I just set up my second general purpose 30-06 and plan on thinning the herd dramatically, down to a dozen or so rifles. The scheme is to use the 30-06 as my main cartridge from now on out for any big game hunting I will do in the future. The other rifles will be for shooting, home defense and varmint hunting. I started out with the 30-06 and without doubt I could have used it exclusively for the past 45 years of hunting. That said I will have a pair of 270's as backup rifles. Actually just wondering how many of us still hunt deer with the grand old 30-06.

I used an 8x57 for my buck tag this year. I planned to use my .30-'06 for a doe tag later, but than didn't happen. It was a shame too, because it was a new to me load with a 150 gr. Sierra SBT at 2900 fps that was particularly accurate I wanted to try. My old load with that rifle was the Hornady 180 gr. RN at 2580 fps, and it never failed to leave an exit wound or dead deer or bear.

I use mine mostly when the weather is bad as it's the only stainless/synthetic rifle I own.

Not this year. But, do I have a few '06s floating around here? Yeah.

And here I was wanting to buy a .30-06............what the hell was I thinking?

These new fangeled cartridges......

What is sooooooo wrong with the 3003?

I've hunted with mine all year. I find myself reaching for it more often regardless of what I'm hunting. It just flat out works.

Pre 64 Featherweight, smooth and handy. '06 fast enough, great bullet selection, no ammo shortage !

Actually this year was my first time ever to shoot a deer with an '06. In the past I've used .308, 7x57, .223 & even a .338 Win Mag; all seem to kill them equally dead.

works on hogs, too!

Hard to beat a 30-06 , I've got a few rifles but my 700 mtn rifle is the one I use 80% of the time.

#3 son, Angus was out with his WIN 670 in 30-06 on the last Sunday of rifle season, stalking in the fog. He wandered into a herd of doe out munching in the field. He took his shot at under 10 yards and filled his tag.



He says that 670 is his all-time favorite. It was my favorite for many years as well.

I carried the '06 once this past week for deer. That was it's only trip afield. I carried the 35 Whelen the last two days. Now the season is over here.

I love my 670 too. But mine is a Whelen now.

I have one, but mainly use a .308. But that is due more to the rifle than the cartridge.

I've killed most of my deer with a 30-06......never felt undergunned.

I love guns. Because I love guns, I have deer rifles that I have never even shot yet. Usually the choice of which gun gets to hunt comes down to which ones I have ammo loaded for, which ones are sighted in and ready to go. But regardless of which one gets picked, the old Remington Springfield M1903 30-06 will be with us on the hunt, because if all else fails, I know it won't.

When I started hunting in the '70's you couldn't swing a dead cat in the woods around here without hitting somebody carrying a .30-06. They're still not rare but now I'd say the .308 is more prevalent. Back then the most popular '06 rifles were Remington 760's and 742's. Now it's scoped bolt actions that rule.

I killed my opening day buck with a 30-06 this year. It worked and I was able to drive the truck right up to where it went down. So it worked well.

I have to say,I've killed a lot of deer in my lifetime with different cartridges and I've seen a lot of deer killed with different cartridges,but everytime I have killed a deer with the 30-06 I have been impressed.The thing is magic.Over a 100yrs old and better today than when it was born.

Picked up a barreled action 30-06 rem 700 mountain rifle from a fire member a few weeks ago for what I thought was a steal. My buddy had a synthetic mountain rifle stock that had some issues that he gave to me( I resolved those issues). Shot a doe with it yesterday after sighting in the day before. Very pleasant to shoot, and I’m an admitted recoil pansy. With cheap federal ammo it was close to MOA, could not be happier. Shot was about 150 yards off hand, she went about 20 yards and that was that. I have a bunch of rifles, and the logical part of me knows I could use this rifle and this rifle alone for all my big game hunting till the good Lord calls me home. That won’t happen in the foreseeable future but it sure could.

MM

Guess I’m the outlier here. I’ve never killed a deer with a .30-06. I once had one...an 03A3 that had been nicely “sporterized” by having the barrel cut and crowned at 19 inches and the original stock nicely reworked into a “Mannlicher” style....glass bedded barrel and action...really a nice job. I got it when I was 16. Paid $37.50 for it at the lgs. Dumb enough to let an acquaintance borrow it and I never saw it again.

