Posted on 10/15/2006 3:21:23 PM PDT by pa_dweller
From "An Introduction to Collecting .30-06 " by Chris Punnett
The .30-06 cartridge can be looked at as the result of several different developments that took place during the closing decades of the nineteenth century. These developments were: the change from blackpowder to smokeless powder; the general acceptance throughout the world of the benefits of smaller caliber weapons; and the desire to move away from a rimmed cartridge. The move to smokeless powder and smaller diameter bullets had been accomplished to some degree with the adoption of the rimmed .30 Krag in 1892 but this proved to have a limited powder capacity. By 1901, work had started on a rimless cartridge which was based on an earlier rimmed experimental .30 caliber round. The result of this work was the .30 Ball Model of 1901 - the ".30-01" or "Thick-rim". As its name implies, the rim on this cartridge was thick in comparison to more modern rimless cartridges including the .30-03 and .30-06 which followed. The bottle-necked case held a 220-grain round-nosed cupronickel-jacketed bullet.
Running parallel to this was the development of the Springfield Magazine Rifle. By 1903, the original .30-01 cartridge had lost its thick rim and had been adopted as the .30 Model of 1903 - the ".30-03", and in the same year the Springfield was also adopted as the .30 Rifle, Model of 1903.
The .30-03 retained the 220-grain round-nosed bullet of its predecessor at a time when most world powers had realized the advantages of a pointed or "spitzer" bullet. In early 1906, a pointed bullet was mounted on a .30-03 case that had the neck reduced by a tenth of an inch to accommodate the reduced bearing surface on this new bullet. Thus, on October 15, 1906, with little fanfare, was born the .30 Cal. Model of 1906 - the ".30-06".
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A 30.'06 poem from Cooper's Commentaries
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A lot of cartridges have gone away
And new ones regularly appear
But the 30.'06 just keeps chugging along,
Possessing versatility without peer.
Killed its share of critters
And served us well in war,
Punched a share of Perry paper too,
So its place in the books is secure.
There are those rounds more accurate
And some with less recoil
But the '06 among them stands
A centenarian resisting spoil.
Well, what we need now is a qualitative jump in the barrel metallurgy. Barrel metal is the bottleneck. If, say, barrel resistance to abrasion and gas erosion could be jacked up, then we might get much better rounds than 30-06, Weatherbies or Lazzeronies.
Why use metals at all? I propose a carbon-fiber barrel with a ceramic liner.
Would the bullets have to change?
I would go with the monocrystalline metal barrel. They used to grow large monocrystals and machine jet turbine blades from them.
Can't stay and tend. I'll check back tomorrow.
Probably not if you coated the liner with something. The big advantage here would be the heat resistance and not having to keep the damn thing oiled.
Interesting idea. What alloys can they do that with?
Some sort of high temperature steels, IIRC. But I'm only organic chemist [and a shooting enthusiast], and not a metallurgist.
Happy Birthday .30-06
I'll give my two rifles of that caliber a pat goodnight.
Good post. I think the history of the development of cartridges would be a good History Channel subject. Considering the effect of the cartridge/breach loading/autofeeding rifle and machine gun on warfare and thus on history, you would think that it would be given more than passing mention.
bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-PING!
Happy Birthday and many more!
Barrel durability is not a problem whatsoever in small arms. Building a barrel that will last nearly forever under heavy use is not an attainable goal with current materials. But building a barrel that will last long enough to perform any reasonable shooting task and then be replaced is well understood and has been for decades.
By far the most demanding application for gun barrel technology is in front of a revolver breech air to air cannon as installed on fighter aircraft. These fire 25 to 30 shots per second with chamber pressures in the 65000 PSI range. They will wear the rifling out of a barrel in just a couple of seconds. But as the aircraft carry only enough ammunition for a few bursts, that is quite good enough. The barrel is changed after a mission or two in which it was actually used, and that's that.
A barrel is a consumable, just like a drill bit or a saw blade.
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