I already cleaned up the Springfield 30-06 pretty good, ran a snake through the bore a bunch of times to get all the grooves cleaned out. Surprisingly, the barrel wasn't that dirty, mostly just dust inside of it, so I guess my grandfather did a good job of cleaning it out properly after every use. I removed the should strap from it and rigged up a two legged tripod on the peg. It kicks like a MOTHERFUCKER, and hits with probably 3 times the energy a modern full length 30-06 will. I had some milk jugs filled with water that froze into boulders of ice and it totally vaporized the damn things. I could probably hit a deer in the ass and drop it as well as a heart shot. I need to get or make some kind of recoil absorbing butt cap or at least one with better padding. I have some friends coming down from Chattanooga this weekend who want to do some hunting, maybe I'll haul it along with me and get a chance to display it's power on some live targets.I haven't messed with the Mauser yet, it's still sitting in the cabinet.
Definitely. This thing seems to have a lot more power than my other 30-06. I had frozen milk jugs sitting atop wooden fence posts. My buddy's Browning A-bolt Medallion merely punched a good hole in it and tossed it off the post. The old Springfield obliterated it into nothing but strips of plastic. I even blew a fence post in half with one that missed. I'm not talking about flat planks of wood either, I'm talking about the big fat round wood ones used for barbed wire cattle fences. Apparently my grandpa did use this sucker for deer hunting since it's one of his only rifles he had a scope on. I don't think he ever actually got a deer with it though, I don't remember any trophies on the wall at his house when I was a kid. If I hunt anything with it, I'll probably go with 145 grain full metal jacket rounds to keep it a little less messy.