30-06 your opinion

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I recall when I was a teen I was in a gun shop just looking around and I picked up a bolt action rifle off the shelf it was chambered in 30-06. A few feet away there was an old timer watching me he asked me what caliber the rifle was and I said 30-06 and I can still recall his words like it was yesterday "Son 30-06 is not the perfect caliber for hunting anything in the USA but it's never the wrong choice for hunting anything in the USA either." Is he correct? What say you?
 
I Agree.
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30-06 is a very versatile round !!
my all round choice would be 270.
one gun that i would use often but was over kill in most situations was 7mm weatherby magnum.
i aslo have a enfield world war two 303 which is a decent shooting gun.
 
Well, my 30.06 just took a nice 5x5 elk a few weeks ago. Used 178gr Hornady ELDx ammo and I couldn't have been more pleased. The round mushroomed perfectly, and I found it almost fully intact sitting against the hide on the elk's other side. The elk barely made it 10 feet from point of impact (he was moving already). My biggest fear was making this majestic animal suffer for any length of time. For me, the 30.06 was perfect and I will be forever grateful to this animal for feeding my family for some time to come. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of this caliber.
 
if hand loading the 30-06 can be an amazing round. even factory loads are well suited for deer, elk, well, anything on North America.
i've knocked down a dozen ELK and deer with mine. even a coyote or two. it'll reach out for Antelope and still enough grunt for big bears.
it's a good round. use it with confidence.
 
Be sure to switch to 25-06 in the winter time so the bullet won't travel as slow and miss the deer. And as the gun ages you'll need either high mileage 30-06 rounds or just load your rifle with 375 H&H to compensate the lost compression.
 
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Originally Posted By: Camprunner
I recall when I was a teen I was in a gun shop just looking around and I picked up a bolt action rifle off the shelf it was chambered in 30-06. A few feet away there was an old timer watching me he asked me what caliber the rifle was and I said 30-06 and I can still recall his words like it was yesterday "Son 30-06 is not the perfect caliber for hunting anything in the USA but it's never the wrong choice for hunting anything in the USA either." Is he correct? What say you?


Yep , maybe not Perfect , but good enough .

After all , it served Uncle Sam through 2 World Wars , Korea and maybe the beginning of Viet Nam .
 
Originally Posted By: Oldmoparguy1
I Agree.
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Originally Posted By: billt460
It is without question one of the best calibers ever.
Originally Posted By: 28oz
Well, my 30.06 just took a nice 5x5 elk a few weeks ago. Used 178gr Hornady ELDx ammo and I couldn't have been more pleased. The round mushroomed perfectly, and I found it almost fully intact sitting against the hide on the elk's other side. The elk barely made it 10 feet from point of impact (he was moving already). My biggest fear was making this majestic animal suffer for any length of time. For me, the 30.06 was perfect and I will be forever grateful to this animal for feeding my family for some time to come. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of this caliber.
Originally Posted By: Killer223
if hand loading the 30-06 can be an amazing round. even factory loads are well suited for deer, elk, well, anything on North America.
i've knocked down a dozen ELK and deer with mine. even a coyote or two. it'll reach out for Antelope and still enough grunt for big bears.
it's a good round. use it with confidence.


All spot on and agree 100%. The venerable 30-06 loaded correctly will do the job as long as the shooter does for nearly all NA game species.
 
Yeah, he was correct in the sense that if you're only going to buy one rifle and ask it to do everything, then that is the one to get. For deer and smaller though, I prefer my 25-06.
 
Originally Posted By: Wurlitzer
Be sure to switch to 25-06 in the winter time so the bullet won't travel as slow and miss the deer. And as the gun ages you'll need either high mileage 30-06 rounds or just load your rifle with 375 H&H to compensate the lost compression.


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30-06 and 308 Winchester are the jack of all trade chamberings in America for hunters.

Yes you will probably always be able to find something else that does a particular job better than the 30-06, but you will not find yourself lacking enough gun to get the job done effectively.

Personally I have always been a sucker for 6.5 Swede or 7mm Mauser.
 
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30-06 is big enough for all kinds of hunting. These days there's so many loads you can get or do up
yourself for a specific application!

As a lad, I spent time reading dad's Speer reloading book while depriming and cleaning all the brass
he blew thru! He seldom helped, he had a beer in hand!

Now I have dad's 30-06 since he's passed on. Up here 30-06 is a moose round.
My go-to round is .308 and a rifle with a target barrel.
 
I have a Savage Model 99 that is chambered in .300 Savage. Passed down from my great grandfather who hunted up in Canada with it.

I wish it was 30-06 just so ammo would be cheaper.

Not sure what that old timer was getting at.
 
A 30-06 and even the less powerfull 30-30 is too much gun for shooting a turkey. Years ago an uncle of mine had his picture taken while holding the remains (about 1/2) of a turkey he shot with a 30-30. The picture was in the local newspaper and underneath it were the words hunter says it was too much gun.
 
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
A 30-06 and even the less powerfull 30-30 is too much gun for shooting a turkey. Years ago an uncle of mine had his picture taken while holding the remains (about 1/2) of a turkey he shot with a 30-30. The picture was in the local newspaper and underneath it were the words hunter says it was too much gun.


In most places using a rifle on game birds including turkeys is against the rules, birds and small game like squirrels are typically taken by shotgun.

That said sometimes a 30-06 is still the perfect round for things like squirrels. I got a chattery, rude red a couple years ago with mine and it killed, skinned, gutted and buried it all in a single shot.
 
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
A 30-06 and even the less powerfull 30-30 is too much gun for shooting a turkey. Years ago an uncle of mine had his picture taken while holding the remains (about 1/2) of a turkey he shot with a 30-30. The picture was in the local newspaper and underneath it were the words hunter says it was too much gun.


I would have thought a shotgun would have been more appropriate ?
 
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