ing with the ‘06. I recall that one of my older friends told me that he liked the ‘06 because it had tolerable recoil and not the blast of the various magnums I was shooting on that day. To return to my shooting “roots,”
a few years ago I was speaking with my old friend Larry Weishuhn. We both liked handguns so they became the topic of conversation. Larry said he liked .30-caliber handguns such as the .308 and especially the .30-06. That got me thinking and refl ecting, so to get back to this old but good cartridge I ordered T/C Encore rifl e and handgun barrels so chambered. Now I could see for myself just how the various loads compared between long and short barrels. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON BARREL LENGTHS
When short barrels and long bar-
rels are compared, the differences are not that drastic … and I have said so in various articles over the years. Sure, a handgunner is at a disadvantage simply because a handgun is harder to fi re ac- curately. When it comes to ballistics, a handgunner also is at a disadvantage … but not that big a one … and within a reasonable range, not at all. To make the comparisons, such data are listed in the accompanying ballistic table. So why use a handgun? “It is easier to carry,” is the quick so-so answer. But the real answer is that, “A handgun is a challenge.” THE THOMPSON/CENTER ENCORE IN .30-06
Because this .30-caliber cartridge
generates high pressures, this cartridge is suitable only for use in the Encore and not the original Contender or newer G2 Contender frames. With the Encore be- ing a little larger, and therefore heavier, cartridges generating higher pressure (minus the short magnums) are safe in the Encore frame. But that does not mean that the ‘06 recoils severely … because it does not. Sure, and especially in the handgun, there is recoil … which is why I added the Pachmayr Decelerator Grip and Forearm to the handgun’s frame. But I still did not need to take it a step further with porting or a muzzle brake. And a brake does drastically reduce re- coil. Heavier grips also add some weight and, because of their construction, dis- sipate enough recoil that the handgun is not bad to fi re. In the rifl e, with its weight and recoil reducing factory stock and pad, I found that the recoil is far less
What I found interesting when gathering data is that with one load, 3 Rifl e (R) and 3 Handgun (HG), the handgun group printed about 5 inches higher. Then with another load with targets 4 Rifl e (R) and 4 Handgun (HG), the rifl e group was slightly higher, with the handgun group in the black. Just because two loads print about the same at 100 yards out of a rifl e, that may not necessarily be the case with the shorter handgun barrel, as happened here. Do not assume anything with handguns versus rifl es when using the same cartridge!
than I get from my Remington 760. The 760, with its short barrel and basic hunt- ing stock without a pad, is much lighter and easier to carry … but it does hit you. Comparisons: Once you take a
look at the data comparing a long bar- rel to a short barrel in this .30 caliber,
you will see that some loads worked well in both. Then there were others that performed great in the rifl e and so-so in the handgun. Further, a few loads grouped better from the hand- gun. If you are a handloader, you have some good options with 110-, 125-, and
What helps control the bite of recoil on big bore rifl es that are fi red a lot, such as when used for varmint shooting, are the pads and stocks. As examples, the factory equipped T/C stock on the left comes with a Sims Recoil Pad and Flextech stock design (four synthetic recoil arches which create a crush zone to absorb recoil) that, according to T/C, cuts recoil by 43 percent. Another option is to add a high tech recoil reducing pad such as the Kick-EEZ in the center or a Hi Viz X Coil pad on the right.
www.varminthunter.org Page 37
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212