My .30-06 is even more fun now…

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

On Dec. 31, I picked up a used, but in decent shape, Pre-accutrigger Savage 111 in .30-06, beechwood stock with pressed checkering, 4 round blind magazine, and Williams iron sights, a good, solid basic rifle

I’ve shot a couple boxes of factory loaded 180GN out of it, and have been pleased with the results, with my bad eyes and iron sights, I’m getting groups of about 1" at 50Y, I know the gun is capable of better, and I’m the cause of the mediocre groups, I’m sure they’ll tighten up with a decent scope, but as it stands right now, the gun shoots Minute-Of-Deer and that’s perfectly fine with me, if I want to chase one-holers, I break out my scoped CZ Ultralux anyway, the Sav111 is a utility/general purpose gun, nothing more

Anyway, I had been reading up on subsonic and downloaded loads for the '06, and I found a recipie that works brilliantly well for my intended purpose…

The purpose is short-range plinking, with low noise and low recoil, also as a training round for people who are recoil-shy…

So, using what I have on hand, I assembled the following load;
CCI Benchrest LR primer
Federal brass (free, from my last '06 that I traded a few years ago)
14.3 grains of Trail Boss powder (fills the cartridge about 3/4 of the way)
Hornady Interlock SP 160 grain jacketed bullet

Before loading the recipie, I seated a bullet long in an unfired case, then closed the bolt on it to get the OAL for the rifle,

Once the rounds had been loaded up, I went out to my 25Y backyard range with the first five cartridges, set my sights on target, and pulled the trigger…

The gun emitted a loud POP!, a little louder then a .22 Mag, and the target rocked back hard from a solid strike, there was no recoil to speak of, no more than a .22 Mag, the test was a success, I had a quiet, no recoil plinking load for my '06, it was amazingly fun, I’m still smiling thinking about it now

Logan, my nephew was there as well, he saw me shoot the '06 with full power factory loads at the range yesterday, and he was rather intimidated by the gun, he definitely did not want to shoot it, it was the biggest, loudest gun he has yet seen and heard (he’s 11 years old) he was happier punching quarter sized groups on the 50Y range with my Ultralux (his first time on a commercial range, his first time shooting 50Y, and he was grouping quarter sized groups…)

So, today, seeing me shoot that same intimidating rifle with no recoil and a quiet report, I asked him if he wanted to try the Trail Boss rounds…

He did… And he did quite well, I shot the first two rounds as a function test, and he happily finished off the last three

Lets just say, the expression of an eleven year old after firing his first real center fire rifle was quite memorable, couldn’t wipe the grin of his face, he was actually disappointed that I only had five rounds on me…

So, once we went back inside the house, I grabbed my Lee hand press kit, dies, and components for the Trail Boss load, and taught him how to hand load rifle cartridges (he already has his own MEC Jr. 28 gauge shots he’ll press, so he’s got the basics down)

He loaded up five more TB rounds, beaming with pride, but when I asked him if he wanted to shoot them, he said he wanted to keep them as souvenirs of his first time shooting a center fire rifle, and his first homemade handloads

Long post short, these TB rounds work brilliantly for their intended purpose and in my rifle, I will be making more…

I’ll do a 50Y accuracy test the next time I hit the range

…oh, and these rounds were phenomenally clean as well, the bore looks unfired after five rounds

Pvt. Baldrick; You know they say that somewhere out there, there’s a bullet with your name on it?, I thought if I OWNED the bullet with my name on it, then I’d never get shot with it…

2

Way back when Dad and I loaded up some 110 Gr. spire points with a small dollop of Unique and a bunch of toilet paper to keep it back against the primer. That load was published in the Rifleman…neither of us willing to risk experimentation. They were fun to shoot, but the TP made a big mess. TrailBoss seems like it would be a winner.

3

I just received a reply from my gun club that they are affiliated with the Civilian Marksmanship Program. So I assume I’m eligible to purchase an M1 Garand. I need one of those for the collection, and it would be neato-mosquito to have a .30-06.

4

Now all you need is a can!
http://www.advanced-armament.com/762mm-Rifle_c_19.html

5

That’s the great thing about trail boss powder, it was designed with three goals in mind;

1; for low pressure, light recoiling “cowboy” loads
2; to take up as much volume inside the case for use with the old tall brass cases like the .45 Colt that were originally loaded with black powder
3; to make it practically and physically impossible to double (or more) charge a case

Trail boss is one of the safest propellants in the hobby, it only gets spooky/scary if the charge is compressed, breaking the Cheerios changes its burn characteristics and is strongly discouraged

Maximum case capacity for an uncompressed .30-06 trail boss load is 19 grains, my loads are 14.3 grains, there’s a bit of a safety margin there, as well as room to experiment…

In fact, IMR claims that its basically impossible to damage a gun with an uncompressed trail boss load, to find max load, fill the case to the base of the seated bullet, then measure that load, that is the max load for the case, reduce that load by 70% to get the starting load for that case

6

If you’ve never bought before, you gotta get the order sheet notarized. IIRC good for 3 years without notarization. You also need another evidence of involvement, C&R will work. After that, it’s an uncomfortable wait. Plus more money because you want (another) carbine :). I also recommend something like this if you want to shoot modern ammo.

DO WANT!!! That has iron sights, right? Can you only use the scope, or are the rings high enough?

