Most powerful -06 length cartridge

What does "most powerful" mean to you? Foot pounds at the muzzle? Foot pounds at 200 yds?

And,if I may ask,what are you shooting at? As in,What is more than enough?

And how much work do you want to do?

At 200 yds,the 30-06 is no slouch.

A 338-06 gives you a little more bullet.While I DO have a soft spot for the 35 Whelen,I think the bullet offerings in .338 are better.

Larger bore on the 30-06 case begins to become diminishing returns past .358,IMO.

If you go to magnum bolt face,likely the rails,extractor,and maybe follower will need some tuning for the fatter case.Its been done,many times.

The .338 Win Mag will get about anything done,short of the big stuff in Africa.It is a common factory round.No custom dies,reamer,etc.

I neck .458 down to .375 for my .375 Taylor.Nice cartridge.I load it modestly with Re-15 or Varget to 2600 fps with a 260 gr Nosler Accubond.With 4064 or 4350 I could easily get more fps. The load I have shoots good,and seems enough.
There is also the 416 Taylor.Its also a necked down .458.Lee makes a die set,great intermediate forming die for the .375 Taylor.

I think it may be between dead and dying,but Jeff Cooper was in on a.376 Steyr cartridge.Rebated ,rimless,beltless,and the loaded round fit a standard Mauser for length.Hornady made brass.

.330 Dakota,and 416 Dakota are rimless,rebated,30-06 length.I believe they are based on .404 Jeffrey (sp?) but I could be wrong.

.358 Norma was a standard,too.

Your 9.3 idea is not bad.

Your choice!! I'd call 338-06 or 338 Win mag both practical choices.

I do like my 375 Taylor
 
Probably not the most powerful, but one of the more useful cartridges would be the .358 Norma Mag. It was designed to work in a. 30-06 length action, is adequate for all game on the planet except "The Big Five", has a surprisingly flat trajectory (beyond your 200 yard upper limit), and apparently can be loaded down without getting cranky about it.

If the big 5 are your intended targets, probably one of the .416s is your best bet. For the big 5, I'd prolly want to track down a .375 H&H-length bolt action and rebarrel it to .450 Watts. Since I'll never have the money for the trip or the rifle, it's all academic, but a nice thought exercise.
 
I went with the 358 norma. Ordered the barrel from shaw in a heavy mag contour ss. I had no idea that they are such a long lead time on delivery. 4 months plus. I guess I won't need to revisit this again until end of Feb.
 
I went with the 358 norma. Ordered the barrel from shaw in a heavy mag contour ss. I had no idea that they are such a long lead time on delivery. 4 months plus. I guess I won't need to revisit this again until end of Feb.
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I ordered essentially the same barrel, but with a .35 Whelen chamber and Savage threads.
...Except mine was "in stock".

Four months later, it finally shipped. :rolleyes:


Clean that barrel and take a really good look for tooling marks before you do anything with it. I didn't clean mine until it was already installed.
It is ROUGH and copper-fouls like mad. Just five rounds through that tube is enough to get wide, thick copper streaks the entire length of the bore. After 15-20 rounds, there are chunks of copper in the bore.

Last time I cleaned that barrel, it took me almost 4 hours and something like 62 patches to get the copper out with Bore-Tech Eliminator. :eek:
 
Clean that barrel and take a really good look for tooling marks before you do anything with it. I didn't clean mine until it was already installed.
It is ROUGH and copper-fouls like mad. Just five rounds through that tube is enough to get wide, thick copper streaks the entire length of the bore. After 15-20 rounds, there are chunks of copper in the bore.
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Did you get SS or ChroMo? Have you heard of anyone else with issues similar to this? Did you call or email Shaw?
You may have to fire polish or use some bore lapping paste to smooth it out. I hope yours was the exception and not the rule.
 
I have a couple of Shaw barrels only one of them is currently installed. The one that's installed fouled horribly as well so I bought a Tubb's Final Finish kit for it. I cleaned the barrel to remove all the copper and then spent a day at the range fire lapping the barrel. It was a lot of work but it significantly reduced the rate at which the barrel fouls and cleans. I bought another Tubb's kit to do my other Shaw barrel when I get around to installing it as well.
 
I decided the best, "most powerful" cartridge that would fit through a standard 30-06 was the 35 Whelen. A 35 Whelen Improved with its sharper shoulder might be an improvement, especially when it relates to ignition reliability. See Rechambering from 35 Whelen to 35 Whelen Ackley http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=568140 Whelen designed a 400 Whelen, I read glowing testimonials, but that cartridge seems to have fizzed out.

The 35 Whelen does not require a new bolt, will fit into a 30-06 magazine, has a reasonably flat trajectory, good sized bullet hole, hits hard.
 
BoogieMan said:
Did you get SS or ChroMo? Have you heard of anyone else with issues similar to this? Did you call or email Shaw?
You may have to fire polish or use some bore lapping paste to smooth it out. I hope yours was the exception and not the rule.
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My barrel is stainless steel.
Shaw didn't want to deal with me, since the barrel had already been installed, and they considered the tool marks to be a "cosmetic defect" that didn't matter and should have been caught during inspection (true, to some degree).

I have read of several other people encountering the same issues. I would say we're more the minority than an exception. Shaw barrels aren't exactly high quality. What you get is a bit of a crap-shoot.

I will say that even with the horrendous bore, that Whelen was shooting very well on its first day. With a couple range trips and a recycled, low quality, used scope ('80s vintage, beat up Tasco Pronghorn 4x from the parts box), it has settled in as a 3/4" or better shooter (100 yd).




Slamfire said:
I decided the best, "most powerful" cartridge that would fit through a standard 30-06 was the 35 Whelen. A 35 Whelen Improved with its sharper shoulder might be an improvement, especially when it relates to ignition reliability. See Rechambering from 35 Whelen to 35 Whelen Ackley http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=568140 Whelen designed a 400 Whelen, I read glowing testimonials, but that cartridge seems to have fizzed out.

The 35 Whelen does not require a new bolt, will fit into a 30-06 magazine, has a reasonably flat trajectory, good sized bullet hole, hits hard.
Click to expand...
I'm a big (theoretical) fan of the .400 Whelen. Built properly, with the blown out body, it is a great cartridge. But... it is difficult or expensive to get proper dies. It can be difficult or expensive to find a proper chamber reamer. Bullets are a little more spendy that the competition. And forming cases really requires .30-06 basic or even .400 Whelen basic brass, in order to avoid overly thin necks ... which is expensive and more expensive, respectively.

I have wanted a .35 Whelen (original) longer than a .400 Whelen, and the modern (Remington/RCBS) .35 Whelen was significantly cheaper to build. Standard production dies, factory brass, cheap bullets, cheaper barrels, and more.
So, I swallowed some pride and went the cheap(er) route.
I don't regret it. It's a great cartridge. But I would prefer the original blown out .35 Whelen, and do still want a proper (blown out) .400 Whelen....
 
Check out the 338-06

After you see what 9.3x64 brass and bullets cost. Also, you have a limited selection of .366 bullets available. 338 has 185, 200, 225, and 250. My 338 propels 200s at 2810 in 22". One caveat, the barrel is throated for 250 Noslers at max OAL.
 
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