Closest I’ve ever come to getting another is the .308 I’ve killed the last couple deer with.

When I was 12 I thought the 30-06 was a requirement for Deer hunting. My Dad always said the 270 was just a groundhog cartridge. He always used a 30-06 but always had a lot of respect for the 7mm Rem Mag too.

My favorite 30-06 is a lucky rifle so it always gets taken on the last couple of hunts at the end of the season. I have used 180 grain bullets in it since the mid 80's and it has never failed to put the bullet in the right place. Lately I have been switching off between the Ballistic Tips and the Partitions with nothing but excellent results. As for recoil a properly stocked and padded rifle should be within the use parameters of all but the wimpiest snowflakes.

I have 3 .30-06's.. One I have never shot, my grandfathers I killed a deer with may 15 years ago.. The adl, I just purchased, was used on one antelope a couple years ago.. I always think I will take them, but seldom do..

ACK!!!!!!!! 30-06 is the preferred choice of road-hunters, gut-shooters, and leg-blower-offers world-wide.

30-06 is the frumpy hairy-armpits and in desperate need of a bikini wax cousin to the sleek, sexy, impeccably groomed sweetheart supermodel 270Win.

Proud to say I've NEVER carried a 30-06 in the field!

The .30-06 and .257 Roberts stayed home this past deer season, harvested this year's buck with my .35 Whelen.

Still hunt them with a 30-06, although I'm not much of a bolt guy. And if you rename it the .30 Whelen it makes the cartridge less boring and much more interesting and it still manages to kill them just as dead.

I've carried my Sako 06 for 40 years, but after setting my 13 year old up with a 6.5 swede this year, I about set one up for myself but I'm just not there yet.

Love my 30-06. Hammers deer with authority

You can't go wrong with the .30-06 and a good 165gr bullet IMO. Although I prefer to use my .260Rem for deer, I've killed 2 mule deer with.a 30-06 shooting a 165gr cartridge (165gr Hornady SST and a 165gr Nosler AB), neither of which took a step after being shot. I only took those two rifles afield because I hadn't killed anything with them at the time.

I have shot most of my deer over the last 45 years with the 30-06 with the 30-30 a not so close second. Not coincidentally, both of those calibers are still my main choices.

I wasn't aware you were gay until you just busted right out the closet and went full Liberace.

I have a Whelen also, I tend to use it on feral hogs when hunting heavy cover or at night but the 30-06 does the same job so well and attached lights tend to stay on the 06 a bit better!

Yes I am crass.

Behind the 270Win Candelabra:

[img]https://beta-static.photobucke...920&height=1080&fit=bounds[/img]

rick

Yes I'm crass enuff to own, shoot, hunt & kill with the Old Workhorse.

I killed a few WT in 2016 with mine and each time it brought a SMILE to my face.

I feel it's UN American NOT to own and hunt The Venerable Veteran.


Jerry

I dabbled with new fangled chamberings for a while 30/06, 270, 308, and 300 win mag...eventually gave up on the high tech stuff and went back to the 8x57.

I agree cowboy Tim.

Them Krauts knew the deal with the 8 x 57.

Minutiae

I have two, one of which is a stainless/synthetic, which gets a lot of playing time. I didn’t reload for years and had plenty of success. Reloading has made both rifles shoot better and made hunting more fun for me. It is hard to beat the versatility of a stainless/synthetic .30-06.

“Don’t call me Shirley.”

No, I prefer 308 Win or 300 WSM.

Count me as an unashamed user of the good ole ‘06 on deer. It really puts the hurt on deer. There may be other cartridges that are just as good, but IMO, I don’t think you could find one that is better.

I have four 30-06s. I will never not have one. I am ashamed to say I have not fired one in over a year.




P

I haven't fired one since yesterday

I picked up a 30 06 in a Barrett fieldcraft. Put a Meopta 3-9x40 on it and shot moa or less with a variety of ammo. To keep it simple I settled on the 168 gr ttsx factory with avg groups about 3/4”-1” and now I don’t need all those other rifles in the safe!

Ha! It will never replace my trusty ol’ 30-40 Krag!!!!

(Says the guy with six 30-06’s!)

I can't believe anyone would use something other than one of these in '06 for anything!

Beautiful stock on this one BTW.

