliber that, with proper bullet selection, will do it all. But like the Swiss army knife, it is not the best for anything. For whitetails, I'd rather have a .270 or something similar from 6.5mm (.260) to 7mm (.284)for flatter trajectory with less noise and recoil. For elk I'd rather have a .338 Win Mag or one of the .300 mags. But if you can't afford but one big game rifle for the lower 48, the old '06 will do.

I agree with everything posted above......one thing I notice about the 30/06 is that whatever anyone says about it is generally "true"....perceptions and uses of the cartridge change from person to person,and they are all correct(except silly negative stuff like it is not powerful enough,does not kill stuff well, not accurate, etc....)

But I guess this comes as a result of its' tremendous versatility and utility....

I'm somewhat more of a 270/7mm shooter myself,but I would feel butt-naked without a 30/06 around.I am one who believes that the true advantage it has over the smaller calibers is the ability to nicely handle 200-220 gr bullets;where the game gets larger than even elk,like big bears,or dense cover moose or elk hunting;bush veld stuff in Africa....maybe even braining elephants!

There are no doubt maybe better cartridges for that stuff, but I dunno...a good guy with a properly loaded 30/06 is pretty invincible!

Its the king because more folks use them. My .257 Roberts is reliably gay based on credible reports from folks I hunt with. On the other hand I have seen two failures in my life with a 30-06 (so far) to shoot through a puny WT deer both were bucks. Personally every lunged deer with a 30 cal 180 running from 308 win speeds to 300WSM speeds ran just as far. Its the king but no doubt; but same as what Scott and Bob said, ignore the bullets at your own risk.

I've often said I think a .270 Win may be the best dedicated deer cartridge available (including mulies).

Don't have one and feel no need, however, as I have that ground well covered with a .257 Roberts, 7mm RM, .30-30, .308 Win and two .30-06s.

For a dedicated whitetail rifle I think a .25-06 would be the a very good choice.

If I were to build a dedicated deer rifle for the northeast i would probably not build a 30 06. based upon what I've seen and used, I'd build a mannlicker stocked 7x57 and run 160 NPs through it at a moderate velocity.

I've read that the best deer cartridge ever is the 300 Savage. Heard some old farts say it too.

I agree that the old .30-06 is a little on the large side for deer but they never seem to complain much.

I guess if I were considering recoil I'd give the nod to the .308 Win. So many reasons.

If recoil wasn't an issue I'd go with the 300WM. Normal hunting distances about equal with the .30-06 but after 400 yards it really shines.

Tom

I used the .30-06 for about 30 years pretty much exclusively, and have taken hundreds of head game with it. It killed everything I shot as dead as you can get.
Since then I've sold off the 06s and moved to bigger rounds, such as the .300 and of course the .375s. That said, I'm goin back to the .06 as my main hunting rifle, and going to attempt to just flat wear out a new Kimber 84L in .30-06 before I die!

Isn't that an oxymoron?

I dunno....is it?

Naw, everyone knows the KING of WHITETAIL DEER CARTRIDGES is either the 25-06 or the 7mm08. All else is overkill.

They could be handy in areas where the land owner requires larger than .28 caliber to shoot at their giant deer.

Well I have three 30-06 and one 270 so I guess it is king in my house.

I'd say "don't worry I shoot a 300" and never tell him it's a 300 Savage in a 700 Classic.

Well .. IMHO, yeah! My question was dishonest. I've never met an '06 that wasn't, in some way or other, a "problem." If someone GAVE me an '06 I'd surely have to try it out, but given the run of problems I've had, I would have real misgivings about spending money on an '06, any '06. Got rid of my last one years ago and I have no interest in having another. If '06 is the answer, the question is wrong.

... not that I have any particular opinion on the subject, mind you!