The .30-06 Springfield cartridge (pronounced "thirty-aught-six" /ˈθɜːrti ɔːt sɪks/), 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester,[5] was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military use until the late 1970s.

The cartridge was loaded with military rifle (MR) 21 propellant, and its maximum range was claimed (falsely) to be 4,700 yd (4,300 m).

Before the widespread employment of light mortars and artillery, long-range machine gun "barrage" or indirect fires were considered important in U.S. infantry tactics.

[12] Firing tests performed around 1918 at Borden Brook Reservoir (Massachusetts), Miami, and Daytona Beach showed the actual maximum range of the M1906 cartridge to be 3,300 to 3,400 yards (3,020 to 3,110 m).

The s.S. Patrone was introduced in 1914 and used a 197.5-grain (12.80 g) s.S. – schweres Spitzgeschoß (heavy spitzer) boat-tail bullet which had a maximum range of approximately 5,000 m (5,468 yd).

[14] For these reasons, in 1926, the ordnance corps, after extensive testing of 7.5×55mm Swiss GP11 projectiles provided by the Swiss, developed the .30 M1 ball cartridge loaded with a new improved military rifle (IMR) 1185 propellant and 174-grain (11.28 g) bullet with a 9° boat-tail and an ogive of 7 calibers nose cone that had a higher ballistic coefficient of roughly 0.494 (G1 BC),[15][16] that achieved a muzzle velocity of 2,647 ft/s (807 m/s) and muzzle energy of 2,675 ft⋅lbf (3,627 J).

[17] This bullet further reduced air resistance in flight, resulting in less rapid downrange deceleration, less lateral drift caused by crosswinds, and significantly greater supersonic and maximum effective range from machine guns and rifles alike.

An emergency order was made to manufacture quantities of ammunition that matched the external ballistics of the earlier M1906 cartridge as soon as possible.

[citation needed] The Belgian army (ABL) bought the FN Model 1949 rifle in .30-06 caliber (both as a sniper version with telescopic sights and as a general service weapon).

The Belgian armed forces used the round widely in the Korean war, where the .30-06 caliber FN-49 proved to be a superior weapon in terms of both accuracy and reliability to the American M1 Garand.

[citation needed] Large volumes of surplus brass made it the basis for dozens of commercial and wildcat cartridges, as well as being extensively used for reloading.

It is still a very common round for hunting and is suitable for large game such as bison, Sambar deer, and bear, when used at close to medium ranges.

However, when loaded more closely to the original government specs, .30-06 remains within the upper limit of felt recoil most shooters consider tolerable over multiple rounds, unlike the magnums, and is not unnecessarily destructive of meat on game such as deer.

The .30-06's power and versatility (combined with the availability of surplus firearms chambered for it and demand for commercial ammunition) have kept the round as one of the most popular for hunting in North America.

[22] The U.S. Marine Corps retained stocks of M1 ammunition for use by snipers and trained marksmen throughout the Solomon Islands campaign in the early years of the war.

[24] In an effort to increase accuracy, some snipers resorted to use of the heavier .30-06 M2 armor-piercing round, a practice that re-emerged during the Korean War.

A test done by Brass Fetchers shows that M2 AP can actually penetrate up to 0.5 in (12.70 mm) of MIL-A-12560 armor steel from a distance of 100 yards (91 m).

The higher muzzle velocities reported by Nosler for 165 grains (10.7 g) and heavier bullets use loads employing a slow-burning, double-base powder (Alliant Reloder 22).

One reason that the .30-06 has remained a popular round for so long is that the cartridge is at the upper limit of power that is tolerable to most shooters.

[citation needed] Although the .30-06 was designed as a military round, it soon caught the attention of big game hunters in the United States.

The .30-06 also could be loaded with the then new spitzer designed projectiles, which also contributed to extending the cartridge's performance with respect to other .30 caliber bullets fired from lever action rifles, making it easier to put venison on the table.

Thus, the cartridge may be used to hunt animals of different sizes from varmint to moose and even brown bears with adequately constructed heavy bullets.

[39] Since the cartridge may be used for taking all North American big game species it was considered an all-round by hunters and gun writers as Jack O'Connor, who hunted extensively with it.

[40][41] President Theodore Roosevelt took a .30-06 to his famous African Safari along with his son Kermit and Frederick Courteney Selous, proving that the .30-06 could bring down game of any size.

The 165 and 168-grain bullets with higher ballistic coefficient contribute to buck cross winds more efficiently and maintain downrange energy at expense of a more curved trajectory, while loaded with 180 to 220 grains, the .30-06 is adequate for hunting larger game such as elk, moose, and even brown bears.

The .30-06 (or "caliber .30") cartridge was adopted in 1940 during the beginnings of the Lend-Lease program in anticipation of using American weapons in front-line service.

The .30-06 round was adopted in 1949 for use in American war surplus military aid weapons like the M1 Garand and M1919 medium machinegun.