I think everyone has heard the old saying to be aware of the old guy with 1 gun. If you have a 30-06, one is all you need. The rest are just toys to play with...not that there's anything wrong with just playing. It's just that the 06 will handle everything in the lower 48 and most of the rest of the world to boot.

I have killed more deer with my 30-06 than all of my other rifles combined. I hunted with my 6.5 Creedmoor this year just to see how it would perform. I got skunked for the first time in quite a few years. I didn't even get a shot at a buck in 9 days of hunting. My conclusion: 6.5 Creedmoor is no good for deer.

A Remington 700 in .30-06 gets packed on every big game trip I go on. If not primary, it's a backup. It accounted for a 5 point and a doe so far this fall. And will probably see some action on late winter for crop damage hunts.

It just plain works.

-Jake

Fair enough.

I came to the opposite conclusion. I used my 6.5 Creed for the first time this season and killed two with it. It's definitely good for deer.

I can't say if I have killed more deer with the 30-06 or my 7x57, both great deer guns.

Mine is a Browning X-bolt. Maybe it is just the Brownings in 6.5 Creedmoor that suck at deer hunting.

LOL . Break a mirror or run over any black cats lately ? I wouldn't give up on it yet. The X-bolts are nice rifles.

Yeah, maybe I just need to do a renaming ceremony like they do for boats.

What would we postulate on if we all hunted with a 30 Goverment?

Wow, you must be really old.

Was watching Roger Raglin today. When asked, “which cartridge is the best for Deer?”, his reply made me laugh. He said, “Friend, you can walk into Bass Pro Shop or your local gun store & they will have dozens, if not hundreds of rifles lined up. Every one of them will kill a Deer stone dead.”

Thought that was funy, yet profound.

I've used it on deer, elk, moose, antelope, black bears, mtn lion, mtn goat, bighorn sheep, hogs and a bunch of South African plains game. I shoot Winchester Super X 180 grain "Power Point" factory ammo It's a Model 700 Remington topped with a Leupold. I guess I've just been real lucky on all my hunts after reading all about Leupold, factory ammo & bolts falling off on the internet.

I got given to me by my dear old friend a Winchester model 70 pre-64 30-06 and its nice and want to keep it original with the steel butt plate . Here was my problem I had major shoulder surgery on my right shoulder and I don`t think my shoulder was ready for a kick from the steel butt plate. so I used a less recoil rifle that had a rubber pad on it and I shot my biggest buck ever of our family it scored 189 b.c. non-typical dressed 225 lbs. and I sure wished it would have been with the old 30-06 Winchester model 70 !

Why don't you take off the steel butt pad. Put it in your gun cabinet & use a Pachmayr Decelerator Slip On recoil pad. That's I do on a shotgun for my wife to turkey hunt with.

My 7600 has a plastic butt plate and i got a slip on limbsaver pad - try wally world. It is very nice, softens the recoil. also you could try loading down/reduced load to get to a 300 savage or 308 level round.

I hate to say this is the first season I haven’t owned a 30-‘06. I filled my tag with my 6.5 Creedmoor this year and my 280AI was back up. I will have another ‘06 and it’s just a matter of time. It’s truly hard to beat a 30-‘06 for deer hunting when you stoke it with 150-165 gr cup and cores at reasonable velocity. My favorites are 150 partitions around 2900 and 165 inter loks at about 2800 and change.

If I had to snivel most of my 30-06 rifles shot better with 165 to 180 grain bullets than the 150's. Not horribly better but my two current 30-06 rifles are easy under an inch rifles with 165 and 180 grain bullets but with the 150's they hover around just over an inch to 1 1/4 inches for three shots. The Weatherby Vanguard does it with 5 shots. With both rifles and 165 gr, Ballistic Tips and Sierra BTHP's powered By IMR 4350 they are awesome shooters. I guess I could suffer along with 1 1/4 inch groups and 150 gr. Partitions if I have to. As for factory ammo I have recovered more 150 gr. Corelokts than any other bullet but every bullet was recovered from a dead deer. Too bad that Remington stopped selling the Corelokts at the bulk prices.

Feeling pretty old for sure, 62 is getting up there.

Well, only once, a modest buck west of Ft Collins in 1980. Seemed to do all right at 25 feet.

Then it went north to Alaska, and it and a couple others have done serious damage to a number of moose, caribou, sheep and black bear since, and counting....

