Where does the .30-06 fit in long range shooting?

with the right twist, bullets and modern powders it may surprise you. it was used to shoot a 1000 yards way before all the new wonder cartiges.

Yeah, back in the 50s, it was one of the most popular super long range competition rounds (1000 yards, as eastbank mentioned). Now, .30 cal bullets have crazy BCs - many of the best ones just in the last 10-15 years, so that only makes it better. It could hold it's own, for sure, out to 1200 or more, albeit with more recoil than 6mm and 6.5mms. Make it a AI chamber, and you're really cooking with butane for a normal long action.

It’s pretty limited. It takes a pretty heavy bullet to get the BC up in 30 cal, and the 06 case is BARELY big enough to effectively manage bullets of this weight. And of course, the recoil is substantial.

It’s not a bad choice, if you own one with sufficiently fast twist, but it is a bad choice if you’re buying a rifle for the purpose of long range shooting.

For hunting? Sure.

For long range competition, there is a reason the top guys use 6.5 and 6mm.

If you can't kill it with a 30-06, you should hide.

Getting hit by a .30 cal 150grn at 1,000 yards would still suck.

1/2 the equasion is ''Can you see your target at 1,000 yards?'' and THEN, the other half; ''Do I have the skill and tool to place the bullet ?''
The 30-06 is up to it, the rest is up to you.

I love the 30.06, but it's pretty much been outclassed in LR, by calibers like 6.5 Creedmoor,
and .338 Lapua, these days.

caribou said:

If you can't kill it with a 30-06, you should hide.

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Love it.

Dibbs said:

I love the 30.06, but it's pretty much been outclassed in LR, by calibers like 6.5 Creedmoor,
and .338 Lapua, these days.

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Most original cartridges have been "outclassed".

I recall reading somewhere that, at Bellue Wood, U.S. Marines with M1903's were making one-shot kills at 750yds... .30-06 and iron sights. Then there are stories about the use of plunging fire to basically rain bullets into OpFor's trench.

Hunting, with its ethical standards, is a whole nuther story... the farther out you attempt it, the more you risk inflicting a long slow painful death to the game, if it hits at all. Those guys who shoot long range to hunt on tv... they make it look real easy on camera to sell a product. They don't tell you they didn't always have the skill set the target audience needs to use the product.

.30-06... still a good cartridge when you gotta kill something out to 300yds, capable of more in the right hands. Long range, I'd say take a page from some old guys... if you can get closer and steadier, do it.

I posted this exact same question nearly word for word a couple of months ago. I love the 30-06 cartridge. I have a brand new Savage in -06 that I intend to use as a longish range target rifle. I figure they were using it for long range for about 100 years before the magic CMs hit the scene. So if I already have the -06 why not use it?

Carlos Hathcock, Winchester M70 .30-06, Vietnam. /thread

In factory ammo, it's in just about the exact same camp as 308win. In handloads, you can get maybe 100fps more than the same bullet in 308win and you get the slight increase in range that comes with it.

I think VT pretty much summed it up.

Ive got a .30-06, and pretty much always will I think. It was literally the first center fire rifle cartridge I ever shot, and I have a great deal of respect for its capabilities as a jack of all trades.

None of my hunting buddies my age or younger use it, neither do the target guys.
Ive shot upto 208gr Amax, which is what it takes to beat the bc of any of the long point 7s, or 6.5s. My top loads left my rifles 24" barrel at right at 2650 (if I remember correctly, I didnt shoot a whole lot of them), and kicked worse than my similar weight 7mm with 162s at 3K. I only pressure laddered 20 and chrono'd 20rnds.
I never bothered to develop the load any farther just because a 208 wont do anything a 165 will at the sub 400yds im willing to shoot at. If Im in a position where I have to practice for those longer shots, Ill use my larger heavier 7mm, and its faster flatter shooting bullets, or ill use a smaller lighter 6.5 (either CM or x284) and get kicked less.

with todays range finders drop is not too important, just crank in the clicks and hope you read the wind correctly. in .30 I like the 178gr AMAX in .284 I like the 162 gr AMAX in .264 I like the 140gr AMAX.

For the casual shooter it is as good as ever, actually better with today's bullets. But from a competition standpoint it is no longer in the game. If you shoot bullets of similar BC to the same muzzle velocity, the down range trajectory and penetration on game is about the same. A BC between .600 and .700 with a MV of around 2700-2800 fps seems to be the sweet spot. You get the same results with most everything from 6mm to 338 Lapua if you can shoot bullets heavy enough, fast enough. But as the caliber goes up, the bullets get exponentially heavier to make the needed BC's. It gets harder, and harder to shoot them fast enough to be useful, plus recoil becomes apparent.

