Massad Ayoob on the .30-06

[ZX9RCAM]

Based on some light sleuthing, looks like it could have been put together by Val Hafner, a one-time royal gunsmith out of Cassel/Kassel, Germany. I’m not a fine arts and antiquities dealer, so I can’t tell you much more than that. But if you Google “Val Hafner guns” you find some really cool pieces and similar engraving on the nice stuff.

Welcome to the Forum!

 

[BrianMDTX]

Easily my favorite cartridge of all time. As versatile as they come. From varmints to game as big as elk and moose. Very easy to handload for and (at least it used to be) ammunition stocked everywhere. It’s 115 years old and still an excellent cartridge.

 

[MTA]

Easily my favorite cartridge of all time. As versatile as they come. From varmints to game as big as elk and moose. Very easy to handload for and (at least it used to be) ammunition stocked everywhere. It’s 115 years old and still an excellent cartridge.

What are you planning on selling in the classifieds?

 

[BrianMDTX]

What are you planning on selling in the classifieds?

What else? A .30-‘06!

Seriously, it is my favorite hunting cartridge of all time. Killed many a deer with it when I hunted with firearms a lot (mostly bowhunt now). But as old as it is in 2021, it’s still hard to beat, especially if you only have one rifle. I have no qualms in singing its praises. I have two (a Winchester Model 70 and a Savage Model 110E) that both love 165 grain Nosler BT’s and IMR-4350 with a CCI-200 LR primer. All full-length resized and never an issue with case life.

It just flat-out kills.

 

[Sam7sf]

Facts don’t matter. If you don’t like 30-06, this country doesn’t want you.

 

[skfullgun]

I started off hunting deer with an '06. Used it exclusively for a decade. It was a rifle my dad built on a bolt-action, surplus Springfield in the 1950's (still have it). A few years later I bought a Ruger M77 in 30/06.
Then I ventured into loading for 26/06 and thought I would never look back. That was the early 80's when ballistic tip bullets were new. I developed a load for 120 grainers that was accurate and deadly. I was young and cocky at the time, and thought if I could see a deer at any distance, I could take it with that rifle! I took the largest deer I've personally ever seen with that rifle at 260 yards across a peanut field near Pleasanton (14 pt. non-typical, 16" inside spread with super-heavy antlers). I never took more than one shot at a deer with that rifle and never lost a deer. At the time, I hunted around Del Rio, Quemado, Bracketville, Jourdanton, etc. The 25/06 made a lot of sense for that terrain.
When I started hunting in East Texas, I began using a 30-30, almost exclusively. I sold the 25/06, as it just isn't needed for 30-75 yard shots.
These days, I shoot mostly 30-30 and .308 for hogs/deer/predators. I still have great respect for the 30/06.

 

[Lonesome Dove]

Ive had several and a couple very nice ones. Havent owned one in 15 + years and have no intentions to. But I do need a new 270.

 

[BrianMDTX]

I took the largest deer I've personally ever seen with that rifle at 260 yards across a peanut field near Pleasanton (14 pt. non-typical, 16" inside spread with super-heavy antlers).

True story. Decades ago when I first started deer hunting I bought a Winchester Model 70 Ranger (it’s akin to a Remington Model 700 ADL) in .30-‘06. I was going to hunt in a good ol’ fashioned Pennsylvania deer camp. Up in the mountains in heavy timber. I was told without a doubt to sight in dead-on at 100 yards, as I would never get an open shot that far, let alone longer. Not knowing any better, I bought two boxes of Remington 180 grain Core-Lokt RN cartridges (like all the old timers used) and sighted it in dead nuts at 100 yards.

With light fading on my first opening day of buck season, I shot my first deer ever- a 3.5” spike. One shot at 245 yards.

I’d like to say that I made a perfect shot due to my skills as a rifleman, and, well, some of that may be truth as the shot was true and I went from kneeling to prone position as Uncle Sam taught me. But, I figured as far as it was (way before laser rangefinders), I estimated a 3” holdover. Being young and naive, it never occurred to me that a 3” hold meant 3”…at the target. Not raising the barrel three inches. The buck was quartering towards me slightly and I thought my holdover would drop the bullet smack in its chest (I shot I would never take today). What happened is that I hit it in the front of its neck and it exited out the back, right through the spine. It dropped like a rock.

I was so proud of that shot at the time. That’s changed over the years as I learned things the right way. But, it did start my love affair with the ‘06 that remains to this day.

 

[skfullgun]

Yep. Most of us get a bit smarter as we get older!

 

[skfullgun]

True story. Decades ago when I first started deer hunting I bought a Winchester Model 70 Ranger (it’s akin to a Remington Model 700 ADL) in .30-‘06. I was going to hunt in a good ol’ fashioned Pennsylvania deer camp. Up in the mountains in heavy timber. I was told without a doubt to sight in dead-on at 100 yards, as I would never get an open shot that far, let alone longer. Not knowing any better, I bought two boxes of Remington 180 grain Core-Lokt RN cartridges (like all the old timers used) and sighted it in dead nuts at 100 yards.

With light fading on my first opening day of buck season, I shot my first deer ever- a 3.5” spike. One shot at 245 yards.

I’d like to say that I made a perfect shot due to my skills as a rifleman, and, well, some of that may be truth as the shot was true and I went from kneeling to prone position as Uncle Sam taught me. But, I figured as far as it was (way before laser rangefinders), I estimated a 3” holdover. Being young and naive, it never occurred to me that a 3” hold meant 3”…at the target. Not raising the barrel three inches. The buck was quartering towards me slightly and I thought my holdover would drop the bullet smack in its chest (I shot I would never take today). What happened is that I hit it in the front of its neck and it exited out the back, right through the spine. It dropped like a rock.

I was so proud of that shot at the time. That’s changed over the years as I learned things the right way. But, it did start my love affair with the ‘06 that remains to this day.

Good story. Thanks for sharing!

 

[BrianMDTX]

Good story. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks. I love that rifle. I glass-bedded the action, installed a recoil pad and refinished the stock twice over the past 30 years or so. It’s a plain Jane- no fancy walnut. No floorplate. No checkering. It just flat out shoots.