That first one even killed a ptarmigan once

True Dat! I'm crass enough to run a 165 grain Hornady Interlock SP in my Browning X-Bolt and 180 grain Hornady Interlock RN in my Remington 7600 Carbine. Didn't shoot anything with them this year, in fact I'm sad to report that I didn't even hunt with the 7600 this year. From what I've seen, a 165/168 grain bullet in a 30-06 knocks the snot out of deer!

I have three, they are fantastic.

Shot one for years and killed a lot of game with it. 165 corelocs and interlocks made a lot of meat. Started shooting it on paper and got disgusted with my cold bore accuracy so now I do most of my big game killing with a .300 WM and my old .30-06 is now rebarreled to a .257 Roberts AI. Over the past several years I can only think of one shot with the .300 wm that I would have been hesitant to take with the .30-06 and even that was doable if the .06 was accurate enough.

I just picked up a Husqvarna 1640 barreled action in .30-06 that if it is accurate and I can restock reasonably may find its way onto some hunts in the next few years. If it proves accurate but too boring I do have .30 Gibbs dies and may punch it out.

For some reason I have trouble hanging on to them. The latest, and hopefully last, is a well-worn Husky 640 (FN) that came with a Lyman 4x. Needs a bit of TLC, but I got it field-ready. After getting it zeroed, the last four went into an inch using my standard '06 whitetail load, 150gr NPT over 46gr H4895, pretty much a .308, but still a bit hotter than the load the '06 made its bones with way back when, with a better bullet to boot. That load has shot very well in the last three rifles I tried it in.

I said it needs some TLC, but the inside of the barrel looks new. I gotta put down at least one with the new Barrett first, but then this one deserves a turn.

Used a 7600 carbine for years until I sold it to a neighborhood kid.. An obnoxiously loud flame thrower but I liked it. So much in fact, that I just bought another.

I never really had much of a desire to have an 06 and then I inherited a left-hand Savage 110, when my fil died. It is a real nice-looking rifle and so I thought that I would load up some Hornadys and kill some deer with it. It shoots the 150 Interlocks at 3000 fps extremely well. I have lots of opportunity, as I do depredation work on my neighbor's farm. That 150 hammers deer and I have shot a number of them with it. One evening, six does appeared in a field that I was watching. Only three made it out.

I have become a real fan of the 6.5s-Creed and .260. I was considering making the 06, a 6.5-06, but it shoots so well, that I decided to get some more casings and build up my 06 stash! The one thing that I do not like, is that rifle kicks worse than my 7 mags. That original hard butt plate is no joke! I may have to cure that.

I tried to get my newest 30-06 to like the same charge weight of IMR 4895 and 150 gr. Partitions. After several variations on bullet seating depth and still no joy ( 1.4" groups) I switched to IMR 4350 and got a load that will put three Partitions in the magic inch but velocity is in the 2900 fps range. Good thing it has a good recoil pad but more than needed for a treestand load.

It's amazing how much meat you could make using a rifle with disgusting accuracy. There may be a lesson here.

I also could never quite make IMR4895 work with 150 gr. .30-'06 loads. H414 and IMR4064 did pretty good, but not as well as IMR4350 like you found.

Although I've killed more deer with a 30-06 than any other caliber I haven't used it in the last 5 seasons. Too many rifles too few tags. I took deer with a 6.5 swede, 22-250 and 35 Remington this season. That said if I was limited to one rifle it would be a 30-06.

I’ve killed more WT with 150 HSP than 165s.
When I used the 150s , JOC load of 52.5 gs IMR 4064 gave +/- 2900 fps and very good accuracy. That Load was also in a Lyman manual.

When I changed to 165 HBTSP I Load H 205 — on my last pound — for 2950 +/- . H 4350 is up next.

Jerry

Yep, I have said several times that I should have just kept shooting animals instead of paper

wink_man,

Downright PURTY rifle!!!!

I currently have 3 Model 760 rifles in .30-06 & none that have wood that handsome.

Fwiw, my "truck gun" is a Model 760 (with a 2X scope) from AUG 1957 & my usual load for it is "Mexican match", i.e., Lake City Match, with the FMJ bullet pulled & replaced with a JSP.
(That rifle shoots FAR better, even with the good scope, than I do with my 72YO eyes. - Thankfully, the ranges to hunt WT/exotics in South TX are short & the deer are numerous, everywhere.)

yours, tex

I like 59 grains of IMR 4350 with a Nosler Partition. That load works well in all three of mine. H4895 works well in my Garand.

