Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles I've tried. Really tried, but I just cannot like a .30-06.

Or a .270 for that matter.

First, I know how well both of them work. I have hunted with both, and I've taken game with both of them. But there is something about both of those cartridges that keeps me from developing an attachment to any rifle chambered for either of them.

I just traded into a Mark X Mannlicher a week or so ago. I've been messing with it, looking it over, and I've even done some loading for it, but me hunting with a .30-06 is the equivalent of me buying a VW beetle to drive. It just isn't me.

I'm going to have to move some stuff and see what I can find. I think I am going to call this one my last attempt to get to know the .30-06.

Most of us have an accepted cartridge we just don't warm up to for some reason. No right or wrong. Just choices. So what DO you like?

I've been hunting for 55 years now in about 6 different states and Canada, mostly deer, antelop, elk and caribou.
In all those years the only 06 I've ever owned (and still have) is my M1 Garand.
I too agree it's a great round, will doing more than what you need, but it's just to vanilla icecream for me.
My favorites are 7mm-08, 358, and 338mag. That seems to cover just about everything I shoot.

You sound like me and my feeling toward the 7mm Rem. Mag. I've had 3 and sold all 3. All shot well, and performed OK on game. I just never could develop an attachemnt to the round. I will, however, never be without an '06.

I have one I never use. I've told myself I keep it for a "someday" elk hunt. The older I get, the more I realize that "someday" is never going to happen. I'll probably end up trading it off for something I'll actually use.

have you ever shot a garand with a krieger barrel? my sako mannlicher in 30-06 is one of my favorites. my remington ti is a close second. my rem mt rifle has killed a bunch of elk.

Cartridge snobs ITT.

I share a similar sentiment. Can't explain exactly what is at the heart of it, but I have become more and more intrigued with smaller fast bullets, much less recoil, and a very light platform made of the modern top shelf materials (stainless steels and compound stocks).

I love admiring and handling beautiful traditional wood stocked rifles and would like to own a really nice example, BUT...

Custom actions, aftermarket stocks, improved chambers and wildcats have changed everything about the way I approach hunting and shooting.

The 30-06 was my first centerfire rifle and that rifle cannot be denied all of the success it provided. Funny how I have matured from 14 to 41 thinking, at first, that I needed more gun to be a successful hunter and now realizing that I am over-gunned with it. I still daydream about a few magnum builds like a Weatherby round or a 7 SAUM, but I probably won't ever do it.

I bet this time next year I have two rifles. Kimber Montanas is 243 and 270. The 270 will still be useful here in the SE, but it's justification will probably be rooted more in the small chance that I'll get to go hunting out west somewhere.

Same here, don't know why but could never like the .30-06. I think its becauser everyone has one, not original enough. I hunt with a .260Rem, .35 Whelen, 7mmSAUM, .444 Marlin, I like the odd balls. I recently got a deal on a .300 WSM that I couldn't passs, it's my most "common" cartridge.

Your problem was the chassis and body, not the engine.

I guess my favorite cartridges have always been just a tick off plumb with the common offerings. I like the .22 Hornet, the .220 Swift, 6mm Remington, 257 Roberts, 6.5 Swede, 7mm/08 and the .280 Remington. In the .30 caliber isle, I have to say that I like the .30 WCF, but for all around utility, (If I am forced to pick) I like the .308 Winchester. I enjoy shooting the .303 British, and the 8x57 Mauser. I don't really have a pick in the .33's, but I do like the .35's almost all the way around, from .357 Magnum to the .35 Whelen.

I did have a Garand for awhile, but it didn't have a Krieger barrel. I'm no match shooter, so I just bought one to enjoy, shoot and collect. I later sold it to eat after a divorce.

Funny you mention the Garand, though, because I do love the history of the .30-06, from Belleau Wood to the Chosin Reservoir, but from Garands, to Husquvarna bolt guns, to Mannlicher Mausers, I can't find a rifle that I like well enough to make me forget how unattractive I find the .30-06 to be.

Winna, winna -- chicken dinna!

I have killed more game with my 30-06 than all others combined I believe, but if I were to start over it wouldn't be my first choice. I would definitely have one but it would be the back-up to my deer and elk rifle.

I would pick something bit smaller for deer and something a bit bigger for elk... but I would still want an '06 in case either of the other two went down during the season or as a loaner if a friend or family member needed an appropriate rifle.

I think it's unwise to ever get too far removed from the 30/06....the older I get, the more rational this seems.

This may be due to lowered testosterone levels ,or enhanced vision...not sure which.

In 30 caliber, nothing much else holds any interest for me.There is a lot to be said for solid reliability no matter where you go, or what you do.

It's almost the same for me.

It's wierd that a cartridge with so much history can feel like it has so little soul to me.

Crimson, I'll give you a pass on this one. You do like some of the other classic cartridges, so it's all good!

i have been gunning for 40+ years and bought my first '06 last year. an old rem 760 carbine in excellent shape. put a set of talley lightweight lows and a bushnell elite 3200 2-7x32 on it. i bought a box of 150, 165 and 180. guess what, it likes them all, just a little different POI. i love this gun. not being a handloader (yet), i love the fact that i can get 3 different factory loads for $10-12/bx on sale. its a plinker unlike some of my others like my whelen or my 350 mag.

maybe you just need a different action or size of gun. i would be bored if i owned an '06 in rem 700 or something generic like that.

It's ok, I can't warm up to the 7mag either. Some thinks just don't turn your crank.

I feel the same way about anything with a belt....

For me, this goes back to 1973... I was about to replace my sporterized military Mauser (8mm) as my primary deer rifle. I wanted a .270 Win. ! I started looking in May... I looked hard! But there was just no .270 to be had. Along about late July, my buddy talked me into a M-700 Bdl in .30/06... His argument was that the venerable '06 would do any thing the .270 would.

Well... I succumbed to his argument... I bought the rifle for the astromical sum of $152.00 It wasn't what I wanted, and I hated it... I still have it and I still hate it what?... 39 years later... If my eldest grandson ever expresses an interest in deer hunting, he's gonna own it! (And even if he doesn't, it's in my will to him... )

Since that time, I have owned 6 Ruger #1's in .270; one M-3000 Mauser, a M-700 Mtn Rifle, a M-700 Classic, A M-700 RS, and a M-700 Bdl, and an Adl, all in .270. Also, Churchill Highlander, a Krico M-700, A Wby Mk-V, A Ruger M-77, Two Husqvarna's, and at least one Mauser and likly some more I forgot about... Of the aforementioned .270's, I have never hunted with any of them, and still own about six of them.

Really the only thing I've learned from the above is that I like the .280 Rem better that both the .270 and '06... And I've also learned that when it comes to deer hunting, any one of the three will kill a deer equally as dead... But after all is said and done, I still HATE the .30/06... !