Due to its great popularity, the .30-06 is one of the very first cartridges in which a new rifle becomes available, and it is offered in rifles of all types. As the lever action goes, the Winchester Model 1895 is both scarce and expensive, but if you simply must have a hunting rifle of this type in .30-06, you can do a lot worse than the Browning BLR. If a single-shot rifle is your cup of tea, take a serious look at the Blaser K95, Ruger No. 1, Browning 1885, Thompson/Center Encore, Dakota Model 10, Merkel K1, and Mossberg SS-1. I have taken game with the Ruger, Browning, T/C, Dakota, and Blaser single shots, and I could live happily ever after if any of these was the only big-game rifle in my battery.

The .30-06 may be America's most versatile hunting round partly because it is available in several specialty factory loadings, ranging from the 55-grain Accelerator, which equals .220 Swift and .22-250 velocities, to Federal's High Energy, which equals .300 H&H Magnum.

Except for an old Remington Model 81 in .300 Savage that I simply love to take on deer hunts, I am not much of an autoloader man, but for those who are, the unsinkable Remington 742 (now known as the Model 7400), the newly introduced Remington Model 750 Woodsmaster, and the Browning BAR will fire each time their triggers are squeezed, and they will keep on shooting until the deer is down or the magazine is empty. And for those who agree that General George S. Patton was correct when he stated that the M1 Garand is "the greatest implement of battle ever devised," Springfield Armory is now producing that rifle in all its glory.

Then we have the bolt-action rifle. One of the best ways to assure the commercial success of a new bolt gun is to offer the .30-06 as one of its available chamberings, and one of the best ways to assure that a new rifle is doomed to failure is to never offer it in .30-06. This is a lesson most rifle manufacturers learned long ago, and it is one they remember even today. Truly successful rifles such as the Winchester 70, Remington 700, Browning A-Bolt, Sako 75, Weatherby Vanguard, Ruger 77, and Savage 110 have something other than the type of action they share in common--they have long been available in .30-06 Springfield.

The .30-06 was not the first rifle cartridge that I bought reloading dies for many years ago (the .243 and .270 came first), but I have probably spent more time at the reloading bench with it than with any other big-game cartridge. The two most accurate rifles of this caliber I have ever owned were a Pre-'64 Winchester Model 70 target rifle and a Remington 40-X. Both thrived on the Sierra 168-grain MatchKing nudged out of the muzzle at 2700 fps by IMR-4895. A match-grade M1 Garand I used to own was not as accurate as those two rifles, but it was accurate enough to be great fun to shoot.

Back when I hunted with the .30-06 a lot more than I do today, I usually stuck with two bullets--the Speer 150-grain spitzer for deer and antelope, and the Nosler 180-grain Partition for elk. Most of the rifles I have used through the years had 22-inch barrels, and they delivered close to 3000 fps with the 150-grain bullet and 2800 fps with the 180-grain bullet.

Not long ago, I discovered the effectiveness of the Nosler 125-grain Ballistic Tip on pronghorn antelope. When exiting the muzzle at 3300 fps and zeroed three inches high at 100 yards, it is just about dead-on point of aim at 300 yards and about 10 inches low at 400, where it is still delivering close to 1500 foot-pounds of energy. That's .270 Winchester flat from a cartridge capable of handling bullets heavy and stout enough for use on game as large as Alaska brown bear.

The .30-06 can be quite accurate with about any concoction, including reduced-velocity loads, and I have included two in my data chart--one for use on small game at close to medium ranges; the other a .30-30 Winchester-equivalent load that's just the ticket for a young deer hunter who is a bit sensitive to recoil.

Long live the .30-06 Springfield. May its voice never be silent for as long as game all around the world is there to be hunted.