7

Everyone says you can’t shoot commercial ammo on an M1 “Garand”, but

  1. Will you damage it in a dozen rounds, or a thousand, or maybe never, and
  2. Why doesn’t some commerical ammo manufacturer make compatible ammunition?
8
  1. The operating rod supposedly gets bent. I don’t think it’s a certainty, but <$36 is a small price to pay. It also allows you to shoot it “bolt action” style, if you wish.
  2. They do. I saw some the other day. Don’t remember the brand, but at least Hornady does. From my experience, it is pricy, but then non bulk .30-06 is not very cheap.
9

The UL has those wonderful tangent sights on it, yes, I did have to use high scope rings to get bolt handle clearance though

This gun is boringly accurate, at 50 yards, dime-sized groups are the norm, I’ve also had a few one-holers with it too, although most of the time I get four through the same hole and then blowing the group with a flyer on the fifth shot, D’oh!

It’s also dramatically quieter than even the Lux/Special/Trainer (they have a 24" barrel, the UL has a 28.5"), when I shoot subsonic rounds on my backyard range I don’t even need hearing protection, using Subsonics at the range usually gets me at least a couple people asking if I have a silencer on it…

10

Thanks. Not meaning to hijack further, but the reason I asked is that I had planned to do the same, although probably with a regular Lux. I asked about it on another forum and everybody thought it wouldn’t work and that I’d sacrifice both iron and scope functionality.

11

I won’t lie, scoping any of the “Hogback” euro-style CZ stocks will likely cause you to get a “jaw-weld” rather than a proper cheek weld, but you can solve that issue with a cheek pad, perhaps a nice leather lace on model, or you could replace the stock with one set up for scope use, you’ll still need high rings to clear the bolt handle though

Also, the grooved scope rail on the receiver uses 11MM rings, rather than the more common American 3/4" size, I used a set of B-Square 11MM on my UL

Oh, and to get back on track, I’ve been playing with my subsonic load recipie, I tried two more loads;

1; 14.5 grains Trailboss under a 165 grain SP
2; 14.5 grains Trailboss under a 135 grain SP
3; 17.9 grains Trailboss under a 135 grain SP

Load 1 was the original and is a great, balanced load, quiet, soft shooting, no recoil to speak of, seems to hit somewhat hard

Load 2 was a tad louder and ironically, actually had a little more recoil than load 1, nothing unpleasant, but just enough motion to let you know you were firing a center fire rifle

Load 3 seemed to be the most balanced, a tad more recoil than load 2, a bit more than a .22 Mag, noticeably louder, twice as loud as load 1, yet still subsonic, no sonic boom, it also seemed to shoot flatter and hit a LOT harder, I think this will be my primary plinking/varmint/small predator disposal round (we have problems with coy-dog coyote/dog hybrids and our livestock and companion animals), load 3 shows potential

I was shooting at a few tennis balls that had frozen into the ground in front of my backdrop, with each hit, it sent felt flying at least 15-20 feet in the air’ clearly dumping a LOT of energy into the target

Logan tried the two new loads as well, his favorite? He couldn’t decide, he liked the easy shooting and low recoil of load 2, but LOVED how load 3 decimated the tennis balls

Needless to say, I am seriously loving this rifle now, the versatility of the '06 still amazes me, it can handle anything from my ultralight plinking loads, to real shoulder-busters capable of taking any game on the North American continent (not that I hunt with it, that is, but it’s nice to know the capability is there

12

C&R? If you mean Curio & Relic, I don’t have one. If you mean something showing involvement with the club, I’m sure I can get something from the club.

Speaking of carbines, I got a paratrooper folding stock for one of my carbines. But only after I’d placed a bid on one at auction. (Both are reproductions.) Turns out I won the auction, so now I have two. :rolleyes:

13

Huh, had got it in my head that you did have one. Go fix that!

Ordering needs:
[ol]
[li]US Citizenship/Age - Easy.[/li][li]Club Membership - I use the Garand Collector’s Association, $25, or whatever you have.[/li][li]Participation in Marksmanship/Firearm Activity - C&R works, military ID, LEO, evidence of being at a range. It does sound pretty flexible. They have a form someone can fill out.[/li][li]Other specific things which don’t apply to most people.[/li][/ol]

Back when I used eBay, I’ve bought something twice after finding it in a store and forgetting I bid :smack:

BTW: anyone who uses CMP, does their eStore work for you? I type in a quantity, click add to cart… and nothing. Tried other browsers, AdBlock off, etc.

14

You gave me an idea. Time to bring out the wartime Springfield.

15

The eStore works. If not, give them a call.

I got my Danish (Springfield Armory) M1 Garand from the CMP and my M1 Carbine (Danish, I think). Fedex will deliver them right to your house. No FFL transfer fees.

16

I got my M1903 “Springfield”, M1903A3, M1917 “Enfield”, M1 “Garand” and M1 Carbine from the CMP. After that I let my paperwork lapse because I figured I have one of everything they offered, and I’m wasn’t one of those people that have dozens of each model or ever one from every maker. Still subscribe to the GCA though.

17

Semi- zombie respawn of the thread…

Got around to testing loads 1 and 3, target was 3 old hard drives taped together, range was 25 yards

Load 1 punched clean through 2 drives and stopped in the third, final impact crater on the third drive was around .50 caliber, and the rear frame was shattered, the top cover and rear frame had been completely flattened in the impact area, bullet completely fragmented, nothing left inside the drive, nothing to recover, drives were thrown 15 feet from the impact zone
Load 2 punched cleanly through all 3 drives and was not recovered, drives rocked a little and tipped over right where they were set up

Amazing performance from both loads, load 1 dumped all it’s energy into the target, load 2 “ice picked” it’s way through the drives