The .30/06 part 2

[AtlLaw]

a Springfield 03-A3

Like I said, a fun rifle!    What make and year?

the barrel twist rate

2 and 4 groove with a 1 in 10 twist I think...    But remember, everything I say is tempered by old age and CRS!  Not to mention the fact that I'm to lazy to look it up.      

what bullet gives the best accuracy.

the standard ammo for the a3 was the issue M2 (?) ball, 150 grain (?)     But I've got a dozen or so boxes of U.S. match ammo that I believe is 175 grain.  Made for the M1 Garand but they used the same ammo.  The Gov't had National Match models of the '03 and the Garand replaced it.

For hunting, load or buy anything that trips your hammer.  The a3 will eat it with gusto!     If you're going to shoot high power I'd shoot across the course with 168 gr. Sierra Match Kings.

I think the optimum bullet was in the range of 190-200 grs.

I don't think so, but what do I know... 

[Harry Snippe]

Tunaman, that's a funny lookin tuna in your picture.   

you should have seen the tuna that it ate.

Ah !! Once in the boat the 30/30 would have been fine . No 3006 Please . Makes a hole in the Boat!!!

[slim rem 7]

 jus think right now today you can go to wal mart an buy a savage 06 that has a scope that i have changed but found no fault with ..
 all for 402. dollars..including tax.. i know this gun well ..many i know have the same results i do.. it takse big money to beat it ..an sometimes you would be trying to beat perfection,,as to accuracy..
for mine it just took dicovering the right 165 rnd altho it likes 180 also an shoots close to the same results ..
 timex watch on my wrist ,5 yrs old.. savage 06 in my hand ,,almost 2 yrs.. i guess you can tell my confidense in this thing is ,,its a 10..
  only thing is ive about found the potential so ,,im gonna sell it an mabe quit guns an fly hang gliders .. yea i ll sell it to my buddy. he wants it  .. slim ps gonna sell everything but my 22 an my 38 ccw,to friends here.. now where do i find me a hang glider..

[JPShelton]

Imagine that all rifles and calibers were banned (or never made) except for a bolt action .30-06. Would any hunter (in the US) really be hindered?

It depends on what your definition of "hindered" is.  While the .30-'06 is, hands down, my favorite centerfire rifle cartridge, and while I would confidently hunt all over the world with it if I had the means to do so, it is gross overkill for some of the smaller, sub 125 pound game animals that I hunt.  Still, if I could only have a bolt action .30-'06, I'd be in great shape, because if the conventional wisdom says I need more gun than this to take a given animal, I probably don't have any interest in killing said animal in the first place.  All of the stuff that I am interested in taking can be taken with the old "ought six."

Imagine that all rifles and calibers were banned (or never made) except for a (any) action .30-30. Would any hunter (in the US) really be hindered?

This would definitely cramp my style.  I sometimes need something with a flatter trajectory and I think that even the .30-30 is overkill for some of the smaller varieties of big game that I hunt, while lacking in the ooomph department on the bigger stuff that I might want to hunt again.

Imagine that all rifles and calibers were banned (or never made) except for a bolt action .243. Would any hunter (in the US) really be hindered?

Hmmm....  If I focus on the vast majority of hunting that I do currently and am likely to do in the immediate future, and not on the hunting that I have done and would very much like to do again, being limited to a .243 probably wouldn't cramp my style too much.  It wouldn't be gross overkill on smaller deer, pronghorns, and similarly sized critters, and with some component bullet that could dig in deep, I could probably make it work on larger game animals over 400 pounds on the hoof, if it was all that I had.  Assuming, of course, that I still have access to Barnes X bullets........

I could go on here...insert caliber...down to .223 and its short comings on animals deer size and up and .300 Win mag and up with recoil, ammo price/availability, etc.

If I focus on the hunting that I do in my home county, the .223 is all the rifle I need, as the biggest thing I am likely to shoot is a whitetail weighing less than 125 pounds.

-JP

[rickt300]

I could easily do all my hunting with a 30-06.  Since I reload I can make it a very flat shooting rifle or a mild short range rifle.  It kicks more than I like for a varmint rifle if I have to fire a lot of shots but it is fine for a coyote rifle and as mentioned can be loaded down for a good raccoon/possum gun.  I would prefer to have two rifles though. A 30-06 and a 22 rimfire.

[john keyes]

my first centerfire rifle was/is a 30-06.  I'll never forget the feeling I had after I got it and shot it.  Looking back it was pretty funny how people told me I could shoot all variety of bullet weights with it. 

For some reason I haven't found it necessary to load up some 220 gr RN 

I always did like the 165 gr speer on top of some 4350, 4064 or 4831

[SHOOTALL]

i tried 180 gr round nose on 120 lb white tails . not pretty . backed off a bit .

[rickt300]

Full power loads using 150 and 165 grain loads are a bit much for average range deer hunting, say under 100 yards.  The reduced recoil loads are perfect for this.

[kix]

   Sorry At1Law,you asked me about my '03 but I've been busy for awhile. Anyway,my '03 is a Remington made in April,1944 and I don't think the bore had been cleaned since then! About 300 Sweet's soaked patches later it seems to be a 2-groove in fairly good shape. And I think you are right about the gov. load being around 150 gr.; I think I confused it with the 8mm Mauser load. Haven't shot it yet but one look at that steel butt-plate convinced me to load up some fairly light 150 gr. cartridges. Probably getting the scope mt. will be the "sharp stick" in prodding me to go to the range.   Kix