Is a 30.06 a Big Bore Rifle?

[THE PILGRIM]

Thanks! When I stopped hunting and Liquidated my Rifles,
The only one I kept was this Carl Gustaf 30-06.
Later I did double back and buy a really ugly Savage 223.

 

[johngalt]

My own personal opinion, but I think one of the characteristics of 'big bore' is it has to be a long action cartridge.

 

[Eltioloco]

Shortly after Jack moved to Lewiston Idaho he and Elmer went Jackrabbit hunting. Jack took a .22WMR and Elmer brought his 35 Whelen.

Yeah, Ol' Elmer needed the 35 Whelen for those quartering shots, the bullet has to get to the boiler room to do any good. Don't underestimate the girth on an Idaho jack rabbit.

 

[pantannojack]

All Bets Aside, I recall in my starting to Re Load days, the first book I read stated that the 30-06 was the standard by which all other calibers were judged, or something like that.

 

[Puller]

I just got into buying rifles three months ago,what is the smallest caliber of a big bore caliber rifle?

I can honestly say in all my days of hunting and shooting and firearms acquiring I have never uttered a sentence that included the term "big bore caliber rifle".

 

[44wheelman]

This whole bit about it being powerful makes it a big bore is nonsense. So is a 270 Weatherby Mag a big bore? Why not, it shoots a 150gr bullet faster than a 30-06, must be. So a 30-06 is, and a .308 not?

As others said, Winchester says 375, and I'm inclined to agree.

As far a handguns….is my Dan Wesson .375 Supermag not a big bore cause it don't start with 4? So now you can make standard .375 for both.

 

[pantannojack]

in NRA comp, 22rf was considered small bore, 30 cal said to be High Power. Then 7.62 became High Power, then 5.56... then so on. I would look back to Robert Ruark's book "Use Enough Gun" before I made my decision.

 

[Pocketrocket]

Big bore

Ok since we revived this thread here's my idea of some big bores.
Sorry about the bad picture but these were on the work bench for show and tell...
10Ga, 600 Nitro, 500 Schuler, 476 Nitro, 450 Eely, with some modern rounds 416 Weatherby, 50BMG, and really scary "high powered" .223.

The only one I've shot is the Weatherby, it was a handful.

 

[JDBoardman]

In my opinion, anything from .50 cal on down is small bore. 105mm is medium bore, and 155mm and above is big bore.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

By the time it was adopted the 30/06, along with the 303 British, 8MM Mauser, 8MM Lebel and similar rounds were considered 'small bores", a combination of smokeless powder and the introduction of jacketed bullets had made the older large bore military rounds-45-70, .577/450, 11MM Mauser obsolete.

 

[uncleted327]

Living in the Northeast I have never heard anyone call any 30 caliber a "big bore". The best delineation I can see from all the gun media I have ever seen is medium bores start above 30 caliber. 35 Whelen, 338s, with the 375s being the top of the mediums. Big Bores start with a 4 and go up from there. Of course this is for rifles. Handgun rounds throw a bit of a curve into things. I would never call a 40 S&W or 10mm a big bore for example...

 

[steelslaver]

What's above .50 BMG?

the 20mm Vulcan (80 caliber) Anzio a bolt action with a 3` round magazine.

Price tag appox $12,000 without a scope, $17,000 with the bells and whistles.

The Anzio 20mm rifle[1] is an American anti-materiel rifle designed and marketed by Anzio Iron Works. It is the first American anti-materiel rifle designed and mass-produced for public sale with a bore diameter in excess of .50 caliber in over 80 years.[2] The rifles are available in three calibers, with the rifle's predominant chambering being the 20mm Vulcan caliber.[3]

At approximately 48,000 ft⋅lbf (65,000 J) of kinetic energy, the 20mm round, as fired out of the Anzio rifle, has nearly four times the energy of the .50 BMG firing a 1600gr bullet at 3300fps

Also available in 14.5×114mm Russian (57 cal) which is the Russian heavy machine gun round which coast a 1026gr bullet out there at 3300fps

For Plinking you can get it in the 20/50 a wildcat made from a 20mm necked to 50 cal and fires a 750 gr bullet at 3300fps, 500 fps faster than a 50BMG

As for being able to stick your finger in the bore to determine if it is a big bore, the tip of my little finger won't go in the muzzle off my .58 cal muzzle loader.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

"big bore" is a nonsense term. .243 is "big bore" compared to .17 Rem, and .348 Lott is "big bore" compared to .243, etc.
There's no definitive number or magic diameter that makes a rifle "big bore".
In pistol terms, lots of folks say the caliber has to start with a "4" to be "large caliber" but a .40S&W pistol has nothing on 9x25 Dillon, for example, or even .38 Super.
So the term is nonsense and relative from one discussion to the next. In my collection it would be 45/70, but before I had that it was .32 Special, which was a monstrous thumper compared to most of my other rifles.
Maybe we should talk "big bore" in terms of bullet weight. Anything over 210 grains, in most collections, is a whopper.

You spelled out what I was thinking......When reading the title I thought....Oh Geesh.....Here we go again...

 

[CptCurl]

Big bore?

How about a Holland & Holland 10 bore Paradox? The bullet is sized to .805".

Curly