Most of the 6mm's will do that with 108-115 gr bullets, the 6.5's with 140-147 gr bullets. When we get to 30 caliber you have to go up to 210-220 gr bullets to get the same results. The 30-06 and 308 won't shoot bullets that heavy fast enough. The 300 mags will, but so will the 6mm, 6.5mm, and 7mm offerings. You get the same downrange results with the 6.5 CM as a 300 wm. And the 6.5 and 7mm offerings shoot bullets heavy enough to take most big game. So why deal with the recoil and added costs.

the 7mm 162gr AMAX kicks the 6.5 140gr AMAX,s ass at 1000 yards according to Hornady vol #2, both going 2800 fps. and you can load the 7mm-mag VMAX to 3000 fps of you want.

I set up a hanging steel plate at my place, at 500 yards. I had no trouble getting sub-MOA groups with my '06.

A couple or three years ago, we had two members comparing notes on their '06 setups for long range. 30" barrels, 230-grain VLD bullets. They claimed one MOA or better at 1,300 yards.

While the 30-06's recoil may keep it from being competitive at 1000 yards against experienced long range target shooters with various 6mm's and 6.5's it is still up to the task for the casual long range shooter. A good shooter with a 30-06 who can dope the wind can still clean the clock of a noob shooting today's latest and greatest.... The 3006's standard twist rate is 1/10 which is enough to stabilize some pretty heavy bullets with sufficiently high BC's. I would say to all of those who already have a 30-06 deer rifle and would like to try shooting out to 1000 yards or so to give it a try. Like eastbank said you maybe surprised...

Hodgdon data -190 gr Hornady BTSP , 30-06 vs 308 H4895 . Same velocity, but the 30-06 uses 3.5 gr more powder to get there.

Velocity (ft/s) 2,525 vs 2,514

I am keeping my 06.

But i want one of these. http://benchrest.com/showthread.php...-at-the-Range&highlight=30-06+++Remington+721 See photo of groups @ 100 yards. 5 shots each group.

I had a minivan I used for coon hunting when I was in high school, it wasn’t governed and over a 6mile stretch of flat road, it could get up over 140mph, faster top speed than most domestic “sports cars” on the street at the time, AND faster than the 120mph governed highway patrol Corvettes, let alone their normal interceptors - which made for some interesting, semi-sanctioned speeeding events among me and my buddies patrolman dads. On a rolling start, the patrol cars couldn’t catch that van. The van was fast, and remarkably stable at speed.

Of course, it needed 5-6 miles of flat, straight road to get up to speed... It was fast and fun, almost as fun as my Ducati 999 or my ‘69 Nova I rebadged like an SS Chevelle, and stuck a 383 under the hood...

That’s kinda what running a .30-06 for long range hunting is like. If you have it, it can work and be very rewarding. A Ruger M77 MkII .30-06 was my first long range hunting rifle, and I took lots of coyotes, deer, and antelope last 600yrds with it. Until I built a 32” 300RUM and a 7-300. Then I rebarreled another .30-06 to 6.5 A-square...

My van worked great for sowing wild oats as a kid, honestly just as well as my more appropriate speed machines, just like my .30-06 worked well enough for long range hunting... but it’s painfully obvious that ugh better options exist, and IF YOU ARE BUYING SOMETHING NEW TO YOU, THE .30-06 IS NOT THE PLACE TO START.

I had a minivan I used for coon hunting when I was in high school, it wasn’t governed and over a 6mile stretch of flat road, it could get up over 140mph, faster top speed than most domestic “sports cars” on the street at the time, AND faster than the 120mph governed highway patrol Corvettes, let alone their normal interceptors - which made for some interesting, semi-sanctioned speeeding events among me and my buddies patrolman dads. On a rolling start, the patrol cars couldn’t catch that van. The van was fast, and remarkably stable at speed.

Of course, it needed 5-6 miles of flat, straight road to get up to speed... It was fast and fun, almost as fun as my Ducati 999 or my ‘69 Nova I rebadged like an SS Chevelle, and stuck a 383 under the hood...

That’s kinda what running a .30-06 for long range hunting is like. If you have it, it can work and be very rewarding. A Ruger M77 MkII .30-06 was my first long range hunting rifle, and I took lots of coyotes, deer, and antelope last 600yrds with it. Until I built a 32” 300RUM and a 7-300. Then I rebarreled another .30-06 to 6.5 A-square...

My van worked great for sowing wild oats as a kid, honestly just as well as my more appropriate speed machines, just like my .30-06 worked well enough for long range hunting... but it’s painfully obvious that ugh better options exist, and IF YOU ARE BUYING SOMETHING NEW TO YOU, THE .30-06 IS NOT THE PLACE TO START.

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It probably goes without saying but the 30/06 does a much better job of passing as a long range rifle cartridge than a minivan does at passing for a sports car...

if you would have let those fat girls out and emptied those Falstaff beer cans you could have done much better.

The anecdote is meant to imply: if you have it, make the most of what you have, but it sure doesn’t make sense to buy a minivan to hustle street racers, nor does it make sense to buy a .30-06 for long range hunting. Less sense to buy one for long range sport shooting.