Recommend me a 30-06 hunting rifle?

I have an M1A, I do not hunt with my M1A or anything like it simply because I have better rifles more suited for hunting.

You don't mention semi-automatic, bolt, lever, slide action?

There is no shortage of fine bolt guns out there like the Ruger American, any of the older Ruger Model 77 guns, Tika and Sako guns and even a fine older slightly used Remington 700. Stainless or blued? Any of the Browning bolt guns. The Remington 760 guns were a nice slide action and the list goes on not to forget the Savage guns. I suggest you visit a good well stocked Gander Mountain or Cabela's and see what fits you and what feels good to you but you really need to mention the action type. Everyone here will suggest what they have and it will be the best rifle made.

Next you mention 30-06 Springfield which is fine but you aren't giving up much going with a 308 Winchester. However, if 30-06 Springfield trips your trigger than get a 30-06 Springfield. What do you plan on hunting? You want a LASER beam? Then I suggest a good cross between a hunting and target rifle. Target rifles are for very accurate precision target shooting and hunting rifles are for ... well hunting. Hunting and Target rifles do not generally share the same accuracy bed.

Start with action type, would used be OK or must the rifle be new?

Ron

A cheap laser beam? That's tough.... I hope you are just shooting targets at 600 and not animals. Taking 600 yards shots of live animals would be incredibly challenging and would take a lot of practice to have the skill level to even think about it.

As of now, there is only one heavy barreled production rifle that is chambered in 30-06; a Remington 700 Long Range (or something like that). It comes with a good "M40" style B&C stock and a 1-10" twist.

That will be your cheapest option at ~$650. Add a good base ($100), rings ($75+), and a quality optic you you are talking $1200+ for the rifle. This doesn't include reloading components and match grade dies.

I am assuming you're going to hand load as there are not many (if any) match grade factory offerings for the 30-06.

Optics? Well, the SWFA classic fixed power line is a great value. I currently have their 10x42mm and it is a great buy at $300. Look at them, Burris XTR II, and the Vortex PST line for quality options under $1k.

As for the ammunition, get 100 peices of Lapua/Hornady/Winchester/Federal brass, some LR primers, a pound or two of RL17, RL22, or IMR4350, and some 180+ grain bullets and really take advantage of a long barreled, fast-twist 30-06.

Read up on German Slazzar (spelling?) as he is a top competitior in the Palma world and successfully competes with a 30-06 rifle.

Again, please don't go sling lead at deer 600+ yards until you are AT LEAST on your second barrel. Seriously, go through a barrel or so for practice, which would be about 4k-5k rounds plus hours of dry-fire practice.

The 30-06 is a wonderful chambering overlooked these days by larger magnums and 6mm recoilesslazerbeams.

My top pick for a do anything all around factory 30-06

http://www.winchesterguns.com/products/rifles/model-70/model-70-extreme-weather-ss.html

The Winchester Extreme Weather. Street prices under $1000, a decent synthetic stock from the factory, SS metal, and CRF action. Not too heavy or too light.

I have the same in 308. My factory stock has been replaced with McMIllan.

You can spend less, but will end up spending more in the long run modifying. This is ready for most everything out of the box.

Sako Mod 75 or 85. Any of their synthetics. All shoot sub MOA 5 shot groups out of the box(@100) with premium ammo, they guarantee it..in writing. Awesome rifles!

You said you want a cheap rifle, and mentioned an M1A. It sounds like a run-of-the-mill M1A would be okay, but a match M1A is too expensive...

Does that mean you're willing to spend up to $1400 on this cheap rifle (since that's what a run-of-the-mill M1A would cost)? You're going to need to clarify your budget with actual dollars. A Kimber Montana will break my bank, but maybe it won't break yours...

Weatherby Vanguard Sub MOA. I bought one in .30-06 for my son and even with the cheapest ammo Remington makes it shoots very well. Below is a review from Outdoor life.


http://www.outdoorlife.com/node/1005005050

Of Winchester, Weatherby and Sako, only Winchester is USA-made. I agree that all three are excellent rifles, but as to USA, Winchester.

A second point, the .30-06 Sprg is a great all-round cartridge. But, "...group tightly up to at least 600yds...", implies also retaining sufficient power for an ethical one-shot-kill. Even that excellent load loses too much energy to be effective much past 600 yards, regardless of accuracy.

The Hornady SuperFormance, 165 grain SST velocity is listed at 2,960 fps. Per the Hornady ballistics calculator, the remaining energy is 1,220 foot pounds at 650 yards. Most shootists agree that the minimum remaining energy needed for a whitetail deer is either 1,000 or 1,200 pounds energy remaining, depending on which camp you accept.

I should also note that with the rifle zeroed at 300 yards, the projectile drops an additional 70.5" at 650 yards. My personal longest shot at a whitetail deer was with a Weatherby Mark V, .257 Wea Mag, at 525 yards. I think the .30-06 Sprg is a great choice, but I would suggest limiting shots to that distance at which you can hit 2-liter pop bottles, 100% of the time. The animals deserve a "dignified" death, with as little distress as we can deliver.

JMHO,

Geno

In my humble and friendly opinion you really need two rifles (1) any Tikka Lite, Weatherby, Remington 700, Winchester 70, many good ones. In 30-06 it will get you to 400 yds pretty easy and can stretch to 500 if absolutely called for. (2) For 500 and out You really need a 7mm or 300 mag of some sort in a rifle like the Remington Sendero, etc, long range rifles and long range scopes.

