Guns & Loads

.30-06
Over 95 years old, it remains America's favorite hunting cartridge.

Col. Craig Boddington

These cartridges were spawned by the .30-06 Springfield case and cover the complete spectrum of calibers required to hunt North American big game. Left to right: .25-06 Remington, .270 Winchester, .280 Remington, .30-06 Springfield, .35 Whelen.

After a dozen Alaskan hunts, more than 20 Canadian ones, 30 African safaris, a dozen European hunts and God knows how many in the United States and Mexico, I have some experience with most of the cartridges we consider "all-around" choices - rounds that will handle darn near any situation short of very large and very dangerous game.

I have shot the .270 Winchester a great deal, and I like it. I have shot the .280 Remington a great deal, and I like it as much. I have taken some of my most memorable trophies and made some of my very best shots with a 7mm Remington Magnum. I like it very much. I have also hunted quite a lot with both .300 Winchester and .300 Weatherby Magnums, and I respect both cartridges immensely.

I have written positively about all of these cartridges on more than one occasion. But if I were forced to choose one, my preference would be the .30-06. And I am not alone. It remains America's most popular hunting cartridge - and those who choose it are not wrong.

Part of its popularity must be credited to its lineage. It was America's service cartridge through two world wars and countless skirmishes. But its current and lasting popularity is based on much more than its military heritage, as we shall see. First, however, let's take a fast historical look at what we call the .30-06 Springfield.

It was originally designated the "Ball Cartridge, caliber .30, Model of 1906." The great Springfield rifle was just three years old, and had been chambered to a very similar cartridge firing a 220-grain round-nose bullet at 2300 feet per second. The 1906 version has a case neck shortened by .007 inch. The few remaining rifles chambered for the original ".30-03" will therefore chamber the shorter .30-06 rounds, but the reverse is not always so.

The 1906 version featured a 150-grain spitzer bullet at a then-sizzling 2700 fps. This was the load that saw us through World War I. In 1926, the bullet was changed again, to a 172-grain boattail at, initially, the same 2700 fps. Although this significantly improved the long-range performance of the Springfield rifle, the boattail bullet was actually adopted to extend the maximum effective range of the like-chambered light and medium machine guns of the day. The velocity was later reduced to 2640 fps. In 1940, with the changeover to the gas-operated Garand beginning, the original flat-base 150-grain loading was readopted.

The .30-06 remained our standard military cartridge until 1954, when it was officially replaced by the 7.62mm NATO round (.308 Winchester). However, it was 1957 before the first 7.62mm M14 rifles were actually fielded, and the .30-06 remained in use, especially for machine guns, until the 1970s.

One of the first recorded sporting uses of the Springfield rifle and .30-06 cartridge occurred during President Theodore Roosevelt's celebrated nine-month African safari in 1909. T.R. was ecstatic with both the Springfield and the cartridge, but it was some years before the Springfield action was available to the public in significant numbers.

The first sporting rifle chambered to .30-06 was probably the Winchester 1895 lever action, rather than a bolt gun. It was chambered first to .30-03, and then to .30-06 in about 1908.

By the late teens, early custom gunsmiths like Griffin and Howe in New York were doing a brisk business making custom .30-06 rifles on both Springfield and Mauser actions. In 1921, the Remington Model 30 was introduced in .30-06, as was the Winchester Model 54 in 1925. It was, of course, an initial chambering for the Winchester Model 70 in 1937, and for the next quarter century the Model 70 .30-06 was perhaps the most famous - if not the most common - production sporting rifle.

