Does Anybody '06 Anymore

[Bc'z]

I've had 2 06s. Both were purchased the same day in 1945 in a hardware store in downtown El Paso by a pair of brothers. Both were Winchester Model 70's. One of the brothers was my grandfather the other my great uncle. My grandfather and Bill Weaver (Weaver scopes) were friends and hunted together and Mr Weaver was instrumental in getting my grandfather to put a scope on it. That scope is still on it and is still a very nice hunting scope. My uncle left his unscoped and he was an exceptional shot with that gun taking coyotes, deer and antelope out to 500yds. I acquired both guns after my grandfather and uncle had passed on. I kept and used them as they were for years and then gave one to each of my two sons. They both still have them and use them. If my eyes were better I would borrow the unscoped gun and give Cortina's 500 yd challenge a try.

I jokingly say until I joined this forum I never knew there was any other cartridges than the 30-06.

 

[wwbrown]

You might be thinking 7400 but you are totally correct! More times that not the scope is sitting in the extra high see through rings!

You are correct the 7400 is a pump and it would have been embarrassing to bring other than a semi-auto to a Wisconsin deer camp. Thanks for the catch.

 

[Bob in WI]

You are correct the 7400 is a pump and it would have been embarrassing to bring other than a semi-auto to a Wisconsin deer camp. Thanks for the catch.

I believe 7400 is semi auto, 760 is the pump

 

[wwbrown]

I believe 7400 is semi auto, 760 is the pump

Yep I screwed it up again, 7400 is definitely the semi. Having two of them in the safe should have me more conversant in them. I still have the 7400's because although I am pretty good a buying guns I am really poor at selling them, they will never get shpt by me I hardly shoot the guns I like enough.

 

[wboggs]

I cooked the barrel on a stainless Model 70 Classic in 30-06 by shooting it too quickly not long ago. A few months back, I had a new 30-06 barrel put on it because I couldn't imagine it as anything else. It will probably last the rest of my life.


Okie John

Give us the details on how fast and how many rounds??

 

[USAFRet]

HOWA 1500 action from Brownells dropped into a Bell and Carlson stock. One of the absolute best triggers I have ever felt from a HOWA. Breaks at about 2.7 lbs.

This group is with Hornady Precision Hunter. I am about to start testing handloads with 165 and 180 grain Accubonds and 168 grain Speer Gold Dots.

 

[MrK.]

I have a 1903-A3 that was sporterized back in the late 1960's. It was given to my Dad by a retired Navy Commander who he worked with and befriended. We lived in Boulder Colorado at the time. The gun was purchased from the CMP in Jan of 1958 for $107.00 almost exactly a year before I was born. I still have the original receipt for the rifle. My dad gave me the gun in the late 80's and I learned to handload with it using the old Lee Loader, mallet and kitchen table method. I am still running the LC 43 brass that came with it. I rebarreld it with a Shaw bull barrel in the mid 1990s still in 30-06. I need to scope it back up and let it eat.

 

[Okie John]

Give us the details on how fast and how many rounds??

I bought the rifle used, so I can’t say how many total rounds had been through the original barrel, but I put 1,387 rounds through the original barrel in roughly five years. It was a Sporter taper, not a Featherweight.

Accuracy was mediocre until my smith pointed out that there was a ding in the rifling about 3/8” back from the muzzle. He shortened the barrel and lapped it, then accuracy improved.

It's probably more important that I shot up a bunch of N560 during COVID. Most of the loads I worked up with it were near max with 180-grain bullets while I was preparing for a bear hunt one summer. N560 burns a lot hotter than I was expecting. On several occasions, I got in a hurry and put 30-40 rounds through it while trying to shoot through significant mirage coming off the barrel. I hunt in thick brush so I also shoot a lot of offhand; I got the barrel pretty hot on several of those occasions as well.

After a while, it started throwing unexplained flyers with known good loads and a proven Nightforce scope. I got a borescope a few months later and what I saw in there looked like alligator hide.

Accuracy in the new barrel is much better. I shoot a lot slower now. I also got rid of the N560 and use a bore cooler religiously.


Okie John

 

[wboggs]

I bought the rifle used, so I can’t say how many total rounds had been through the original barrel, but I put 1,387 rounds through the original barrel in roughly five years. It was a Sporter taper, not a Featherweight.

Accuracy was mediocre until my smith pointed out that there was a ding in the rifling about 3/8” back from the muzzle. He shortened the barrel and lapped it, then accuracy improved.

It's probably more important that I shot up a bunch of N560 during COVID. Most of the loads I worked up with it were near max with 180-grain bullets while I was preparing for a bear hunt one summer. N560 burns a lot hotter than I was expecting. On several occasions, I got in a hurry and put 30-40 rounds through it while trying to shoot through significant mirage coming off the barrel. I hunt in thick brush so I also shoot a lot of offhand; I got the barrel pretty hot on several of those occasions as well.

After a while, it started throwing unexplained flyers with known good loads and a proven Nightforce scope. I got a borescope a few months later and what I saw in there looked like alligator hide.