Garand;

It really would help us to have an idea of your budget figure. "Won't break the bank" is RAR for one guy & just something less than a full custom with all the bells & whistles for another.
What's your primary intended use for the gun, hunting or target?

Operating in the void as I am with the information given, I'll suggest that you take a good look at the Tikka Super Varmint. Yeah, it's over a grand, but it won't need anything done to it except putting glass on it. To my mind it's probably as close as you can get these days to a true dual purpose gun hunting/target. It fits your description in that it's available in .30-06, syn stock, and accurate.

900F

CB900F:

That's quite a rifle! I had never seen one.

Geno

I've had consistently good luck with Winchester M70s, including current production. Based on your description, if you can swing the cost, I would go for the extreme weather stainless version - it's got a good stock with a bedding block, I believe Winchester skim beds it, and it should shoot just fine.

In terms of ammo, I pretty much use either accubonds or partitions in heavy-for-caliber weights. The 180gr accubond load would be a good starting point IMO. It stays within its operating velocity window out to roughly 600y depending on elevation, although I wouldn't plan on hunting past 400y because game can always take a step or a puff of wind can move the shot.

There are lots of good scopes out there, but for long range shooting I happen to like the SWFA SS 3-15 since it's probably the cheapest FFP mil scope with exposed turrets and good glass.

What and where are you hunting 600 yards with a 30-06?

The path to inexpensive accuracy with bolt actions is usually most direct with a Savage.

I don't shoot that because I can't see that far but my favorite deer rifle is a Remington 760 in 30-06.

Fella's;

Go back & read post #1 if you would. He's not stating that he wants to hunt to 600 yards, he wants a .30-06 that's accurate to 600 yards is the way I read it. That should certainly be possible with a good rig that's dual-purpose enough to hunt with also. The .30-06 can do the job on game animals at what's, to some, surprisingly long range. If you know the gun and the load it'll reach out there quite nicely.

900F

Berger.Fan222 said:

The path to inexpensive accuracy with bolt actions is usually most direct with a Savage.

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Much truth here. Gun shops all across the country will sell you a synthetic stocked Savage with an Accutrigger for somewhere around $400 that is likely to shoot just as well as any other <$1000 rifle on the market.

If someone handed me $500 and said "go buy the best rifle you can for this amount" I would be searching for either a Savage or a used commercial Mauser.

LOOK at SAVAGES they have a good bunch to pick from. They have one of the best triggers going. Good luck

Another vote for savage.

"...it'll reach out there quite nicely..." Yep, while dropping about a yard and roughly 1465ish ft/lbs. of energy remaining at 500 with a 250ish zero.
"...do not have a designated bolt action hunting rifle..." You on an "I want one." quest? Just curious. "I want one." is the best reason there is.
Your budget will decide what you can have. A Standard M1A with factory irons starts at about $1300 on Gunbroker. Up to $1600ish for a BNIB rifle. That your budget range? You can get a very nice scoped hunting rifle from any manufacturer for that kind of money. Which brand really makes no difference.
"...group tightly up to at least 600yds..." You need to define that too. Hunting rifles do not need to group tightly at 600 yards to be considered accurate. Consistently hitting a 9" pie plate at 100 is good enough.

You can get a Ruger American rifle in 30-06 that will be 1 Moa outof the box and will come with a Redfield scope (good and is Leupolds inexpensive line). If I were looking this is the one I would probably get.

J1

Remington model 700. Had it about 47 years. No regrets.

In case the OP is confused. M1As are not chambered in .30-06.

Berger.Fan222 said:

The path to inexpensive accuracy with bolt actions is usually most direct with a Savage.

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You beat me to it. As deer season in my area is over for the year, they are literally dirt cheap. You can pick up a lightly used Savage for under $300. I came across a relatively plane Jane Savage 110 at a local gun shop with a solid scope base already installed for $275. It was the typical black synthetic stock version and in excellent condition other than a slightly nicked up recoil pad. The factory recoil pad isn't that great and I would have replaced it anyway but it gave me something to gripe about when haggling over the price.

So, I pulled it apart, cleaned it up, added some good rings and a scope with enough magnification for the type of hunting I planned to do with this particular rifle. A Limbsaver recoil pad replaced the dinged up factory junker pad. Black didn't cut so I went for a quick and easy yet durable gunskin to make it blend in. The factory crown didn't look that great so I recrowned it with an 11 degree crown. It shoots exceptionally well considering the rifle weighs next to nothing compared to my RPRs or heavy barreled .308s.

As for the scope, I agreed with the suggestion posted above for a SWFA 3-15x SS scope. I have one with the MRAD reticle and it is an amazing scope (double that considering the price). The SWFA scopes are on the verge of bomb-proof in terms of durability.

I will say the Savage turned out decidedly not bad for under $400 (not including the scope obviously).

I would and have gone with quality rifle guaranteed to do MOA or better. Weatherbye, Tikka, Sako, Thompson Center. Some retail dealers will also select Remington's that are tested to be MOA as well. I don't know of any other brands that guarantee accuracy. Both Ruger American and Savage are reputed to be accurate, and the new Model 70 Winchesters are well liked. I have a Tikka T3 lite that shoots around 1/2 MOA cost under $600 and is light for hunting.