30-06 --Tried and True

FOTIS

FOTIS

Range Officer
Staff member
Oct 30, 2004
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Never ever thought I would become such a fan but one of my favorite rifles, "Ole Reliable", is a Savage SS Model 116 30-06. Oddly enough I bought it from Orchemo (a member on this forum).
It is a beauty especially when one sees what she can do. It does sport an aftermarket stock and proving itself worthy time after time, she got to wear a Nightforce NXS 2.5-10x40mm scope on a permanent basis.

So far she has not been finnicky when it comes to fodder.

162 Absolute hammer bullets at 3060 fps via Varget and 0.55" at 100 yards Accounted for a few Texas pigs
165 Ballistic tips at 2870 fps via H4350 and 0.53" at 100 yards. Accounted for a few Wy elk and other species. The list of accomplishments
goes on ad astra. That said I decided to play some more.

I loaded up the 175 LRX with several powder charges of VN 550. We will see if she likes that bullet and the powder combo.





b3DdEzY.jpeg
 
As much as I know how good the ol' '06 performs on game, and I have used it myself to take my first moose back in 1989, I have just never cottoned to it myself. Probably due to the fights my father and uncle had about their beloved 30-06 and 270...
And any 30-06 I have kept since has been rebarreled to more interesting cartridges (to me), such as the 280 Rem, 338-06 and 376 Steyr.

Am glad that you are enjoying your Ole Reliable, and if anyone can make it shoot better, it'll be you!
May you have many more great adventures with this trusted rifle!
 
Blkram said:
As much as I know how good the ol' '06 performs on game, and I have used it myself to take my first moose back in 1989, I have just never cottoned to it myself. Probably due to the fights my father and uncle had about their beloved 30-06 and 270...
And any 30-06 I have kept since has been rebarreled to more interesting cartridges (to me), such as the 280 Rem, 338-06 and 376 Steyr.

Am glad that you are enjoying your Ole Reliable, and if anyone can make it shoot better, it'll be you!
May you have many more great adventures with this trusted rifle!
Click to expand...
I understand. I always despised it--for the same reasons you did....add boring to those reasons....... up until 2020 or so. Maybe it is older age I do not know. This one made me feel cozy, comfortable and basically an extension of my pointing finger. Always my back up especially when I go for elk a few hours away from home in the middle of nowhere.
 
Some rifles just feel right in the hands and when shouldered!
And when they perform well, accuracy wise and on-game, they just become keepers and trusted "Ole Reliables". 😎
 
IMG_4203.jpeg
I have several amd have owned others that went to good homes. Mostly more traditional lead core bullets but one rem. 700 really likes the 165 AccuBond. I did well with the Winchester M70 I inherited from grandpa In South Africa with the original trophy bonded bear claw. Love the .30-06, a really nice medium for just about everything
 
The old 30-06 got me a first last weekend. 2 fallow does with one shot. I was never a fan of the 30-06 I always shot the 7mmRM and then the 280ai. I have grown fond of the cartridge and its accuracy which surprised me how good it was. Varget was the key with 165 grain bullets for me too.
 
Shot an awful lot of stuff with the old war horse. Hunted from the Brooks range to Arizona and over to South Dakota, including stops in Montana and Wyoming with one. Had mine since 1968 bought with money bucking hay and combining wheat for summer work. Haven’t had it out of the safe in almost a year and havn’t hunted with it in several. I should change that. Very accurate too.
 
Years ago when Marlin stopped the XL7 production , I picked up a 30-06 in S.S. dirt cheap. The most picky rifle I ever dealt with. Swapped out the barrel with one of those Shaw prefits from E Arthur Brown and I had a shooter. Little more oomph than my 308s but it has to eat the dust of the 300 Wby.
The 150gr TTSX with RL-17 is my load of choice for hunting.
 
FOTIS said:
Never ever thought I would become such a fan but one of my favorite rifles, "Ole Reliable", is a Savage SS Model 116 30-06. Oddly enough I bought it from Orchemo (a member on this forum).
It is a beauty especially when one sees what she can do. It does sport an aftermarket stock and proving itself worthy time after time, she got to wear a Nightforce NXS 2.5-10x40mm scope on a permanent basis.

