30-06 Springfield; The Worst Hunting Cartridge?

since we're setting up two thirty alt-sixes the fn in 1903 and the 1903 a3 stock is it just came through major surgery and it's in rehab right now and the fn stock still has oil drying this seemed like the perfect time to just go ahead and talk about the 30oz 6 cartridge and real quick for for those of you that want the short version it works just bottom line everybody either you're a 30 out six fan and you love it or you love some other cartridge and your cartridge is better for whatever reason than the 30 out six well for all of you that your cartridge is better than the 30 out six you're right it probably is it still works and that's the thing about the 30 out 6 no matter what criticisms of it you hear nobody ever says it doesn't work so that's the short person now for the long version this particular cartridge here is a seven millimeter miles or seven by five seven and as many of you know it's one of my sentimental favorites and just an outstanding hunting cartridge even after all of these decades so why are we talking about sub miles are in 306 video well because this is both the inspiration for and the parent case of the 30 out six the u.s military was introduced to the 7-millimeter mauser and the 1893 miles a rifle during the spanish-american war and they quickly realized that their newly adopted craig jorgensen rifles well they were already outdated the miles of rifling cartridge had made that obsolete the cartridge just it wasn't powerful enough flat shooting enough and the mauser rifle was just a better rifle so the us military went back to the drawing board real quick and they straight up copied the mauser rifle and came out 1903 springfield and when i say they copied it i don't mean they were inspired by it i mean they straight up copied it and mouser sued the us government for patent infringement u.s laws and actually had to pay miles or so much for every springfield rifle it produced i think it's like ten dollars or something for every rifle okay so the 1903 springfield it is a mauser there were some quote improvements made to it over the mauser and many people would argue that those weren't actually improvements but hey it's they're essentially the same the outside of the springfield has a cone breech to make feeding a little easier and two-piece firing pin that's why i set up the 1903 and the fn at the same time it just seemed fitting to set up both of these great rifles since they're essentially siblings with the m98 being the older brother of the 1903 and you can see the family resemblance here there is no doubt that this springfield is a mauser well the government they needed a new cartridge for their new 1903 springfield miles or rifles so what they did they took the sub millimeter mauser they made it a quarter of an inch longer they put in a 30 caliber bullet 220 grain round nose and they called it the 30 out 3. so actually it was the the 30 u.s government of 1903 i believe that was the official designation okay well in 1905 the german army took eight millimeter miles they went to a smaller piece of lead and it's it's faster shooting flatter shooting and yes military said well that's a really good idea so they took the 30 out six and they changed they took the 30 off three they changed it from a 220 grain round nose to a 150 grain spitzer and they did this in 1906 so the new bullet became the 30 out 6. they also made the case just slightly shorter it's the only modification to the case was the neck was just a hair shorter okay well then they went back and they rechambered all of the 1903 springfield rifles that had been chambered for the 30 out three and all of those 1903 springfields everybody said they had a 24 inch barrel actually they had a 24 inch barrel minus one thread which was about a tenth of an inch because when they rechambered all of them they cut them down one thread length so they could retamper i don't know if they actually stuck with that throughout the years or i suspect they worked that out but so that's how we ended up with the 30 out six well that was a really big deal as far as military history and most of you are aware of how significant the 30oz 6 was as far as u.s military history world war 1 world war ii extremely significant still used even up into vietnam as for sniper rifles it's very significant but this was also very significant for the history of hunting and hunting rifles and cartridges and yes hunting has a history no we don't talk about it much okay this here this was america's first high power rifle cartridge so it got used this is pretty popular for those needing a high power cartridge and the 1903 springfield that was america's first high power bolt action rifle so both of them got used all of the early developments as far as for bolt action rifles high power ones happened with 1903 springfield america was a lever action nation and okay let me back up our first high power rifle actually was the 1895 winchester designed by john browning and it was chambered for the 30 out 3 and the 30 odd 6. but it's a lever action so again our first high power bolt action was the 1903 springfield a lot of these made their way into civilian hands and they were used extensively okay well and that was huge i mean it gave americans a high power rifle they could use they could buy a european rifle but that was expensive i mean very expensive so you