Like I said, I'm not much of a bolt guy, and I just picked this one up a couple of weeks ago from a local gunshop. 1965 vintage, 30-06, unmolested, probably sat in a closet for 40 years judging from the dust in the barrel, and I doubt it had 10 shots fired through it, let alone prolly never killed anything.

Gunshop priced it at $250 because it didn't have a magazine, LOL, I'll take them like that every day of the week. Cleaned it up, scoped it and bore sighted it.

Qtips cousin wants me to come hunt with him next fall so I'll bring this guy but I'll rename it .30 Whelen first to make sure it has enough zip to kill a whitetail, LMAO.

I have not shot any deer with a 30-06 in a few years now just because I have been using other rifles and loads. I have a few that I have not "blooded" yet, so I am using them for the fun of it, and have been doing that for about the last 8 seasons.


But I do have a large number of deer to my credit that I have killed with 30-06 rifles. The 2 that I have killed the most game with in that caliber are first my M1895 Browning lever action with iron sights and second, my "scout" I made on a Mauser with a 19" barrel.

I have also killed a handful with an M1 Garand and a Browning BLR in 30-06, as well as various other rifles I have used and owned in the last 50 years.
Some seasons I have been using a 30-06 as an elk gun, but had some deer tags in my pack too, so when a deer was seen I shot with what I had.

winkman,

WISHING I could find Model 760 rifles as nice as that one ANYWHERE for 250.oo = My estate sale specials ALL need refinishing but for 100 to 125.oo, it's hard to argue.
(That's how I ended-up with over a dozen of them.)

Since I retired, I have a lot more time than $$$$$$.

yours, tex

I really lucked out on that one, every once in a while this blind squirrel finds a nut.

I've seen this happen before around here in NJ. Can't hunt with a rifle in NJ, so someone wants to hunt with their friends at their deer camp in the Catskills in New York State. They buy a rifle, sight it in, go for a year or 2 and see nothing so stop going cause the license is to expensive and either sell the rifle or put it into a closet till he's passed and whomever inherited it sells it. In this case, a guy inherited it and wanted to unload it and the gunshop told him it would be a hard sell because it didn't have a magazine, LOL.

The last thing I'd ever need is another gun, but when I find bargain like that, it's simply to hard to resist.

I'd gladly take them like you find them also, needing refinishing for the price you mention. That "RKW bowling pin finish" that Remington puts on the wood is a bit of a pain to get off but I've done a few and it's well worth it.

wink-man,


Fwiw, I simply ALWAYS strip the factory "plastic finish" OFF my hunting guns, as I find it UGLY & use a hand-rubbed oil-base or MIN-WAX for a semi-glass look..
(On one "estate sale special", I stripped off the finish & was very PLEASED to find a BEAUTIFUL piece of crotch-grain walnut underneath.)

yours, tex

I found that load worked well in my ‘06’s as well. I also had 53 grains of IMR 4064 give great accuracy with several different 150’s in all my ‘06’s. One particular, a Ruger No.1 RSI put three Barnes XLC’ s into such a tiny hole at 100 yards I had to flip the target over and look at the hole with a magnifying glass to make my dad believe it was three shots and not one and two complete misses.

To All,

My "small to medium game load", at the old-school .32-40 WCF velocity (as designed for me, by my little brother for coons/rabbits/foxes/coyotes/pests), does a creditable job of KILLING WT efficiently out to 100M+. = WT deer just aren't that hard to kill at "brush country" or "woods" ranges, presuming a good shot.
(NO place that I hunt can you SEE a WT at over 50M & in many spots on our lease you can finally/clearly SEE a deer at 20M.)

This load is a 150 grain flat-nose PBCB, in front of 12 grains of GREEN DOT. - It's downright CHEAP to load, too.

That "small-to medium game load" is also EXCELLENT for training new shooters, as it has a mild "KICK" & NOT even a LOUD report, out of 7-9 pound rifle with a 22-24" barrel.

