The “Varmint To Big Game” .30-06
Springfi eld Cartridge Dr. George E. Dvorchak, Jr.
admired by varmint and predator hunt- ers alike. It’s also available in a fairly new but smaller delivery system. Here we cover how it performs in a handgun and take a look at the versatile Bushnell
T
his versatile cartridge is more than a century old but still is
30mm 1.25-8x rifl escope. This .30-caliber cartridge dates
back to 1903, obviously giving it a long track record on performance to either admire or criticize. It started out as the .30-03 and was ballistically similar to the .30-40 Krag. In 1906, with minor modi-
fications, this cartridge was adopted by our military. With some minor case dimension changes and a lighter spitzer bullet being loaded that increased veloc- ity, objectives were met for this new car- tridge. It was designated by the military as “Ball Cartridge, Caliber 30, Model of 1906.” Soon this overly descriptive name was shortened to .30-06 Springfi eld. No matter what it was called, back in 1906 this cartridge was a real powerhouse. Being one of the best of that time, it was used to hunt all sorts of game around the world. With such a long record of service by all kinds of shooters in their respective disciplines, you can see why about every shooter seems to have a rifl e so chambered … or at least fi red one. What helped to make this cartridge
The rifl e and handgun used to gather my data, both Thompson/Center Arms Encores.
so popular was the wide range of bullet types and weights available … even when I was a kid in the 1960s and began handloading. Options today range from a 110-grain bullet to a 220-grain bullet! Although not all bullet companies have everything, what you will fi nd in .30 caliber are bullet options like no other caliber or cartridge has available. With such a wide range of bullet weights and styles to choose from, you easily can understand why varmint hunters to big game hunters could use one cartridge in one rifl e to do it all. With that concept being important to me back then, my fi rst rifl e so chambered was a Remington 760 that I used for both whitetails and groundhogs. Then, always trying to push a
The new Bushnell Elite 6500 1.25-8x scope with Rainguard and the Burris Pos-Align Signature Rings that hold it all in place. A nice feature of the rings and their inserts is that a scope can be kept centered without using the scope’s adjustments. Simply change inserts, which are available in three size options of plus and minus 0.005", plus and minus 0.010", and plus and minus .020".
Page 36 October — December 2011
bullet faster, I got away from using this cartridge. That probably was because it was so common. Being young and inexperienced, I wanted cartridges that were faster and somewhat exotic. To get that, I moved on to the magnums (such as the .264 Winchester and .300 Weath- erby) that became the craze in my circle of young hunters after ground-hogs, whitetail and black bear. On looking back, I can remember the older and more experienced hunters were stick-
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