In 30-06? Thanks!

The .30-06 (pronouced "thirty-ought-six") rifle cartridge developed from the .30-03 cartridge and was brought out in [b]1906[/b] by the Springfield Armory. The cartridge was designed as a military one for the Springfield 1903 rifle and it's development was also influenced by the German 7x57mm as well as 8x75 Mauser. Battle rifles chambered in .30-06 saw use in both world wars as well as Korea and limited use in Vietnam. Even after almost 100 years of constant development in the rifle and cartridge arenas the .30-06 is still considered the best all-around cartridge for big game. The .30-06 is a large caliber which is large enough for most game but whose recoil can be handled by most shooters; the ballistics are excellent with a very flat trajectory for long-range work and sufficient accuracy for precision shooting. Typically this round generates 2700fps with a projectile weight of 150 grains. The U.S. Army replaced this .30-06 Springfield in 1954 with the 7.62.x51 NATO (308).

Mike

Less than 5 minutes! Is ARFCOM cool or what? Thanks mr_wilson!

So there ya go!

Didn't the original .30 caliber round for the '03 have a different shoulder angle?  I always thought the '06 indicated the year it was changed; or I could be thinking about something entirely.  I'm still catching on.

Eddie

Additional info:

The 30-06 Springfield is a United States military cartridge adopted in 1906 for the Model 1903 Springfield service rifle, which was based on the Mauser bolt action system. The 30-06 is actually a slightly modified version of the original 1903 cartridge, which was loaded with a 220-grain round noseded bullet at a muzzle velocity of 2300fps. Because of cartridge developments in Europe, it was considered advisable to change to a lighter weight, pointed 150-grain bullet at an increased velocity of 2700 fps. [b]At the same time the case neck was shortened by .07". This improved round was designated the "Ball Cartridge, caliber 30, Model of 1906," but in practice, the nomenclature was shortened to 30-06. The 30-06 version can be chambered and fired in any rifle made for the original 1903 round, but the reverse is not true because of the difference in case length[/b]. For many years both the 1903 and 1906 configurations were loaded by sporting ammunition manufacturers. Shooting the '06 in the '03 chamber reportedly gave poor accuracy. Old catalogs list both rounds. Occasionally the 1903 version is called the 30-45 because original loading used 45 grains of smokeless powder.

Again, because of military developments in Europe, the Army switched to a 172-grain bullet with a 9-degree boattail in 1926, the new round being designated the "Ball, caliber 30,M1." Muzzle velocity, originally the same as the 150-grain load of 2700 fps, was later reduced to 2640 fps because of difficulty maintaining pressure specifications at the higher velocity. In 1940, the 150-grain flat base bullet was re-adopted as the "Cartridge, Ball, caliber 30, M2" and that was the load used in WWII. The return to the lighter bullet came about, at least in part, because of difficulties adapting the new Garand semi-automatic rifle to handle the 172-grain load. The heavier boattail bullet was superior for machine gun use because of its greater maximum range of nearly 6000 yards, compared to about 3500 yards for the 150-grain loading.

The rimless 30-03 and 30-06 replaced the older rimmed 30-40 Krag as the official U.S. military round. The 30-06 has, in turn, been superseded by the 7.62x51mm, also known as the 7.62mm NATO or, in its commercial version, the .308 Winchester. In Europe, the 30-06 is known as the 7.62x63mm.

During WWII, the U.S. government supplied arms and ammunition in 30-06 caliber to many Allied nations including Great Britain, Netherlands, France, China, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil. To maintain their inventory of weapons, many countries undertook manufacture of 30-06 ammunition after the war.

In the 1950's and 1960's, vast quantities of surplus 30-06 ammunition was sold on the U.S. market. Shooters will often encounter Ball, armor piercing and tracer types. Ammunition loaded before and during WWII is corrosively primed. Practically all U.S. military ammunition loaded after 1952 has non-corrosive primers. The principal exception is Frankford Arsenal Match ammunition marked FA53, 54, or 56, which has the old style corrosive priming.

Mike

It's people like Mr_Wilson who make me realize just how little I know of firearms..... [:(]