"ALL-AROUND" CARTRIDGE COMPARISON
CARTRIDGE	BULLET*(grains)	VELOCITY (FPS) (ENERGY [ft.lbs.])					TRAJECTORY (200-yd. zero)
		Muzzle	100	200	300	400	100	300	400
.270 Winchester	130	3060 (2702)	2776 (2225)	2510 (1818)	2259 (1472)	2022 (1180)	1.5	-7.4	-21.6
.270 Winchester	150	2850 (2705)	2585 (2226)	2336 (1817)	2100 (1468)	1879 (1175)	+2.2	-8.6	-25.0
.280 Remington	140	3000 (2797)	2758 (2363)	2528 (1986)	2309 (1657)	2102 (1378)	+1.5	-7.3	-21.1
.280 Remington	150	2890 (2781)	2624 (2295)	2373 (1875)	2135 (1518)	1912 (1217)	+2.1	-8.3	-24.2
7mm Remington Mag.	150	3110 (3221)	2830 (2667)	2568 (2196)	2320 (1792)	2085 (1448)	+1.7	-7.0	-20.5
7mm Remington Mag.	160	2950 (3090)	2770 (2715)	2590 (2375)	2420 (2075)	2250 (1800)	+1.5	-6.7	-19.4
7mm Remington Mag.	175	2860 (3180)	2650 (2720)	2440 (2310)	2240 (1960)	2060 (1640)	+1.9	-7.5	-21.4
.30-06	150	2910 (2820)	2671 (2375)	2444 (1989)	2230 (1656)	2030 (1373)	+1.7	-7.6	-22.1
.30-06	165	2800 (2873)	2573 (2426)	2357 (2036)	2151 (1696)	1956 (1402)	+2.2	-8.4	-24.4
.30-06	180	2700 (2910)	2470 (2440)	2250 (2020)	2040 (1670)	1850 (1360)	+2.4	-9.3	-27.0
*Loads use "standard" bullets and are neither the most nor the least aerodynamic available in weight or caliber. Use of boattails and/or premium lines like Remington Extended Range, Winchester Supreme Silvertip and Federal Premium with Sierra boattails significantly affects ballistics and, depending on the cartridge chosen, would significantly narrow or widen any gaps.

Over the years, with better propellants, .30-06 factory loads have continued to be updated and improved. Today's standard velocities for factory loads are: 150-grain bullets at 2910 fps (a vast improvement over the original military load), 165-grain bullets at 2800 fps, 180-grain bullets at 2700 fps and 220-grain bullets at 2410 fps.

One of the wonderful things about the .30-06 is, it has received nearly 100 years of load development, thanks to its great popularity. Its velocities are high enough to deliver flat trajectories, but not so high as to require extra-special bullets. Most .30-caliber component bullets, and bullets loaded in all .30-06 factory loads, were designed with .30-06 velocities in mind. Good bullet performance is almost a given with a .30-06, provided only that one chooses a sensible bullet weight and style for the intended game.

For most purposes, the 180-grain bullet is optimum for the .30-06. With round-nose bullets it's an outstanding timber rifle for black bear and even moose; with spitzers, it will do almost any- thing you need a hunting rifle to do.

The accompanying chart shows how standard factory loads for the .30-06 compare in velocity, energy and trajectory with several other "all-around" choices. It is obviously essential to compare spitzers with spitzers, and when we do so, the .30-06 doesn't look all that bad. You can study the chart, but by design it does not list the most aerodynamic loads for these calibers. It's worth pointing out that the best of the standard .30-06 loads for long-range work, a 165-grain boattail softpoint, drops eight inches at 300 yards with a 200-yard zero and retains 1792 foot-pounds of energy. A 160-grain boattail softpoint from a 7mm Remington Magnum drops 7.2 inches at 300 yards with the same zero and has 1984 remaining ft.-lbs. A 180-grain spitzer, like Federal's Nosler Partition load, narrows the gap. With the same zero, it drops 8.6 inches to the 7mm's 7.9 inches, and it retains 1830 foot-pounds to the 7mm's 1960.

The .30-06 delivers. It is not the best choice if you're serious about shooting beyond 350 yards or so. But at ranges that are normal and sensible for most of us, the .30-06 shoots flat enough, and it hits hard. I've used it with confidence on tough game like elk, sable and oryx; on elusive game in close cover like whitetail, black bear, lesser kudu and bushbuck; and on open-country game like pronghorn, wild sheep, gazelle, springbok, ibex and mountain goat. I've made 10-yard shots with the .30-06 - and 450-yard shots as well. Shooting at the latter distance isn't easy with anything, but the .30-06 will do it, provided you take the time to know your rifle and the trajectory of your load.