So far she has not been finnicky when it comes to fodder.

162 Absolute hammer bullets at 3060 fps via Varget and 0.55" at 100 yards Accounted for a few Texas pigs
165 Ballistic tips at 2870 fps via H4350 and 0.53" at 100 yards. Accounted for a few Wy elk and other species. The list of accomplishments
goes on ad astra. That said I decided to play some more.

I loaded up the 175 LRX with several powder charges of VN 550. We will see if she likes that bullet and the powder combo.





b3DdEzY.jpeg
Click to expand...
I have excellent results with Ramshot Hunter with 175gr LRX
 
My first 30-06 was a used 725 Remington that was stolen and recovered sticking barrel first in a muddy cleek bed and returned to the owner by police. It took me literally years to get all the mud out of it, the barrel bore was still bright and shiny and would shoot respectful groups. I mounted a little Weaver 1-1/2 power scope with post reticle on it and killed lots of deer and ground hogs with it, it later got a 6x Bushnell and I preceded to wear the barrel out shooting once I learned to reload for it. The 110gr Seirra hollow point accounted for lots of crop damage deer and ground hogs, so many that it started to lose its accuracy and was rebarreled with a 257cal Douglas premium air gauge barrel and chambered for the 257 Roberts. I still have it and it also has accounted for its share of Deer and ground hogs but I just had to have another 30-06 and fell in love with a tang safety Ruger M77 which got a Luepold 1 1/2-5X on it with a fine German cross hair and post reticle and still wears that scope. I got the Ruger wet during one deer season and the stock warped so bad I had to hammer the action out of the stock to get it apart since it was shooting 3 feet to the right and caused me to miss a nice buck. The forearm was warped so bad I had to hog the barrel channel out to get scope zeroed so I could continue to hunt with it. After the season it got a first-class bedding job with glass bedding and the forearm was full length glassed and floated so it couldn't warp again.
I have never had to adjust the scope since and that was done back in the 1970's.
It's still my go to even thought I have other rifles in different calibers.
 
Col. Townsend Whelen once said, " The 30-06 is never a mistake."

I concur 100 %. There have been times in my life when it was sell a gun or starve, In fact I may sole a bunch of firearms that wish still had. Back thenit was seriously bubba'd 190A3 Springfield, I had for years until one day, after a very tough hunt nearly killed me. I looked for something lighter and found a Remington 660 in .308. I used that M660 from 1973 to sometime around 1982 or3. Around 1972/3 I'd bought a commercial FN Mauser in 30-06 for $100 as it had a bad barrel. The guy that ran the loacal Sears catalog store was a hobby gun smith and had a reputation as an excellent metal man. We were talking and he said he had a .30 caliber Douglas barrel in his shop and that he no longer needed it said he'd put it on the gun for $100. I said OK. There was a big surprise when I picked up the rifle. He's restocked the gun with a very pretty piece of wood that was very dense. I never could get that rifl to shoot. I must have bedded it a dozen times. I took a trip up to the Phoenix area and stopped at the McMillan's to see if they might have a stock laying arouns I could use. They had one someome had put a deposit n and later cancelled. I picked it up for what was owed. $200.

It still wouldn't shoot until I tried 165 gr. Accubonds. Now it's all tiny groups. I did run three 180 gr. Accubonds and the group was very slightly over an inch. took the rifle with the 165 gr. loa as a back up to my .35 Whelen and it cameinhand as the scope 's reticle disappered int o wherever reticles go. Took a nice fact cow elkwith the load. That's a rifle I will never sell.
PJ
 
Workhorse is right! I have my dad’s 03, sportered by his Dad and his first gun. The two of them, using mostly their 06’s had built up a pile of horns in Grandad’s Montana backyard the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. And they used to beat themselves up using surplus ammo on prairie dogs.

My load for it is 212 Eld x with Staball 6.5.
Grouse load Lasercast 170 grain and Red Dot

My Dad’s was 180 Sierra boat tails with IMR 4350.
His Grouse load was pulled surplus bullets with sR 4759
 
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