Varmint Loads for the .30-06

All the Reasons for shooting Big-Game Rifles in the Off-Season

- Jim Matthews

Until I was into my early 30s, my gun rack held one centerfire rifle. As a kid in the 1960s, I remember that most of my uncles and my family’s hunting friends had just one rifle for big game. It was often pressed into service to shoot running jackrabbits and coyotes in the off-season. Some would cast and handload inexpensive lead bullets and use them to thin ground squirrel and rockchuck populations near their western homes.

That was common. A lot of working-class hunters never owned more than one centerfire rifle; a condition forced on them by economics. While falling a little out of favor today as the one, do-everything cartridge, the .30-06 is still one of the most popular rounds on the market, and it is still the round of choice for many big-game hunters across the country. With the possible exception of the big bears, the .30-06 will handle any big game in North America with authority.

Wanna know a little secret? It is hard on varmints. Just about all the rifles chambered for this cartridge are accurate enough to consistently make hits on tiny varmints out to 200 yards, and critters the size of prairie dogs and wood or rockchucks out to 300 yards. Coyotes are in serious danger about as far away as most hunters will attempt shots on these predators. Many rifles are tack drivers, even with light barrels, and will take predators at distances equal to any cartridge/rifle factory combination.

Is it an ideal varmint cartridge? Of course not. Recoil can be pretty abrupt for extended shooting sessions on ground squirrels with standard power loads.