I have been a member here for several years. When I started I had no idea what I was doing when it came to precision shooting, BC's, ballistics, etc. Over the years, I bit into the newest and greatest cartridge idea. Seeing what people were claiming certain cartridges could do just amazed me, so I had to have one built. In the end, I have spent a lot of money on rifles over the last 5-7 years. Most of them shot well, but did not fill a need that I was looking for. Most of the rifles that I had built I ended up selling or trading to try something new. I will admit that I get bored really easy. About 6 months ago I was thinking about what is next. What rifle am I going to start working on? I picked up an old Rem 700 30-06 from a member on here for pretty cheap. It had a pretty nice wood stock and from the pictures the bluing was in pretty good condition. I knew from the start that this rifle had been well used. When I received it, it was pretty beat up. But for the price I figured at least I had an earlier model action to work with.
While trying to decide what to use the action for, I thought why not rebarrel it to what it originally was, a 30-06. Now, I have never been a fan of the cartridge. Mainly because my dad bought me one when I was 12 and it kicked the snot out of me. On top of that, I could never hit anything with it. Well, that is not exactly true, I did shoot 4-5 blacktail bucks with that rifle when I was young. But it has never been a consideration up until now. With all of the new bullets and powders, I though maybe this might fill my need for a light weight, packing rifle that had a decent punch.
About a month ago my barreled action was completed and showed up at my house. LRI did great work as usual. But, this one seemed perfect. They blue-printed the action, installed the Bartlein barrel, Cerakote, and a muzzle break (because I still can't get that thought out of my mind). It was chambered in 30-06 with the Serengeti reamer. I bedded the barreled action into a McMillan Edge Hunter stock with Hawkins bdl bottom metal. With Optics (Leupold VX5HD scope) the rifles weighs right around 8lbs. I started some load development. I wanted to try out the the 181gr Hammer bullet. After trying a couple of different powders, primers, and seating depths I was finally satisfied that I had found the perfect load. I was shooting three shot 3/4" groups at 200 yards. Normally, I shoot all of my test loads over my chronograph to see velocities as I go. This time, my chronograph had been acting up so I just shot for accuracy. Once I found the load, I went out and ran in across the Chrono (which I replaced the chord on and was working perfectly). I was very surprised and what the final outcome was. With 57.5gr of H4350 and Fed 210M primers with Lapua brass, I was getting a consistent 2894fps. This is from a 22" barrel. I had originally loaded to 58grs, which was giving me some flattening of the primers and a faint extractor mark. Also, the groups were starting to open up. I had figured that I would run them around 2750, or 2800 if I was lucky. But this kind of blew me away. Doing the numbers off of this velocity makes the old 30-06 look much more impressive than I would have thought.
Sorry for the long winded tail of this rifle. I think that I have found the hunting rifle that fits my needs. It will not be my long range rig, my 300 win mag still has that designation, but it will be my everything from deer to elk to 750 yards rifle. The moral to my story is that I think that the 30-06 is still as relevant, or even more so than ever. And it is really cheap to work with. I will post some pictures in a little while.
While trying to decide what to use the action for, I thought why not rebarrel it to what it originally was, a 30-06. Now, I have never been a fan of the cartridge. Mainly because my dad bought me one when I was 12 and it kicked the snot out of me. On top of that, I could never hit anything with it. Well, that is not exactly true, I did shoot 4-5 blacktail bucks with that rifle when I was young. But it has never been a consideration up until now. With all of the new bullets and powders, I though maybe this might fill my need for a light weight, packing rifle that had a decent punch.
About a month ago my barreled action was completed and showed up at my house. LRI did great work as usual. But, this one seemed perfect. They blue-printed the action, installed the Bartlein barrel, Cerakote, and a muzzle break (because I still can't get that thought out of my mind). It was chambered in 30-06 with the Serengeti reamer. I bedded the barreled action into a McMillan Edge Hunter stock with Hawkins bdl bottom metal. With Optics (Leupold VX5HD scope) the rifles weighs right around 8lbs. I started some load development. I wanted to try out the the 181gr Hammer bullet. After trying a couple of different powders, primers, and seating depths I was finally satisfied that I had found the perfect load. I was shooting three shot 3/4" groups at 200 yards. Normally, I shoot all of my test loads over my chronograph to see velocities as I go. This time, my chronograph had been acting up so I just shot for accuracy. Once I found the load, I went out and ran in across the Chrono (which I replaced the chord on and was working perfectly). I was very surprised and what the final outcome was. With 57.5gr of H4350 and Fed 210M primers with Lapua brass, I was getting a consistent 2894fps. This is from a 22" barrel. I had originally loaded to 58grs, which was giving me some flattening of the primers and a faint extractor mark. Also, the groups were starting to open up. I had figured that I would run them around 2750, or 2800 if I was lucky. But this kind of blew me away. Doing the numbers off of this velocity makes the old 30-06 look much more impressive than I would have thought.
Sorry for the long winded tail of this rifle. I think that I have found the hunting rifle that fits my needs. It will not be my long range rig, my 300 win mag still has that designation, but it will be my everything from deer to elk to 750 yards rifle. The moral to my story is that I think that the 30-06 is still as relevant, or even more so than ever. And it is really cheap to work with. I will post some pictures in a little while.
