My current and currently only .30-’06 is a BRNO vz 24 that was rebarrelled from (presumably) 8mm Mauser. The Czechs are noted for their excellent firearms, and this one is a beauty. I was having problems with military surplus rounds, though. The magazine would only take three, and it complained about that. The rounds wouldn’t always feed. Arrgh! But recently, I acquired some modern commercial .30-’06 ammunition. (More about that soon.) With the new rounds, I could load four and had no trouble feeding and extracting. Huh?
I put a surplus round next to a commercial one. Doh! The shiny new one is just a bit shorter. Then I did a bit of checking. It turns out that mil-spec .30-’06 has an overall length of 3.34 inches, while commercial rounds these days are typically under 3.3″. The one in question is 3.27 inches. The Mauser round that my rifle was originally made to accept was 3.23″ in overall length.
What do we learn here?
1. The gun nut forest is a vast territory, and I haven’t seen it all yet.
2. Because of that, I need more guns. And more time to shoot them. And more money to feed them. And on and on and on. . .
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