Fwiw, when I was stationed at Ft. Indiantown Gap, the local PA G&FD said that the average range from muzzle to deer was less than 60 yards.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to All from both of us.

yours, tex

I'd not worry in the least about getting a top shelf recoil pad installed by a good smith. Sounds to me like you're going to keep it in the family anyway so what does a steel butt plate do for you except cleaning your sinuses on every shot and giving you a bloodshot shoulder. Go red pad on that bad boy and enjoy hunting with it.

Ok, Tex is posting as "Darla". Interesting. But anyway I live in Annville which you know is where Ft Indiantown Gap is located. I grew up hunting the base when it was still US Army. The National Guard has made you attend a class and enter a drawing to hunt there and I don't need all that aggravation.

moosemike,

Fwiw, "DarlaG" is my much-beloved spouse & I'm having a "log-in problem" currently with using my own account. = I suspect that you know that married couples often read over each other's shoulder & MAY make comments of their own using their husband's/wife's "screen-name"..
(My current "log-in" problem will be fixed but I know not when exactly.)

Also, as I've said elsewhere on the forum, THE GOOD BOOK says, "They shall become one flesh" when they marry, so I don't see that as a problem that's even worth anyone commenting upon..

Fwiw, I had been stationed elsewhere by the time that the hunter's safety class at FIG was announced (as a result of several hunters shooting other hunters, at several US military facilities) & later was implemented as "official policy", Army-WIDE.
NOTE: I was an Army Rangemaster for over 20 years & have numerous times encountered "hunters", who didn't know the MINIMUM information on how to use a firearm at all, much less safely. - I've also met "hunters" who had never even FIRED their firearm, when they arrived on post.
(I remember one "hunter" from NYC, who was checked-in by a military game warden & was found to have put his 3x9-power scope mounted on the receiver of his brand new Remington Model 700BDL in 7mm magnum, BACKWARDS.)

Hunt lotteries are commonplace in 2018 (at every Armed Forces post/camp/station that I know of,) because of the HUGE numbers of people who want to hunt on military reservations.. = Fwiw, I was NOT "drawn" this year for WT at our local Army training area.

I will be, after 01JAN18, be hunting "invasive species", i.e., feral hogs & Axis deer on the post, most every day as there are way too many .of both on post. - NO bag limits, either. = My deep freezer is nearly empty, too.

MERRY CHRIST-mass from both of us.

yours, tex

No Darla, I have no idea about such things. My wife wouldn't go anywhere near a talk forum.

moosemike,

I'm curious: Does your wife hunt, fish, camp, own/shoot firearms, ride horses, etc?? -

I do all those things, once again, since I met/married an outdoorsman.
(When dressed up, I may look like a "girly-girl" & "professional woman" but away from my office there's still a side of me that's the "tomboy", under the make-up, skirts & lace, that I was when I was 12. - I'm even shopping for a pick-up to pull my horse-trailer.)

As to being on Internet forum, I belong to several Internet camping/horses/firearms/hunting groups & have also been "permanently banned" from several "news commentary sites" for posting conservative Christian comments & for attacking the Far Left morons.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, DarlaG

Not sure how many deer and hogs I've killed with a Remington 742 semi-auto 30/06 with factory Remington 150 Core-Loc bullets. I'm not sure what the FPS was, but it knocked everything around with deadly force. Never lost a deer nor hog... and I've shot them all over the body... but mostly in the front parts...LOL. Blood was never an issue. Big exit holes and easy blood trails to follow, because MOST would run some distance before giving it up. I never really thought twice about finding the critter or not, because that 06 was lethal. I haven't shot it in years, mostly trying other calibers... like most other hunters are doing today. I do have a Savage bolt action that I might load up some rounds for it, but I would like to try a bullet that has more DRT ability.

I probably put it down because I got into long range coyote hunting... and then starting using those longer range calibers for deer as well.

The 06 would always blow out pretty large exit holes, so I guess, most of it's energy was still cooking on the exit side. Now that I reload, I need to rethink a good bullet load for my savage 30/06... something that will produce more DRT kills, since I need them to fall right there, from long range shots on power lines... logging roads... and clear cuts. WHY...??? because it is really TOUGH to locate the spot where it was standing when shot in low light evening conditions... and then have it run off into the woods.... but a whole LOT easier to find it if they are DRT in that open pathway.

You just gotta LOVE the 30/06. It would be my choice if we were limited to only one caliber.

