BSA 30-06

[ryanonthevedder]

Hey fellas I thought I'de contribute a little for the all Royal owners out there. I have an old  30-06 that I have dated back to 1957 which was the first year for the long action loads. It has the adjustable trigger and the beauty walnut stock and I even have the original PH rings that came with the gun. It has been in my family since the late 60's when my grand Dad bought it in northern British Columbia from the original owner. It was passed on to my Dad, and eventually to me after sitting on a shelf for 25 years at least.

The gun never really shot well though, and after some thinking it was decided that the old girl deserved some attention. I took it to a smith for a good cleaning and a re-blueing of the iron. I refinished the stock and when she was done it looked like new again. Unfortunately it still shot like ****...

I pulled the trigger on a new scope this year. I just couldn't bring myself to accept that this old classic that so many had said should be a A1 shooter couldn't group better than 3-4" at 100 yards. I mounted a new Leupold VX2 atop her and set out to the range. I figured that even if the rifle never came through that I would at least have a quality scope for a new firearm.

So the testing began. I got the scope dialed in enough to hit paper at 200, but the results were inconsistent... back to 100 yards for some more tinkering, then out to 200 for some more disappointment. Then the eureka moment. My partner had half a box of Federal premium ammo in 180g Nosler accubond. Five shots at 100 were within 1.5" of one another and at 200 two more shots were within 2".

Time to get more ammo and get dialed in! No such luck, the ammo was old and NLA...

Back to the drawing board. After trying every Nosler 180g load available I went back to the Federal premium but in the less accurate 180g Nosler partition. The game was back on. After some more 2" groups at 200 yards I had a round I could take out hunting.

It was just a week later that I took my first moose. Canada is the land of the iconic moose and my home province of British Columbia is one of the best places to get one. This year we had a draw for a mature bull, and everything aligned.

7:30 am we got into the swamp a bit late to find a cow moose staring at us right away. She was 400 yards off and in no hurry to go anywhere. Knowing it might be a while I started setting up for the morning. Just as I took the lid off my thermos out stepped the big bull behind the cow. This was it... I leveled the old BSA and put the 400 yard dot on the bull's shoulder. You could hear the buzz of the big bullet leave our position only to be followed up by a satisfying thwap!

That was it. The animal walked 30 yards and fell over dead. Double lung shot and the bullet passed though taking out a rib on exit. What a trophy and what a testament to the old gun that took it.

Once I put the time and development into this rifle I was more than happy with it. I have never been let down by it, but now I have a truly lethal hunter, a lineage, and a hell of a story to go along with it!

[gitano]

Welcome to THL, ryanonthevedder. Great story! And great picture!

Paul

PS - I edited your link so that it shows the picture instead of someone having to go to Photobucket to see it. If you use the formating instead of the (URL)...(/URL) formatting, the picture will be 'live' in the post. (I had to use parentheses around the URL formating instead of brackets "[...]" or the editor hides the "URL".) You'll notice that even though I wrote the letters "URL" between the brackets here: //..., the only thing you can see is what is between them - the "...". If I have confused you, send me a PM and I'll get it straightened out for you.

Paul

[j0e_bl0ggs (deceased)]

My dads .30-'06 BSA CF2 probably one of the last ones assembled in the UK.

[branxhunter]

Hey fellas I thought I'de contribute a little for the all Royal owners out there. I have an old  30-06 that I have dated back to 1957 which was the first year for the long action loads. It has the adjustable trigger and the beauty walnut stock and I even have the original PH rings that came with the gun. It has been in my family since the late 60's when my grand Dad bought it in northern British Columbia from the original owner. It was passed on to my Dad, and eventually to me after sitting on a shelf for 25 years at least.

The gun never really shot well though, and after some thinking it was decided that the old girl deserved some attention. I took it to a smith for a good cleaning and a re-blueing of the iron. I refinished the stock and when she was done it looked like new again. Unfortunately it still shot like ****...

