Competitors to the .30-’06 Sprg. (left) like the 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC, 7 mm PRC and 7 mm Backcountry, have made the 120-year-old cartridge seem outdated in this modern age.
War, as they say, is hell. Nearly four million Americans served during World War I, and of those who went to battle—hell—most carried a bolt-action rifle chambered in .30-’06 Sprg. Twenty-three years later hell returned to Earth, and during World War II four times as many Americans served. Many of those soldiers carried a semi-automatic .30-’06 Sprg. If you go to hell (and come back) you’ll forever trust the tools that helped you survive. And so, the .30-‘06 Sprg. cartridge became the savior of millions of veterans. But now, some 80 years later, the .30-‘06 Sprg. is not as revered or popular as it once was.
Veterans of American wars have always been a driving factor in the popularity of firearms and cartridges. Sadly, almost all the veterans who buoyed the .30-‘06 Sprg. to fame have left us. Most of today’s veterans served in Vietnam and the Middle East conflicts since. They are partly responsible for the popularity of AR-15s and the .223 Rem./5.56 NATO cartridges. The evolution of military arms and the predominant shooting disciplines dictate cartridge popularity, and for the last two decades, precision-long-range shooting for sport or hunting is what’s been popular.
Manufacturers are chambering most modern rifles for cartridges like the 6.5 Creedmoor and various PRC cartridges. These cartridges mandate fast-twist barrels capable of stabilizing long and slender bullets with a high ballistic coefficient. It seems everyone wants to be a long-range sniper nowadays, and it also seems everyone has mostly forgotten about a Marine marksman named Carlos Hathcock. Before the movie, “American Sniper,” about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, Hathcock was America’s most celebrated military sniper. Hathcock did much of his legendary shooting with a .30-‘06 Sprg.
About a quarter-century ago when I began writing about guns and ammo professionally, the .30-’06 Sprg. was the king of rifle cartridges. When manufacturers introduced new bolt-action rifles, most were chambered in .30-‘06 Sprg. Similarly, when an ammunition company released a new type of rifle ammo, they first released it for the .30-‘06 Sprg. About two decades ago, that started to change. That’s when the 6.5 Creedmoor began its ascent to stardom, and soon manufacturers began creating new centerfire-rifle cartridges capable of flatter, long-distance trajectories than the old “aught-six” could deliver. But even before that, shooters and the military realized there was a more efficient way to get .30-‘06 Sprg. performance.
At its introduction nearly 120 years ago, the .30-’06 Sprg. would launch a 150-grain bullet at 2,700 fps. By today’s standards, that’s nothing to brag about. Modern .308 Win. ammunition eclipses those ballistics while utilizing a more compact case from a more compact rifle. This is why the .308 Win./7.62 NATO and the M14 rifle replaced the .30-‘06 Sprg. and the M1 Garand as the primary military rifle almost 70 years ago. However, modern .30-’06 Sprg. ammunition performs much better than its original load. Standard, modern, 150-grain .30-‘06 Sprg. loads will have a muzzle velocity of 2,900 fps, and Hornady’s 150-grain Superformance SST load is extremely fast at more than 3,000 fps. In fact, out to around 900 yards, that load shoots flatter than the 6.5 Creedmoor. Of course, the .30-‘06 Sprg. kicks harder—about 50-percent harder.
Recoil is important when it comes to precision shooting. Rifles that recoil less are easier to shoot accurately. This is partly why, post-Vietnam, the .308 Win. supplanted the .30-‘06 Sprg. for sniper work in the military and in law enforcement. The same is true when it comes to civilians looking for a rifle suitable to get through a survival or some sort of crisis situation. In the 1980s, when Jeff Cooper was formulating and popularizing his lightweight scout—general-purpose—rifle concept, he also settled on the .308 Win. This influenced a lot of like-minded individuals, partly because from a practical standpoint, the .308 Win. would do anything the .30-‘06 Sprg. would do.
But, it’s not always just about ballistics, rifle size and weight. A loaded .30-‘06 Sprg. cartridge weighs about 25 to 30 grains more than a loaded .308 Win. cartridge. This might seem inconsequential, but quantity amplifies weight. Soldiers carrying 5 pounds of ammunition, or others with plans to negotiate a survival situation, can carry 10 extra rounds of .308 Win. Ten rounds might not seem like much until you’re about out of ammunition. But also, from a military standpoint, it’s not just about what an individual Soldier can carry. Ammunition needs to be shipped to the conflict zone and delivered to combatants. A ton of .308 Win. ammunition will contain about 4,000 more rounds than a ton of .30-‘06 Sprg. ammo.
In defiance of modern shooters who have turned their back on what many consider the world’s greatest rifle cartridge, the .30-‘06 Sprg. is more capable today than ever before. A major online retailer lists more than 100 factory loads for the .30-‘06 Sprg., with bullet weights ranging from 123 to 220 grains. Hornady and Barnes offers low-recoil loads, Winchester has a load optimized for the M1 Garand, Federal and Hornady load the long-range-capable ELD-X bullet and there’s a good assortment of match loads. A more powerful rifle cartridge with that much versatility does not exist.
This is partly what helped the .30-‘06 Sprg. survive the challenge of the .270 Win. for a century, and the onslaught from magnums like the .300 Win. Mag. and .300 Norma Mag. for more than half that long. There’s no doubt the .30-‘06 Sprg. will be around for a long time because there are so many .30-‘06 Sprg. rifles in circulation. However, it seems the 30-’06 Sprg’s. time in the limelight has passed, just as has the time of the brave and heroic veterans who made it and kept it the most popular rifle cartridge for so long. It’s not so much that all the newer cartridges are superior. It’s more about how they’re different and how the needs and wants of modern shooters—military, police and civilian—have changed.
Like it or not, the reign of the long-range king—the .30-‘06 Sprg.—has ended. With our desire to shoot farther and hit harder at distance with bolt-actions and AR-15s, we’ve pushed the old aught-six into retirement, where it will likely reside for the near future, if not forever.
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