Quoted: Upon rereading this, maybe you ARE an idiot.
Did the case really, truly have a belt? If it did, then its not 30-'06 and you shouldn't have chambered it, let alone fired it. The fact that you did it twice is astonishing.
b]
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LOL, I am grateful for the qualifying "maybe" before "you are an idiot". I can also appreciate that your sole measurement of my judgement comes from what I've typed. That being said:
The case really, truly is .30/06. It really, truly did not have a belt. I had hoped that my comment on a "belted magnum.30/06" and "what will the russkies think of next?" would be construed as a joke and not as evidence of idiocy. As near as I can describe it is actually more like a groove that slightly fills out after firing.
This is how you are supposed to understand the statement
"a funky case with what looks like a belt(!) near the base (belted magnum .30/06". I really, truly hope you aren't quite so astonished after reading this.
I stated that it "looked like a belt" as in "it is vaguely reminiscent of a belt" and NOT as in "well, goddam! That there is a belt on an ought six! Well I be goldammed!"
Buy a box of Barnaul bullets labeled CARTRIDGES 30-06 SPRINGFIELD SP and take a look at the contents and see if you can come up with a better description for what you see on the case base.
The case is dimensionally identical to a "known" .30/06 case ('known' as in USA made, bought at Wal-Mart enclosed in a box proclaiming that twenty .30/06 cartridges reside within).
I DID have some nagging doubts in my mind as a result of the short range test...but it wasn't the cartridge. The gunstore owner I had bought the rifle from had proclaimed that it was a .30/06, but it didn't say this anywhere on the rifle, so I did a little researchin' on the internet before I shot the thing. As a result, I found out that the Golden State Arms SantaFe Field Mauser Model 12012 was a German K98 Mauser that had been rebarreled from the 8mm to the '06. They had done this in the '50s and '60s.
So maybe someone had done some funky wildcatting with the rifle since then, or maybe its age/use had eroded the chamber to the point where the stuck case was a result of over expansion. The gunsmith I took the rifle to said the chamber was for the '06 and that it was in good shape. AND when I showed him the case that had the primer blown out, he commented on the funny russian case but that it WAS from a .30/06! Woohoo! We have professional, independent verification (as opposed to my own personal and admittedly amateur abilities to eyeball ammo, read from an ammo box AND case headstamp)!.
Thank you for this opportunity to clarify my previous post.
LLanero
edited for spelling/cutandpasting/culling of overly bitchy statements/etc.