I pulled the trigger on a new scope this year. I just couldn't bring myself to accept that this old classic that so many had said should be a A1 shooter couldn't group better than 3-4" at 100 yards. I mounted a new Leupold VX2 atop her and set out to the range. I figured that even if the rifle never came through that I would at least have a quality scope for a new firearm.

So the testing began. I got the scope dialed in enough to hit paper at 200, but the results were inconsistent... back to 100 yards for some more tinkering, then out to 200 for some more disappointment. Then the eureka moment. My partner had half a box of Federal premium ammo in 180g Nosler accubond. Five shots at 100 were within 1.5" of one another and at 200 two more shots were within 2".

Time to get more ammo and get dialed in! No such luck, the ammo was old and NLA...

Back to the drawing board. After trying every Nosler 180g load available I went back to the Federal premium but in the less accurate 180g Nosler partition. The game was back on. After some more 2" groups at 200 yards I had a round I could take out hunting.

It was just a week later that I took my first moose. Canada is the land of the iconic moose and my home province of British Columbia is one of the best places to get one. This year we had a draw for a mature bull, and everything aligned.

7:30 am we got into the swamp a bit late to find a cow moose staring at us right away. She was 400 yards off and in no hurry to go anywhere. Knowing it might be a while I started setting up for the morning. Just as I took the lid off my thermos out stepped the big bull behind the cow. This was it... I leveled the old BSA and put the 400 yard dot on the bull's shoulder. You could hear the buzz of the big bullet leave our position only to be followed up by a satisfying thwap!

That was it. The animal walked 30 yards and fell over dead. Double lung shot and the bullet passed though taking out a rib on exit. What a trophy and what a testament to the old gun that took it.

Once I put the time and development into this rifle I was more than happy with it. I have never been let down by it, but now I have a truly lethal hunter, a lineage, and a hell of a story to go along with it!

 Nice looking old beeza there Ryan. I can o my imagin how satisfying it must have been to finally blood it. I'm sure if you got into reloading you would find me a load that shot even tighter.

Marcus

[sakorick]

Great first post Ryan and welcome to the forum. Marcus is spot on. Reloading would offer you opportunities that factory ammo just can't duplicate. I have used David Tubb final finish bullets to tighten many older rifle barrels with great success. If you have a reloader friend he could load a batch for you. On the other hand, you just killed a huge Bull Moose at 400 yards .....nuf said! Regards, Rick.

[JaDub]

Right-On Ryan!    Nice old bull.  Love the color of his rack.  Awesome story of persistence with your old family treasure.  I couldn`t agree more with the suggestion to try loading some of your own ammo......    or at the very least, trying different loads and brands thru your rifle.  Every gun has it`s own favorite load.  Besides, experimenting with the different available ammos  is half the fun of shooting at the range.  It can be VERY rewarding.
 
   And a big WELCOME  to our site.   You`ll find it a wealth of information and comraderie.  AND...........   you`ll find no flamers or bad manners.  We are truly a family here.  

[ryanonthevedder]

Thanks for the warm welcome fellas! I just got on the reloading train in order to get away from the $70 a box partions that my gun prefers at the moment. 5 of us went in on a little reloading kit and 3 of us shoot 30-06 and all of us shoot 30 cals.

Thanks for the tip on those Tubbs bullets I am going to have to give them a try. I think the throat mgmt kit might be the one to try first. The break in one might be a bit aggressive for my taste.

Glad everyone enjoyed the story. I had a good time making it. The real emotional roller coaster was finding the factory load that worked well. The wife was eyeballing the accounts as I bled cash box after box. Only to find the one that worked and then find out it was discontinued. All the while our moose hunt loomed ever closer. It was a lot of stress, but I was vindicated in the end, lol!

[gitano]

Only to find the one that worked and then find out it was discontinued.

Happens WAY too often to be 'coincidence'.

Paul

[recoil junky]

Nice moose and another welcome from the Elk hunting capitol.

RJ