Good & Cheap

The U.S. Army adopted the .30 Government 1906 cartridge as its official infantry round 100 years ago. Slightly modified from the 1903 version developed for the Springfield rifle, it has since been known as the .30-06. Soldiers first hailed its ability to match the 8x57 German cartridge. A generation later, GIs used it in the Garand in the Pacific and European theatres, and eventually Korea. The '06 is still beloved by many veterans whose service predated the M16.

The hunting record of the .30-06 surpasses that of any modern sporting cartridge save, perhaps, the .30-30. Soldiers returning from the Great War wanted the power and reach afforded by their Springfields and Enfields. In 1937, the .30-06 became the Winchester Model 70's most popular chambering, and has since appeared in every American rifle whose mechanism can accommodate it. European riflemakers have embraced the round, too. You can get .30-06 ammo almost anywhere in the world; more loads are currently listed for the .30-06 than for any other sporting cartridge by U.S. companies.

This popularity is well deserved; no more versatile cartridge exists. With 55-grain sabot bullets, the .30-06 outperforms the .22-250; bullets scaling 125 to 150 grains shoot flat and fast, with little recoil; hunters wanting more punch choose 165- and 180-grain loads; bullets as heavy as 220 grains appear in factory ammo, though their round noses leak energy fast. The .30-06 remains the standard by which other hunting cartridges are judged.

Five Affordable Rifles

In celebration of the cartridge's 100 years in service, the editors at Petersen's Hunting thought it a pious idea to assess some options in meat-and-potatoes .30-06 rifles. We scrounged catalogs and sifted out five of the most popular, affordable bolt rifles to offer the round and ordered samples to shoot. The .30-06 started out in hunting camps as first pick of the proletariat. Would modern .30-06 rifles still satisfy hunters who demand rugged, accurate guns?

Chosen rifles included a CZ 550 American, a Remington 700 BDL, a Ruger M77R Mk II, a Savage 114 American Classic and a Weatherby Vanguard. The idea was to limit this project to rifles in the $500 to $600 range. Though suggested retail of several rifles tested exceeds $600, they can all be found on the market for less than list price.

The Test Procedure

I scoped them not with high-power target glass but with the scopes big game hunters might take afield. I chose a 3-9X Alpen, a 6X Leupold and one of the newest Zeiss scopes, a 4x32. I rounded out the field with two 4x44s from Cabela's--scopes I've had for awhile but not used. Some shooters might question accuracy tests run with scopes of such low magnification, but from a solid rest with a target designed for a low-power scope, I've fired groups smaller than a quarter-inch. Besides, the goal of this project was to check out-of-the-box accuracy against a standard. My standard, if arbitrary, has served me well in practical hunting rifle evaluations.

My routine for checking the accuracy and functioning of rifles is not really a test; it's not definitive. But it's easy, quick and repeatable. You needn't buy a truckload of ammo or spend the next four holidays handloading. Here it is: Take the rifle out of the box, swab and then dry the bore. Stuff the magazine full of cartridges and cycle them slooowly through the chamber. Fill the magazine again and run rounds through as fast as you can work the bolt--again, without pulling the trigger. Functioning problems generally show up in one of these two exercises, or in the shooting, if they show up at all. Of course, it's best to use the ammunition you favor for hunting, or ammo you think least likely to feed well.