That’s because so many people now fancy themselves to be “long range shooters”.
Side note, my average deer shot the last several years was like 17yds, and I almost never bowhunt. Those prc rifles are interesting to me, but for hunting they just seem like more powder than I want to use for meat.
a guy I knew in Wyoming killed 32 bulls in 35 years with a browning BLR in 243. where you shoot them is more important than what you shoot them with
30.06 will take all N American game animals with proper bullet placement and can be loaded lighter for less recoil.
Me and the wife have both killed elk with 7x57 (much tamer than .308 or 30-06). That being said, if I didn't reload, I'd get a .308 in a second. Less recoil and shorter bolt than an '06, and plenty of punch for an elk.
My one and only Elk was with a .303 Enfield, which I also used for Deer until I got a .308
I heard a Canadian and Alaskan hunting outfitter who said he advises hunters to get a 30-06 and shoot it alot in all kinds of positions and distances from 10yds to 500yds as much as you can. You wont flinch from shooting compared to a belted mag or big straightwall cartridge gun and if you break your gun I am going to hand you a well worn Winchester model 70 or Remington 700 or Browning in 30-06 because they work.
I carried my M1 Garand elk hunting with 165gr Nosler Partition ammo because I can shoot it really good at distances from close up brush, trail or treestand shots out to 500yds.
Heavy yeah but I trusted the gun after the thousands of rounds I had fired over the years shooting it.
I carried my M1 Garand elk hunting with 165gr Nosler Partition ammo because I can shoot it really good at distances from close up brush, trail or treestand shots out to 500yds.
Heavy yeah but I trusted the gun after the thousands of rounds I had fired over the years shooting it.
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On one of my fishing trips to the NWT to a outpost camp one evening a grizzled older local indian came paddling in camp looking for a place to spend the night and possibly get a meal, his english wasn't all that good but the three of us managed to get our points across.....my partner and I fried him up some walleye fillets and potatoes and cleared him a spot on the floor for his bedroll on the floor.
After we filled his belly with walleye, potatoes and hot coffee we went out to his boat and in the bottom of the boat was an old beat up Brit 303 that looked like it had been passed down for a generation or two and a old brown box of what looked like surplus ammo.....the stock and barrel were wrapped together with bailing wire, the stock at the receiver / wrist had a good size crack in it that had rawhide wrapped around it and the front sight was sort of cockeyed canted off to the right.
He said that he'd paddle the smaller creeks quietly and when he came upon one feeding by the waters edge he'd fire and most of the time had to track it a day before it died but he'd never failed to get his moose for the winter.
I guess it just goes to show that if push came to shove that we don't really need our high dollar scopes and expensive rifles....."A country boy can survive".
Agree to a point, but the only time I've ever been scope bit was on a Zytel stock Ruger M77 in 30-06. That thing wopped me like my big bore guns lol. Shot it a couple of more times just to see if it was me the first time or not. That thing kicked lol. My .280 in a Ruger M77 wood stock is nothing like that 06, virtually the same case, and just 10gr bullet difference. Probably just the stock.
My parents gave me a Ruger 77 Ultralite 270 Win for Christmas in 1985, and that gun kicks worse than anything else I’ve ever shot. I endured the recoil and hunted with it until the early 2000’s when I bought my first Encore, and it was only then that I really realized how bad the Ruger was punishing me. I’ll never get rid of the gun but hope I never get desperate enough to have to hunt with it again.
In my opinion, Ruger stock design sucks.