know if you're trying to get a holland in holland or you know an actual miles or a rigby or something like that we're talking some serious dollars the springfield rifle 3006 cartridge it gave americans a bolt-action rifle and high-power cartridge and more importantly okay we had three things coming together there that this was the significant part because the 1903 springfield was adopted by the us military and used for decades that made these actions and rifles plentiful there were a lot of them around well that meant over time just average civilian shooters could get these really cheap now they could get spanish miles or rifles that the 1893s that eventually had become obsolete because of the 1898 miles or they could get craig jorgensen's really cheap and so forth but in 1903 as these became more and more plentiful and cheaper and cheaper civilians could get these and okay that this gave them a cheap rifle to work with the ammo was plentiful again because the government used it so there was just absolutely a ton of ammo available and these were easy to modify these were easy to re-barrel and rechamber so therefore civilians and gun companies ammo manufacturers government everybody could just mess around and tinker with these and experiment well that's why the 30.6 is the parent case for so many cartridges today so by the 19 teens and 1920s average normal everyday americans gunsmiths hobbyists they had access to a quality bolt-action action that could easily be re-barreled and re-chambered to whatever and they had a case to work with high capacity case and they started experimenting and the people of that time they that's what they did they were industrious they were very mechanically minded they didn't have the electronics we had now so they weren't dependent upon electronics like we are and they knew mechanics they knew things and they were good at working with them so they started experimenting so 1912 charles newton he took the 30 out six case he said what if we necked it down to 25 caliber well then his experiments with necking down the thirty out six case which savage he worked for savage they shortened the third out six case in addition to necking it down and oh look short action cartridges the 250 3000 savage that was basically our first short action cartridge and they needed a short action cartridge for their for the savage model 99 lever action rifle and then a few years later savage said well hey let's come out with the bolt action so savage came out with the first bolt action rifle for sporting use produced by a major american arms company the model 1920 savage rifle which was called the mini springfield and with that rifle you could get the 253 000 but they also took that 250 3000 case they necked it up back to a 30 caliber that became the 300 savage so that was your whole birth of short action cartridges that same 300 savage by the way the us military in the 1950s they made the neck a little bit longer and then called it the 308 winchester so birth of all your short actions or at least for here in the u.s well there's a lot of other experimenting going on at the time also somebody at winchester said hey let's take this 30 out six and let's neck it down to 27 caliber 270 winchester's born it came out with the first winchester ball texan rifle the model 19 to model 19 the model 54 in 1925 and it was chambered for 30.6 and 270 winchester so and then remington they came out with the first bolt-action rifle for sporting use and full-size cartridges with the model 30 remington and i believe that was in 1921. so that was the whole birth of a bolt-action and our modern cartridges here in the us you had the same experimentation going on all over the world then it's just there wasn't a lot of plentiful brass everywhere or each country had plentiful brass but it was whatever their standard issue cartridges were and they had plentiful rifles whatever their standard issues rifle standard issue rifles were so great britain commonwealth nations you've got everybody experimenting with the 303 case so they're necking it down and coming out with the 270 303 and you know any cartridge you can think of under the sun they experimented with and came out with and they were doing most of their work with surplus through lee enfield actions because that was plentiful for them again here in the u.s we had 30 out six in the 1903 springfield so that's where the experimentation and development occurred here that's one of the 30 out sixes you know the the parent case of so many of our modern cartridges and the 1903 springfield that's the parent rifle so many of our rifles today which you can trace that back right back to the mizer 98 so the 30oz 6 has a very significant role to play in the history of hunting cartridges here in the u.s but it's become popular all over the world but most hunters don't care about history of hunting cartridges and rifles that's something we don't generally talk about most hunters only care about the latest technological advancement and what's going to help me right here right now and that's understandable most hunters don't get many opportunities at game especially big game deer hunting a deer hunter if you take two deer in a season it was probably a pretty good season for you you might not get see a deer in a season if you took five during the season if if that's even legal in your state for a lot of hunters that was a