The cartridge has been used by hunters more optimistic than I to take virtually every game animal in the world. Ernest Hemingway, on his 1936 safari, used his .30-06 Springfield to take lions, buffalos and rhinos, because he abhorred the trigger pull on his double .470. Leslie Tarleton, an early Kenya hunter who probably shot more lions than anyone before or since, wrote some 70 years ago that the .30-06 was the very best of the medium bores. Jack O'Connor, when pressed, confessed that the .30-06 was more versatile than his beloved .270. Millions of American hunters from 1906 to the present would echo those sentiments.

Depending on gun weight, the recoil of slightly lighter .270s and .280s - and slightly heavier 7mm magnums - will generally be about the same as that of the .30-06. The best-case scenario, in terms of foot-pounds, would be a heavy .30-06 of 8 1/2 pounds firing a 150-grain bullet. Such a rifle has under 19 ft.-lbs. of recoil. The worst-case scenario might be a 6 1/2-pound .30-06 firing a 180-grain bullet. Such a rifle and load yield almost 30 ft.-lbs. of recoil.

If we play games with gun weight and bullet weight, the other "all-around" cartridges look very similar. By comparison, .300 magnums generally kick into the high 30s and mid-40s; .338s are solidly into the 40s. The .375s go into the low 50s. No one can say where a given shooter's recoil threshold lies, but I believe every shooter has one. For most of us, the .30-06 is quite shootable.

In the United States, no bullet diameter is as universal as .308 inch. And no bullet diameter, including the 7mm, offers as wide a choice as the .30 caliber. Weights range from 100-grain "plinkers" to 250-grain round-nose heavyweights. I've always considered bullets below 150 grains to be pretty useless - except, indeed, as low-recoiling "plinkers." Except for these, the flat-pointed bullets designed for the .30-30 and a very few .30-caliber bullets intended for much higher-magnum velocities, virtually all of the hundreds of bullet weights, styles and designs will deliver the best performance they are capable of at .30-06 velocities.

Factory loads in .30-06 also offer the greatest selection of any cartridge in the world. Literally dozens of good loads are available, including loads with super-premium bullets like Trophy Bonded, X-Bullets and Nosler Partitions, and specialty loads like Remington's Scirocco Bonded, Winchester Supreme and Hornady Light Magnums.

Personally, I tend to think of a bolt-action sporter when I think of the .30-06. It's an extremely accurate cartridge - perhaps not as inherently accurate as the .308 Winchester, but generally more so than the .270, and certainly on a par with the .280 and the 7mm Remington. In a bolt-action sporter, it has real advantages over the latter in that it can achieve near-optimum velocity from a 22-inch barrel, whereas the 7mm magnums really need 24-inch barrels. To me this is more of a savings in gun weight than a real improvement in handiness.

There are literally dozens of bolt-action rifles available in .30-06. In fact, it would be hard to imagine a bolt action that isn't offered in that chambering. The .30-06 is not only available in bolt actions, however. The Winchester 95 lever action was probably the first .30-06 sporter, of course. That one is long gone, but Browning's long-action BLR is now available in .30-06. So are semi-autos like Browning's BAR and Remington's Model 7400. So is Remington's slide-action 7600. And so are modern single-shots like the Ruger Number One and the Browning Model 1885. A few doubles have even been so chambered. I once had a Valmet 412 with over/under .30-06 barrels, and I shot quite a lot of game with it before some burglars wanted it more than I did.

To these significant strengths of the .30-06, you can add that it's a handloader's dream. Case life is excellent, components are everywhere and there are thousands of sound handloading recipes - some of which, as mentioned, will upgrade performance a good deal.

The .30-06 is not perfect. For specialized long-range work, the 7mm magnums are slightly better - and the .300 magnums significantly better. For me, the .30-06 makes a sensible minimum for elk, but I prefer cartridges on the order of .338 Winchester Magnum for such work. The .30-06 is not a dangerous-game cartridge. It is fine for leopard, and okay in a pinch on undisturbed lion, grizzly and brown bear - but it is not a charge-stopper. And it is certainly not suitable for buffalo, rhino or elephant, despite the fact that it has been used for such.

However, any cartridge that offers more does so at the price of increased recoil, muzzle blast or gun weight - or all three. For me, the .30-06 is a wonderful combination of accuracy, versatility, shootability and outstanding performance on game. These are, to me, the primary reasons it remains America's favorite cartridge after 95 years - and I seriously doubt its position will change any time soon!