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Reviews
The
Venerable
.30/06 Springfield
©
By
Othmar
Vohringer
Posted
May 2007
 The
other day
someone asked me an interesting question. “If the
.30/60 cartridge would come on the market today would
it have a chance to become a success with the hunters?” With
all the hype
about magnums and super magnums these days, this is a very interesting
question and one I
would like to spend a little more time and space to answer here.
Like
so many things hunting related the .30/06
came to us from the army. The
.30/06 was originally (U.S. Cartridge, Model of 1903) loaded with a
rather slow
moving 220-grain bullet, designed for the Springfield Model 1903 bolt
action
rifle. In 1905 the Imperial German Army came up with a 8mm (.323)
round, which
fired a lighter and faster bullet that left the ’03 in the
dust. Not to be
outdone the U.S. Army quickly modified the ’30 to take
150-grain bullet that
too could reach way out there and touch somebody and renamed it
“U.S. Cartridge
Model of 1906.” What a mouthful to say. So people have
renamed it more economically
to .30/06 (30 for the cartridge and 06 for the year). Ever since we
know it
simply as .30/60.
What
the army achieved
with the .30/06 was a cartridge that struck an
ideal
balance between extreme power (at the time) and recoil. It is this
ideal
combination that made this cartridge so immensely popular with the
hunters. The
light recoil meant everybody, even a child, could shoot it for a long
time
without ending up having to nurse sore shoulders from the recoil at the
end of
the day. But what really made this cartridge really popular with
everybody is
the vast number of loads available in the .30/06 variations. It is this
variety
that made it the all around hunting cartridge it is. Regardless of what
you are
after, there is no game animal in North America, including the bison
that some
.30/06 configuration can’t handle well. At the lower end you
can go as low as
110 grains and at the heavier end you can fire a 220-grain slug. This
will take
you from the mouse to the moose all with one cartridge.
Moreover,
the .30/06 is
now even more powerful than when it first
appeared.
Because the relatively slow burning gunpowder we have today produces
much higher
velocities than the propellants that where available before WWI. For
example
the standard muzzle velocity for the Army issue 150-grain bullet was
around
2700 fps, (Feet per second). Most current factory loads today will push
that
same bullet with around 2900 fps. This occurs right trough the entire
range of
bullets weights. So now we not only have a good all-round cartridge but
also
one that shoots quit flat.
Having
a cartridge with
so many configurations can cause for some
confusion.
Here’s a brief, but by no means complete, guide: 125 and
130-grain. These
bullets are perfect weights for varmints. 150-grain is in my opinion
the best
of all the deer hunting bullet weights. The 165-grain bullet might be,
according to many of the best hunters, the best bullet with enough
velocity and
punch to take most critters in North America. But if you really want to
make
sure you have enough power then you go with the 180-grain. For the
biggest
critters around, such a grizzly, musk ox and bison a 200-grain bullet
will
leave no doubt behind. The 200-grain .30 bullet might not be the
fasted, but it
withstands wind well and packs enough downrange power and incredible
penetration strength to put every elk, moose, bear, or even bigger
African
plains swiftly down.
So,
do I think that if
the .30/06 would be a success if it would come
on the
market today? You bet it would be. Most hunters do not want, or
can’t afford,
to have a cabinet full of specialized rifles in different cartridge
sizes. What
they want is an affordable, easy to handle cartridge that they can use
just
about anywhere they are ever likely to hunt. Be that in the hardwood
forest of
the Midwest for whitetails or go after Antelopes in New
Mexico’s plains or elk
in the foothills of Colorado. The .30/06 is still the best selling
cartridge,
in fact it sells so good no advertising is needed. Yet the magnums and
super
magnums are advertised very heavily and still have not managed, as
hoped, to
push the .30/06 in the gutter. I will go as far as to predict that in
20 years
from now, when all the magnums have to make room to another new and
hyped up
cartridge, the versatile .30/06 still will be around and as much
enjoyed as it
has been the past 100+ years.
For
more information on
.30-06 ammunition visit Federal
Premium Ammunition
Image
courtesy Federal
Ammunition
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