Pennsylvania Game News - January 2009 - 62

clip of ammunition. It was the Mauser 95 and 98 that made manufacturers design a better mouse trap, and by 1903 the Springfield Model 1903 rifle with the rimless .3003 cartridge came out. It handled a 30-caliber, 220-grain round nose bullet at around 2,400 fps. It was about a year after the U.S. adopted the Springfield that Germany took its 8mm 236-grain round-nosed bullet and redesigned it to a 154-grain spitzer. This new type of round was ballistically far superior at around 2,800 fps (as compared to the older round at 2,200 fps from the carbine) and far more accurate at longer ranges. Many of the world’s militaries followed suite in redesigning their projectiles, and the U.S. was no exception. We changed the 220-grain round-nosed bullet to a 150-grain spitzer flying at about 2,700 fps, which increased its maximum range to more than 3,000 yards. In doing so, the shorter bullets left more freebore space (the distance the bullet jumps before it meets the rifling), so the Armory cut close to one-tenth of an inch off the neck of the .30-03 cartridge case to accommodate the shorter bullet, and brought out this new round in 1906, creating the .30-06 cartridge. The barrels of the existing .30-03 rifles were cut back to accommodate the shortened cartridge, and all future Springfield “03”s were chambered for the new dimensions. The .30-06 cartridge and the sporterized Springfield ’03 rifle became the choice of such famous outdoorsmen as Townsend Whelen, Teddy Roosevelt and Stewart White, just to name a few. With that kind of publicity, plus being our military cartridge, its success was very much assured. Outside of the Springfield sporter, the first commercial rifle chambered for the .30-06 62 The Winchester Model 1895 lever action rifle was chambered in .30-06, and TEDDY ROOSEVELT carried one in that caliber on his famous African Safari. was the lever action model Winchester 1895 (around 1908), and by the end of the 1920s, it was housed in the Winchester M54, Remington M30, and Savage Models 40 and 45 bolt guns. Throughout the early years when sporting ammunition was being developed, it was learned that the 1 in 10-inch twist rifling and case volume of the .30-06 could handle a wide range of bullet weights from 110 grains to 220 grains. The popular early expanding hunting bullets ranged from 150 grains and 180 grains that could handle any game from deer to bear, and if dangerous game was tackled, there were the 220-grain round nose solids and soft points, which were adequate if marksmanship skills were up to snuff. The .30-06 not only made a great military and hunting round, it also earned a reputation as a great target round, using a 172-grain spitzer boattail bullet traveling at around 2,700 fps for long range competition (although it was originally designed for machinegun use and had an effective range past 5,000 yards). It had set many records and was always the measured bench mark to be met or surpassed for future target rounds. Today, the popularity of the .30-06 hasn’t waned, and in talking to Remington, Winchester and Federal, it averages out in the top three rifle cartridges sold. Even in sale of reloading dies, RCBS, Redding and Lyman said that it’s also among the top five. The .30-06 is chambered not only in every manufacturers’ standard length bolt gun, but also in single-shots (Ruger Number 1, Thompson Center Encore), pump actions GAME NEWS

Pennsylvania Game News - January 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - January 2009