Barnaul recently released a new, reasonably priced, steel-cased .30-06 Springfield load with a “mysterious” feature. It is probably already pretty obvious from the title image, but let’s first see what the company says about it.

Here below the full press release:

Russian Big Game Ammunition Question

MKS Supply, Inc., Dayton, OH – November 2019– MKS Supply–the answer to the mysterious cartridge groove.

Recently we sent out a release about Barnaul’s .308 Winchester and .30-06 hunting rounds. The .30-06 is an all American round once used by U.S. Forces as a military round but no longer. It is still a popular and effective hunting round worldwide.

Note relief ring just above cartridge base.

Barnaul produces the .30-06 using strong polycoated steel cases for reduced cost. They work incredibly well at an affordable price. However, the pressure generated by the .30-06 round is higher than other steel cased rounds the company makes. Since steel is much harder and less malleable than brass the overall steel case expands slower in the microsecond of gas expansion in the firearm’s chamber than brass cases.

To accommodate the higher pressure curve of the .30-06 round for that millisecond the engineers at Barnaul “simply” designed a slight round groove called a relief ring into the cartridge case near the base. This is roll pressed in, there is NO metal removal. Upon firing the additional pressure will be absorbed and reduced as the relief ring material is pressed out by the powder discharge basically duplicating the expansion of a brass case. Smart, simple, safe and well-engineered.

Barnaul is one of the few privately owned Russian ammunition companies who have been approved to supply their ammunition to the Russian Army. Their high standards and extreme quality control measures have also granted them the privilege to supply the Russian Special Forces with Barnaul’s high-quality ammunition.

While this is definitely an interesting solution with a certain degree of elegance in its simplicity, it is not entirely unique, although uniquely Russian. Attentive readers surely remember seeing a similar pressure relief ring applied to the Russian 6x49mm Unified. Unfortunately, we’ll never see that caliber on the shelves, but it’s quite cool to see its characteristic groove adopted in a standard caliber.

Barnaul Introduces .30-06 Springfield Ammunition With Peculiar Feature. 168 gr Soft Point rounds.

Back to Barnaul offering, MKS Supply does not explicitly release a price, but the Barnaul Ammo website links to an online shop selling 20 rounds boxes of 168 grain FMJ-BT at $0.69 / round and 168 gr SP – BT at $0.52 / round.