Yes to all the above except fishing. She hates fishing.

This will be my #1 rifle for most of my hunting next year...standard grade M70 .30-06, Lyman 4X. Shoots 180 grain Win Power Points quite well.
Bob

I think they were designed for men and meese.,

moosemike,

Please tell your wife, "Hi", "Good hunting" & "Best Wishes" from this "Tex-Anne" by adoption & that this forum (and other outdoor websites) needs a lot more estrogen..

Sincerely, DarlaG

moosemike,

Please tell your wife, "Hi", "Good hunting" & "Best Wishes" from this "Tex-Anne" by adoption & that this forum (and other outdoor websites) needs an infusion of a lot more estrogen..

Sincerely, DarlaG

moosemike,

Please tell your wife, "Hi", "Good hunting" & "Best Wishes" from this "Tex-Anne" by adoption & that this forum (and other outdoor websites) needs an infusion of a lot more estrogen..

Sincerely, DarlaG

rickt300,

For your information, my husband (Tex) uses & often hunts Whitetail Deer & Axis deer with a Remington pump rifle in .30-06. - He calls that "rather beat-up looking" rifle, "The Pickup Gun" & keeps it loaded with his homemade gas-check cast bullets, in front of 13 grains of Red Dot shotgun powder.
(Tex says often to new shooters that, "Whitetails just aren't that hard to kill & most any .30-caliber cast bullet load that is moving over 12 or 1300 feet per second will work just fine, at the distance that most deer are killed here in south Texas.")

MERRY CHRISTMAS from both of us. - "Jesus is the reason for the season".

Sincerely, DarlaG

Nice rifle and I always liked Power Points better than Corelokts and the added bonus they come in Winchester brass!

I surely wasn't knocking the 30-06, my first custom rifle was an '06. I just am not overly impressed with the150 grain Corelokt or Remington brass in general. I still have that 30-06 and another in a Weatherby Vangaurd. I still occasionally cast my own bullets but I am hoping to shoot up all the jacketed bullets I have collected over the years before I kick the bucket!

.

Thirty ought-six Ti - I bought a case of Federal Nosler 180gr when I got it, because it shoots it so well I don’t reload for it yet.

I've been called a "booger-eating moron," "trailer trash" and " a gap-toothed inbreed" and on this forum for my previous avowal that I hunted with a Remington 742 in 30-06. I was always amazed at how precise one could predict a man's dentition and mode of living from a rifle choice.

Let me set things straight. First off, I had serious dental work done, and no longer have the gap. Secondly I have never lived in anything resembling a mobile home. All my houses have been brick. As to the inbred part, it is true that KYHillChick and I have mothers with the same last name. We checked and on my side there is only one uncle unaccounted for after the Civil War. He didn't die. He just liked it where he was and stayed. The families did know each other, and various elements fought together at Kings Mountain NC and in the early parts of the Revolution in New Jersey. I'd say that's far enough back to be safe.

I stopped using my 742 in 2004, and replaced it with a 7600 in 35 Whelen. However, my most recent favorite is a Ruger Hawkeye in 30-06. It has accounted for 8 deer in 5 seasons. Overall, I can say that 42 of the last 70 deer shot from our deer camp have been taken by 30-06.

My appreciation of the 30-06 has never flagged in nearly 40 years, despite all the name calling. Before 2001 I was flinging a 180 grain roundnose load at whitetails out of a treestand. Since then I have switched to a 165 grain Hornady Interlock and could not ask for better performance. Every deer shot with that load has either fallen where they were shot or I could stand in that spot and see the carcass.

Two deer rifle's do most of my work for me. A Savage Model 99 in 300 that I bought off one of the old members for our camp who'd hung up his gear. Pretty hard not to carry a gun with such provenance. We called the first generation members of our camp the Olde Guard. Sadly, they're all gone now, but Bob's legacy lives on in this fine old rifle. My other deer rifle is a Mauser chambered for 30-06. Dad bought this when he did a couple moose hunts up in Canada. It was a military action some outfit rounded up and put an aftermarket '06 barrel on. Cheap hardwood stock, bent bolt, scope safety. There's a bazillion of these out there. I killed my first deer with that rifle, and many others along the way. I had the stock glass bedded and free floated, and a Timney trigger dropped into it, and it's scary accurate. So in the woods, it's the 99, but if I'm hunting a power line, gas line, or open field where I can reach out a bit, it's the '06.

