30-06 Hunting Bullet Choice

[Jtate]

I have killed a bunch of deer over the last 40 years with Federal 150 grain soft point factory ammo, DRT. My old model 70 still shoots them well under 1” at 100 yards.

That cheap Federal blue box stuff has worked great in 3 differant 30 06 I have owned. In the good old days you could buy it at Walmart for under $10 a box. If the OP can find it, that would be awesome and the hell with reloading for a rifle you shoot a few times a year.

 

[justinp61]

That cheap Federal blue box stuff has worked great in 3 differant 30 06 I have owned. In the good old days you could buy it at Walmart for under $10 a box. If the OP can find it, that would be awesome and the hell with reloading for a rifle you shoot a few times a year.

It seemed they were hard to find for a time several years ago and when I did find them I bought three boxes. I only own three caliber centerfire rifles, 22-250, 260 Remington and the 30-06. The 30-06 doesn't get shot much so it's the only one I don't load for.

 

[choprzrul]

I was just going thru my stock of .257 bullets and found I have a couple hundred Speer 180gr BTSP also. Those Speer BTSP have a reputation of being very soft and coming apart easily. However, at 180gr speeds, and for light bodied animals such as deer, I wonder how they would perform out to 500 yards?

With a BC of .545 and a muzzle velocity of 2700fps, @ 500yds it's going 1927fps and has 1485 ft lbs. At 50 yards, it's going 2616fps.

.

 

[wedgy]

Check out the Absolute Hammer Bullet, it's a different ogive design that gives a big velocity increase due to less bearing surface. You can push a 151 grain AH ~ 3,150 fps with Varget. As always start low and work up. Conventional load data doesn't work with these bullets. These bullets are in stock and will be on your door in a few days. Great company to deal with also. Check the load data spread sheet;
file:///C:/Users/e416495/Downloads/Absolute%20Hammer%20Load%20Data%20Post%20(8-16).docx.pdf

post #8 is the spreadsheet; https://www.longrangehunting.com/threads/hammer-hunter-load-data-see-page-1-post-8.273018/

Patented Custom Bullets | Hammer Bullets

Hammer Bullets are custom designed bullets offering superior accuracy and ensuring minimal game waste. Our bullets have higher velocity and are lead free.

hammerbullets.com

 

[Idaho-Lefty]

The 165 grain Hornady InterBond is, one of the BEST Mushrooming Bullets,.. on, Planet Earth !
IF you ever, want to Hunt,.. Elk / Moose with, your .30-06 at "Distance". this one, gets it, DONE and IS very accurate, too ! ( Not necessary for, Deer, tho ! ). They shot best at, .015 "OFF", the Lands.
A 165 gr. Nosler Partition, went thru, both sides of, a 15 year old, 450 Pound Cinnamon Bear from, my sons .06 at 115 yards, breaking, the offside Shoulder,.. 3 "Jumps" and Dead !
A 150 grainer, is enough for, Deer / Antelope and "Fly", a bit faster / flatter, too.
I've used, 150 gr. Horn Interlocks and Partitions, in my .06 for Years with mostly, DRT results.
I wouldn't overlook, Sierra's 150 or, 165 grain GK's either.
Our .06's seemed to shoot/ group, the 165 / 168's, best,.. IF, you don't mind, the Recoil !
Either, of the 4350's "worked" as did, Standard Primers.

 

[Billy 30-06]

I have a couple great loads in my 30-06. 150gr accubond with Re-15 and 165gr ballistic tip with H-4350. Coyotes to deer nothing gets away.

 

[bobm]

.30-06 with a 180 gr. Sierra Game King, max charge of IMR4350 kills big deer, too. 350 yard pass through lung hit.

 

[Toptom]

My family is dominated by 30.06 in deer and bear season always even with all the other calibers we have. The load we have used for years and great success with is plain old 150 gr hornady spire point interlock with a load of imr 4064.

 

[choprzrul]

Folks....I appreciate all of the replies, but I'm limited to the projectiles I have listed in the OP. There are a lot of great bullets out there, but finding them in quantity right now is not easy...

.

 

[bobm]

.....If I understand your opening post, you may well have over 1000 perfect bullets for your desired task.

Shot placement is paramount. They will all do the job if you do yours. Sloppy hits won't always anchor an animal.

 

[choprzrul]

.....If I understand your opening post, you may well have over 1000 perfect bullets for your desired task.

Shot placement is paramount. They will all do the job if you do yours. Sloppy hits won't always anchor an animal.

Indeed. I completely agree that shot placement is paramount.

From my original post: ".....Which bullet is gonna get me to sub MOA groups first...."

I'm looking for folks' experience in doing load development and which bullet(s) are easiest to find a good load for.

.

 

[bobm]

Only you testing these bullets in your rifle can give that answer. Test them all. The lower cost bullets could out perform the premium bullets on paper. Group test at the distances you most likely will encounter when hunting. Go with the load that gives the best consistent accuracy. They will all kill game when placed in the vitals.

The rifle shown in my elk picture is a Win.70 with 4700 shots on the barrel. The Sierra 180 still prints two inches at 300 meters. I don't need high priced bullets.

You have been given a thousand years of experience with the numerous reply's to your questions. The .30-06 cartridge has a reputation as one of the easiest to develop accurate loads for. Time to head for your loading bench and start cranking out test ammo.

Oh yeah, I have 57 years of load development experience.

 

[jim_k]

Sierra TGK 180 gr.

 

[Capt. Oblivious]

Sierra TGK 180 gr.

Id also start here

 

[JimT]

I would narrow it down between the Gold Dot and the Sierra TGK. It’s hard to believe the Gold Dot had a BC of .572, but testing it against the TGK using an identical load would be interesting.

 

[David Milisock]

Indeed. I completely agree that shot placement is paramount.

From my original post: ".....Which bullet is gonna get me to sub MOA groups first...."

I'm looking for folks' experience in doing load development and which bullet(s) are easiest to find a good load for.

.

It's not the bullet that difficult to load for It's the rifle. None may shoot well because the rifle is buggered. Once the rifle is solid in my experiance working loads is fairly repetitive. Try a charge, try a seating depth, have some coffee repeat until you have what works.

 

[Trappererick]

I like the 165 grain Federal Fusion or the 165 grain Speer Grand Slam. I have always been able to find a load that shoots under 1" with either of these bullets in many different rifles. They do a number on whitetails for sure.

 

[AckleymanII]

I have all of the bullets I listed in OP on hand. I also have RL23 on hand. Is GM215M a good primer choice, or should I stay with GM210M standard primers?

Trial and error, you never know....

 

[choprzrul]

I finally got the rifle how I wanted it and chose to use the Speer 168gr Gold Dots for initial load development. I settled on RL16 over BL-2s to build my load ladder. I backed off the rifling 0.020" and put together my ladder of 1 each at 1/2 grain increments. The top load showed 0.001" head growth, so I backed up 1 grain and loaded a second round. It was about 1/4" from the first, so I loaded 3 more to finish with a 5 shot group that came in at 0.68" center to center.



At 2842fps average muzzle velocity, this should be a fine deer/antelope/elk round within reasonable distances for each.

17 rounds fired today with the first 5 for cleaning and zeroing rounds. I'm pretty stoked!

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

The gold dots are bonded for 100% weight retention, barricade penetration. Probably won't do much more than mild mushrooming on deer. Could be a good elk bullet.