record year so we're not getting many opportunities despite all our effort all of our work and so forth so when we go hunting we want to take advantage of absolutely every advancement we can to make sure we can make those few opportunities count especially those of us hunting public land because that tends to be harder fewer opportunities okay so most hunters only care about the right here right now and that's why you hear almost nobody talking about the history of hunting rifles and cartridges so how does the 30 out six compare now what is relevant about the 30 odd 62 hunting right here right now in our modern age okay well i can tell you right off every cartridge out there is better than the 30 out six all of them are if you don't believe me read their advertising every cartridge is flatter shooting than the 30 out six it's a better ballistic coefficient than the 30 out six it's more energy than the 30 out six uh more velocity than 30 out of six uh better sectional density you you name it every cartridge out there is better than the 30 out six ballistic coefficient all of it that's true seriously i i honestly believe every cartridge out there is better than the 30 out six but it's better than the 30 out six for one thing i've said many times with ballistics in order to gain something in one area you have to give up something in another area 270 winchester it's faster and flatter shooting than the 30 out 6. that's true it is if you compare 130 grain bullet in the 271 chester to 150 grain bullet and 30 out 6. if you compare 150 grain bullet and 270 winchester to a 150 grain bullet and a 30 out of 6 the 30 out six is faster because it's a larger bore diameter larger bore diameter is going to give you a higher velocity with the same weight bullet and powder charge physics and that's why the 35 wheeling which was a necked up 30 out 60 35 caliber was such a devastating cartridge on even bigger games because it was even even larger diameter okay and with the 30.6 compared to the 270 3006 larger bore diameter you could go up to much heavier weights and bullets plus you get longer barrel life so yeah the 270 is flatter shooting and faster than the 3006 but it gave up some things to achieve that and that's every cartridge out there had to give up something so that it could be better than the 30 out six and the 30 ounce six if you take every cartridge out there all of them from the 22 long rifle to the 50 bmg and yes i'm exaggerating this so don't get your calculators out but if you take every factor for every cartridge and you average them all together velocity energy everything i think this is what you end up with as the average of everything the 30 off six so you've got a cartridge here yeah it's not as good as any it's literally not as good at anything as other cartridges it is the smallest of the big gang cartridges here in north america it is the smallest of what most cons would consider adequate for big game and i'm talking all big games so we're talking to big bears and everything this would most would consider this the smallest of what's adequate for that many would consider this the largest of what's needed for medium game okay so i know you can use a magnum for deer hunting many do but it's not necessary unless you're trying to reach way way way out there like in the next county as a matter of fact most would say this overkill for deer what this being what many consider the largest of the cartridges for median game the smallest of what's adequate for large game that still makes this though even though it's not as good for either category as other cartridges this is still the only cartridge i know of that's both a medium game and a large game cartridge that's why this is the cartridge that's famous for its versatility it's famous for doing it all right well there's no saying jack of all trades master of none well this is a jack of all trades so therefore it this isn't going to be the best at any one thing it can't be no no cartridge has at all no cartridge is perfect that's why there's so many cartridges but this still works on everything and there's no other cartridge i can think of that works on everything that's the beauty of the 306 and it's still plentiful it's still cheap to shoot it it is extremely versatile this year okay despite all of our the shortages and component shortages for reloading ammo shortages i have been given five boxes of once fired thirty out six brass for reloading by different people this year they didn't reload they saved their brass they got you know gave me the brass and it wasn't because you know i i have a youtube channel it's just one guy was at the range hey here you know i see you're shooting a 30 out six you you want these two boxes of brass i just shot he didn't know me from anybody uh old friend of mine that i worked with he hadn't hunted in gears hey you want these three boxes of brass sure i have to shoot a 30o6 and hunt with one just because i've got so many components for it and can reload for it and everything else and it is versatile i can download it i can upload it and what i said at the very beginning no matter what criticism anyone has of the 3006 nobody can say it doesn't work you can say it's overkill you can say it's too much for deer it's not enough for bear it's whatever everybody's got a criticism of it except for the die-hard people that love it and all of those people are writing