Accuracy in the new barrel is much better. I shoot a lot slower now. I also got rid of the N560 and use a bore cooler religiously.


Okie John

Possible with 30-40 strings using 560 without cooling. A 30-06 machine gun will handle that easily but there is no N560 involved. Which portion of the barrel looked like alligator hide, ahead of the chamber?

 

[Dimner]

I have a 1903-A3 that was sporterized back in the late 1960's. It was given to my Dad by a retired Navy Commander who he worked with and befriended. We lived in Boulder Colorado at the time. The gun was purchased from the CMP in Jan of 1958 for $107.00 almost exactly a year before I was born. I still have the original receipt for the rifle. My dad gave me the gun in the late 80's and I learned to handload with it using the old Lee Loader, mallet and kitchen table method. I am still running the LC 43 brass that came with it. I rebarreld it with a Shaw bull barrel in the mid 1990s still in 30-06. I need to scope it back up and let it eat.
View attachment 1542681View attachment 1542682

Give me that thing!

 

[Dimner]

I have a tikka T3, M1 Garand, 1977 Voere K98 Sporterized, and Springfield 1903a4.

Only the Garand has not taken game. The Springfield I wanted to hunt with so bad, I couldn't wait until deer season. So I made up cast bullet squirrel loads that went 1145ish fps. Fun weekend of squirell hunting that year. Then in November, I took a doe with it. Would have gotten two doe at the same time, but I was foiled by that damn magazine off switch. Night before a 'friend' turned it to 'off' as a joke. Since I never used the switch, it took me two dry fires at a doe to figure out why it wasn't loading.

 

[Okie John]

Possible with 30-40 strings using 560 without cooling. A 30-06 machine gun will handle that easily but there is no N560 involved. Which portion of the barrel looked like alligator hide, ahead of the chamber?

Yep. Right under where the rear sight would have been had there been one.


Okie John

 

[wboggs]

That is what it looks like with overbore loads so there is no doubt what you have. I suspect you had a poor quality barrel. Rare to see in a 30-06.

 

[jackieschmidt]

I Asked the sales manager at our local Academy in Tomball what the most popular factory cartridges sold this past deer season.
#1 was 270 Winchester, followed close by the 30/06.

He also said he sold more 270 and 30/06 rifles than any other, followed by the 243 Winchester.

 

[durand mortenson]

I Asked the sales manager at our local Academy in Tomball what the most popular factory cartridges sold this past deer season.
#1 was 270 Winchester, followed close by the 30/06.

He also said he sold more 270 and 30/06 rifles than any other, followed by the 243 Winchester.

They pretty cover the average hunters needs in the U.S.A. and ammo is not a issue. Not surprising.
Mort

 

[Capt. Oblivious]

30.06 and a 243 is all id ever need

 

[Infrequent Shooter]

I Asked the sales manager at our local Academy in Tomball what the most popular factory cartridges sold this past deer season.
#1 was 270 Winchester, followed close by the 30/06.

He also said he sold more 270 and 30/06 rifles than any other, followed by the 243 Winchester.

I would like to know what his top 3 sellers were for entire year.

 

[JSH]

I've shot a lot of '06 in my sixty odd years of shooting and, up until quite recently, still enjoyed a day behind a set of open sights and sending a pill or two downrange with my '03 Springfield. But I rarely see anyone with that caliber at the shooting bench. Wondering if anyone here has a like experience.

I have neglected my Remington 03 for a long while. I had developed a cast load and it was fed a steady diet of that for a number of years. A K31 was acquired and that was used. Then a Finnish Nagant arrived. It was a toss up between which one got shot on a weekend. Have a pile of cast loaded for all of them. Should get off my arse and at least empty some brass.

 

[jackieschmidt]

I would like to know what his top 3 sellers were for entire year.

You see a lot of 6.5 Creed ammo on the shelves, so it would not surprise me if that might be the biggest seller through the entire year.

 

[Will Henry]

One of my primary hunting rifles is a Mauser which alternates between 30/06 and 35 Whelen, depending on my mood.
I have one pre-war Model 70 action which sometimes dressed up as a metallic silhouette rifle, in 308 or 6.5 CM. and other times it is a prone rifle in 30/06. Last time I shot it as a 30/06, I put ten shots into three and a half inches at 300M; prone with a sling and 15x scope.
About 25 years ago, I went to a 1000 yd BR match. I shot a Model 70 in 30/06 in the light gun class. For the 11lb class, I took my Grandpa's 03 Springfield and some Lake city Match ammo. The rifle wore an old K-8 Weaver scope (still does) and I had glass bedded it. I had never shot it beyond 300 so I just guessed at elevation and figured I could walk it on. We sighted in on clay pigeons on the bank. It took me several shots to walk it onto the bank, then I hit two clay birds in a row! Knowing it wasn't going to get any better, I put the old rifle away and quit on a high note! Were those hits kind of a fluke? Yes, they were. The old Springfield will generally keep that Lake City ammo in about 1 3/4 moa, so there was an element of luck involved. WH