Is there anything better than 30-06?

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45-70.
historical significance has nothing to do with a round's ability to take game.
it can be loaded as light as 1000 FPS to as fast as 2600 FPS. you can load everything from bird shot to round balls to 420gr slugs.
 
.30-06 is a good cartridge, but arguably a bit "overpowered" for the actual applications it sees in the hands of the average owner.


Staying in the same cartridge family, I'd rather have a .270 Win or a .35 Whelen. Better performance (velocity or energy - your pick). Same pressure level.


.30-06 'saved the world' .... but .577-450 Martini conquered it.
 
The 30-06, although it is the sweetheart of the American hunting and shooting fraternity, is nothing special. It is an imitation of the original do-all cartridges, the 8x57 and 7x57. You choose whichever one you like, I opt for 7x57.
 
Scorch- 7&8x57 are common but you certainly won't find it everywhere. Walk into a gas station in Theodosia, MO and you will find 30-06 alongside 22lr and 12ga. Not to mention that the 7&8 were arguably defeated by the infamous 30-06. The only reason we have the 7&8 in the US is because they are spoils of war. Or to be even more exceptional they (7&8) have been freed by the extraordinary 30-06.
 
30-06, 165 gr I have used it on everything from prairie dogs to mule deer. Works well. .270, 130 gr bullets, same thing. They are great calibers.
But the best caliber in the world is the one that works best for you.
 
Maybe in MO, Boogieman, but in other countries, you might find things to be different. Mr. Bell killed how many elephants with that 7x57? ;)
 
Mr. Rifleman's timeless quote

Once again, as Mr. Whelen, a.k.a. Mr. rifleman has famously stated, "The 30-06 is never a mistake." Priceless...
 
7&8 were arguably defeated by the infamous 30-06.
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7mm Mauser was defeated by the 30-40 Krag and .45-70 in the only war I am aware of that we went up against it.

The 8mm Mauser was defeated the first time primarily because it's opponents had more young men to lose. The second time, largely by US Manufacturing and Russian blood.
 
7.62x54r
Just to throw that out there.
It is just as powerful, possibly has taken as many game animals, and caused as much mayhem around the world as the .30'06.
 
30.06.......was good enough.....but the son....308/7.62.....is still used by the military....in the free world......and that one is the one I go to....
 
Of the four major general purpose US hunting calibers, I find .30-06 to be the least interesting. For that amount of recoil, I'd rather be shooting 7mm mag and get a flatter trajectory, better ballistics, and the exact same list of suitable game.

There are places in the world where ammo availability would lead me to favor the .30-06, but not because of any inherent characteristics of the cartridge.
 
"...the .06 spreading freedom..." No cartridge did any such thing. Nor did any rifle. Cartridges and rifles are inanimate objects.
"...Is there anything better than 30-06?..." For what? The .308 Win is its ballistic twin and will do everything a .30-06 will do in a slightly shorter action. Mind you, so will a .270, .25-06, .260 and a horde of other cartridges.
7mm Magnum is grossly overrated just like every other cartridge with 'magnum' in its name.
 
Well good to know. And here I thought it gave me suitability for all NA game short of bison and the great bears, a nice flat trajectory with very high BC bullets and recoil that doesn't hurt in a typical M70. Appears I was mistaken :D
 
Not to mention that the 7&8 were arguably defeated by the infamous 30-06.
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The 7X57 and 8X57 (along with the 7.65X53 Belgian/Argentine) armed the armies of South America, where the longest-running war in modern history was fought. They were never defeated by the 30-06. No rifle or cartridge has ever been defeated by a rifle or cartridge. Armies use weapons in whatever caliber they are issued to fight against other armies armed with other weapons. Soldiers defeat soldiers. Do not anthropomorphize.

The 30-06 might be popular and great in this country, but in much of the world it is just an interesting footnote. The world goes beyond the borders of the USA, and people "over there" have their own favorites (many of them based on what their grandpa used to fight the last big war).
 
I do have a friend who took a buffalo with 200 grain bullets in a .30-06. And I have eaten some of the resulting burgers. We gave him a bunch of grief but he did take a buffalo with a .30-06.

Albeit, it took him 4 rounds to do it.

.308 is inherently a little more accurate but that difference really isn't necessary until about 700 yards, at which point the .308 is just about out of gas too.

Flexibility is amazing for one cartridge. I use it frequently for coyote and have used it for white tail, prairie dog and feral dogs too.

I do think I would prefer a bolt .308 but since I already have the .30-06 I cannot justify the expense for the little bit of extra I would get. Plus I have several semi .308's.
 
I do have a friend who took a buffalo with 200 grain bullets in a .30-06. And I have eaten some of the resulting burgers. We gave him a bunch of grief but he did take a buffalo with a .30-06.

Albeit, it took him 4 rounds to do it.
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I HOPE you gave him grief. Seems like an obvious case of the wrong gun for the job. The bison is not near as ornery as the African or Asian bovines, but it is bigger and heavier and arguably harder to put down in one shot. It seems to me like .35 Whelen or .348 Winchester would be a good minimum cartridge, .375 H&H preferred, and if I didn't have someone backing me up with a stopping rifle I'd probably personally use my 1886 set up for magnumized .45-90 just because I'd hate to be the one guy who got stomped by a buffalo that wouldn't go down. But that's just me.
 
Hey guys, this is not my cartridge is better than yours, its what is the worlds best all around cartridge? I mean really, who defeated whom as not based on a cartridge, the Brits used the obsolete 303 until the 60s for gods sake.

So lets get it back on the basis of reality.

Yes the Model T was the basis of my pickup truck so was the wagon. Neither one is my pickup truck (and giving that the effectiveness of both the 7/8x57 is equal to the 30-06)

With its twist rate and bullet availability, nothing is more broadly capable than a 30-06.

If cartridge availability was a factor I would find out what is available. I am never going hunting in Zambia, there is might be 303 or the 7 or 8 x 57 and I would take that.

All those calibers designed in that era were capable, for crying out loud the Brits used the 303 in the Spits, Hurricanes for machine guns (helped if they were shooting downhill of course)

Due to a lot of factors, I believe the 30-06 is the go to cartridge and all the rest are shades of window dressing. Bullet choice alone due to the popularity of all 30 calibers is stunning.

It can do what the Magnums do, it can to what the RUMs do, it can be a varmint round.

And out at 600 yds, does it really matter if the 300 WM only drops 32 inches vs 40 inches for an 06? You still have to hold high and calculate a huge drop, 8 inches (or whatever it works to to be) is going to make you miss?

Yes we bow to the 7/8 x 57 as the Mother of all these, but the changes to the 30-06 were well done, worked well and while the 1903 was not the poster child of well designed rifles (vs accurate, ie the gas blow out issue) the cartridge lives on into immortality and modern rifles deal with the gas issue.
 
1. The 308 runsure out of umpff before the -06. That extra 200 or so fps gives it more lethal range. Not that I would want to be in front of a 308 at 1000yds.
2. I can't believe the mods let this go this long without closing. I certainly as I'm sure most of you realize that every cartridge has filled some niche for which it was designed. My dad gave me my first riflexible, a 30-06 Remy pump. I have a few more (unfortunately his is one of them) as well as 5 or so other cartridges. No cartridge is the king. -06 certainly has been successful
 
All of the turn of the last century military cartridges preform about the same.

All of the deer I've shot with my .30-06 would have fallen to just about any other standard deer cartridge, given the same shot placement.

That being said I've use the .30=06 for about 35 years and I don't see any big reason to change.
 
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