I’m gonna go load a 30-06 up in a few minutes, head out to Burnet county.

Been hunting for 25 years and never owned a .30'06.


I've hunted with .270Win most of the time, but did have brief flings with 7STW, 7UM, 7mmRemMag and 300WSM.


Last year I bought a M700 CDL in 30'06 and have just ordered a Ruger M77 Hawkeye FTW in 30'06. I think I'll do the lions share of my future hunting with these two guns once I get them set up.

I am over due to try again. Enjoyable.

You jumped in with both feet. What prompted this?

naa... I reserve my 30-06 for squirrel hunting.

So loaded with 150gn Partitions, my lucky deer bullet.

The 06 is a helluva skwerl killer.

Yes, it is. And legal here to do just that. But not legal in the same woods, at the same time for deer. Doesn't leave much behind to clean either.

kellory,

a PBCB .30-06 load at about .32-40WCF speed (1300-1400 FPS) does a FINE job on small to medium game AND that's excellent practice for big game hunting.

.30 caliber hole for a "pass through" on the small/medium size critters, little edible meat "blood-shot" & the pelt is not ruined either.

just my OPINION, tex

I have one 30-06; an older Remington 700 ADL with a nice wooden stock and blued barrel, and I do like the gun. But it never ends up in the woods with me and therefore rarely gets out to the range meaning I also don't reload for it often. I would probably sell it but cant bring myself to because its currently the only wooden-stocked bolt action I have, and for some reason I got it in my head that everyone should have a wooden 30-06 bolt action.

Any particular reason?

Since moving to NC I've been hunting on National Forest land almost exclusively, where most of my spots are several miles from the road; and on top of that it seems to be raining more often than not when I have the chance to go. So I usually opt for my Model 7 Stainless/Synthetic in 308. While back in WV for the holidays the last few weeks, I took those 2 rifles plus my 270, but again the weather was always nasty and the Model 7 got to go.

I have a 700 LVSF in a McMillan and it sees more duty for similar reasons.

yes I could have used a different pad ? but I had a rifle already sight`n in so I just went with that rifle. but next fall 2019 I will be using that 30-06 Winchester per 64 model 70 for deer in Minnesota tel I kill a decent buck either next fall or the next fall 2020 ? I had a lot of respect for that old deer slayer-world war 2 vet.

Many deer have fallen to my Remington 700 BDL 30/06. Numerous factory loads as well as handloaded 150gr Hornady Interlocks, Speer 150gr Hot-Cor flat base, Speer 150gr flatpoints loaded down, and Sierra 180gr Pro-Hunters. Never had a problem with any of the loads factory or home spun. The '06 just works.

Anyone that hunts should have at least one 30-06. Just to be on the safe side, I've gone with two of them. That's my small gun. It will handle most things I run into.

That's what I'd like to hunt with. But, alas, I'm afraid I'm too blind for it now.

Praise the Lord, this man has repented.

I used the 30.06 (180 grain bullets) from about 1993 to 2008 and probably took 20 deer or more with it. In 2009 I started using a 7MM Magnum (156 grain to 162 grain bullets) and probably have taken about 13 deer with it.

To tell you the truth I have not see much difference between the two on the deer kills out to 100 yards. The 30.06 is more than enough for deer, I am thinking about going back to it since I own about 4 of them at this time. I suppose a man goes through certain phases as far as which cartridge to use on deer.

Once had four rifles in 30-06 and killed a fair number of deer with three of them. I was younger then and didn't know any better. Best excuse I can come up with?

One was a M760 Remington. Killed two bucks w/open sights, scoped it, killed a few more, before discovering (via the interwebs) that they aren't accurate and even worth having around. Sold it to a buddy that had gotten back into hunting and didn't know any better.

I joined the Fire about 18 years ago, quickly found out I'd been poorly armed with such dinosaurs and am now down to a mere two Ought Sixes. Now up to speed, haven't killed a deer with one in years.

Although both grandsons like to borrow one of my old clunkers and manage to take deer with them on a regular basis, despite the poor taste inherent in using such a relic. Both are primarily bow hunters, but will take one of my rifles out, if they have a tag left for gun seasons. Only excuse I have now, for still owning a 30-06.