their criticisms but none of them can say it doesn't work it works and that's the thing about the 30 off six that's why it's still so popular after all of these years that's why so many still use it 115 years later it works no matter what you don't like about it it gets the job done now i thought this would be pretty interesting to throw in here at the end the hunting rifle by jack o'connor yeah famous for the 270. he did a chapter just under 30.6 in this book well i didn't i knew i was going to do a video on the 306 cartridge just i had to because i mean we're setting up 230 out sixes so i did not read his chapter on the 30 out 6. i i didn't want to know what he thought about it i i wanted to wait until i formed my own opinion and thoughts and put it all together and what i planned on saying about it and then i wanted to read his thoughts just you know see what he thought about it okay well jack o'connor just despite being so famous for his 270 he loved the 3006 also and used 30oz 6 extensively and this is what he wrote about the 30 out 6. for sheep hunting i'd a bit rather have a 270 than a 30 out six and i also prefer 270 for antelope hunting and open country deer hunting for big soft skinned stuff that shoots back such as lions and alaskan brown bear i'd rather have a 375 for varmints i'd take something like the 22 250 or the six millimeter remington and for deer and heavy brush i like a light semi-automatic and i would use a round nose 180 grain 308 bullet but for all kinds of jobs in the open country and in the timber on big animals and small at long range and short there isn't anything more versatile than this perpetual best seller the turn of the century 30 out 6. so jack o'connor he reached the same collusion i did there's just despite every cartridge being better than the 30.6 for something there's no cartridge better than the 3006 for everything hence it's legendary versatility and one final thought on the 30 out six choose the right bullet for the game you're hunting with with it being such a versatile cartridge and there being so many different bullets available for it and there are a lot you don't want to pick the wrong bullets you don't want to pick one of these 55 grain accelerators this is a 30 ounce six case made for a 30 out six rifle it has a saboted 55 grain bullet in it 22 caliber bullet that travels at over 4 000 feet per second out of 3006 you don't want to use this on deer even though it still works my dad's got one on the wall that you know kind of proves that not the ideal choice though and you don't want to use a bullet that was made for a 800-pound grizzly bear on a 100-pound doe not ideal and i talked expensively about shock placement with deer putting tough bullets in the shoulder so that you get expansion putting bullets that rapidly expand in the lungs behind the shoulder and you'll lose less meat that way and get a lot of tissue damage keep that in mind i told a story in a recent video about an experience i had with the 30 out 6 where i shot a deer on a power line i shot the deer behind the shoulder in the lungs with a tough bullet i got very little expansion that deer ran off and i knew it was a great shot i knew i had hit the deer and the deer wasn't going that far so i'm sitting there happy i got a deer well then another deer steps out the exact same spot put the scope on him put the trigger that buck hit the ground so i'm sitting there happy thinking i got two bucks on the ground great morning i get up there look at the deer and he's got two holes in him side by side inch apart two entrance ones two exit ones it was the same deer it had ran off it had went down and crossed the power line circled back across the power line in a low spot where i couldn't see it and then came back around to that same spot to see what that was i said in that video i sold that rifle two weeks later because i wasn't having a rifle that you shoot the deer with it and it comes back to see what that was i still hate that i sold that rifle that was a good shooting rifle bullet selection shot placement that applies to all rifles and 30 out six in particular because you do have such a wide selection there and if i seemed a little biased toward the 30 off six i have to admit i am i mean this is one i've used for a long time and it's always worked so yeah i am a little biased towards thirty out six it gets the job done all right i think that covered it for the 30.6 and we're going to get back to work on these and hopefully get these some progress made on these stocks and get these togethers here real soon then we're going to start the low development on the 30.6 that's why this just seemed like the perfect time to talk about it and check us out on facebook and i'm still figuring that one out but i might one day so if you want to say hi here any of this turns out to load development stocks or whatever and what we're into next week which who knows make sure you've hit the subscribe button and notification bell if you got anything out of the video give it a thumbs up and if you didn't give it a thumbs up let youtube know you like hunting and shooting videos god bless and have a good day

Channel: Tom River - Simple Living

Views: 61,523

Keywords: 30-06, 30/06, 30-06 Springfield, 30/06 Springfield, 30-06 for hunting, deer hunting

Id: KRatSieRmo8

Length: 29min 6sec (1746 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 06 2021