Nomenclature question (30-06)

P

private_idaho

New member
Ok, this is kind of a stupid question, but what does the "aught-six" mean in 30-06? I know a bit about calibers, and was answering gun questions over dinner last night with a couple of non-gun-owning friends, but they stumped me with this one. I did a search of the forums for info, but didn't find the answer....

thanks in advance -
 
Aww nuts....tried to add something and deleted my text....oh well, forget it. :( :)
 
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interesting...i had always believed that we get "naught" from the english- it means zero...at least that is what they taught us in hongkong
by the way, '06 refers to the year the round/gun combo was adopted into service
 
Private_Idaho. It's real simple. 30-06. Thirty caliber, model of 1906.
When we first went to the 1903 Sprinfield rifle, the round was the 30-03 (thirty caliber, model of 1903.) which used a 220 gr. round nosed 30 caliber bullet at originally 2300 FPS. The powders of the day were quite erosive, so the velocity was reduced to 2200 FPS to help save the barrels.
In 1905, the Germans reduced the weight of their 8MM bullet and increased the velocity quite a bit. (sorry, I forgot the numbers.) So we reduced bullet weight to 150 gr. at, if memory serves, 2700 FPS in 1906, hence 30-06. There was a change to a 172 gr. boattail bullet sometime in the 1920s, but a return to the 150 gr. bullet just prior to WW-2.
Hope this cleas it up for you.
Paul B.
 
Paul is correct. After the new cartridge was adopted in 1906, all the Model 1903 rifles went back to Springfield to have the barrels modified or have new barrels put on, since the new cartridge case was shorter than the old one. Many of the rifles had already been modified once, when the rod bayonet was removed and the new front band for the knife bayonet was put on.

So the U.S. had a Model 1903 rifle firing a Model 1906 cartridge.

Jim
 
The 1906 modifications, additional.

The original specs for the 1903 service rifle called for a 24 inch barrel. By the time the design for the new cartridge was finalized, there were already a bunch of the .30-03 rifles in service. Rather than rebarrel the earlier rifles, the government had them rechambered. This necessitated setting the barrel back by one or two threads--sorry, don't recall which, and can't find it in E. C. Crossman's The Book of the Springfield, at short notice. Anyhow, this resulted in the rechambered barrel being some 23.75 inches in length. As a matter of uniformity, all subsequently produced barrels were of this same length.

There- - - I'll bet you couldn't have slept well without knowing THAT!

Best,
Johnny
 
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