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A good 30-06 load?

tonyben

Can anyone recommend a good 30-06 load? I have IMR-3031, IMR-4895, H4831, H4350, IMR-4064 & RL-15 on the shelf to work with.

I've got 168gr SMK's and 175 SMK's to do accuracy testing.

I have Federal, Remington and Lake City brass to work with.

This is going to be for my Savage 110 with standard hunting barrel.
 
Out of a Ruger M77MKII with a light barrel and stock I had really good luck with 47.4grns of IMR4064 and the 168grn SMK bullets. Both 4064 and 4895 have been used for years with the '06 and are safe for the operating systems of the M1Garand, so there will be litteraly thousands of loads out there for those two powders. Good luck.
 
Tony,
Dont know if you have run across this before but since you are going with the 30.06, I thought I would share. German is a member of this site and has a ton of information and knowledge on the 30.06 and others. Like RimShoot said, with all the different powders you mention, the answers are many. If all you are doing is hunting, most would be acceptable. Grab the loading manual, start low and start working them up.


http://riflemansjournal.blogspot.com/p/articles-index.html
 
many answers....

as the other posters have stated ...with an /06 just about anything will work and work WELL...it is one of the most forgiving/versital/accurate rounds ever delveloped......in a bolt gun with 150-180 class bullets H-4350 is pretty hard to beat,,,gives lots of vel. and accuracy......Roger
 
Varget..and a 165gr bullet of your choice.same with the brass.my Stainless 700sps. shoots one ragged hole at 100.and it is not a varmit barrel.
 
I have had very good results with my M1 Garand Natl match using 168 smk and 4064, RL 15, and Varget. The charge weights have all been no more than 48 grains. However start lower and work up and consult several other publications load data before you start.
 
Send a note to german and he will reply being a real lover of this fine most respectable cartridge there ever was. I have used ww748 with good results and accurate arms 2520,blc-2 etc etc etc etc etc . It is a real fun round and one of the best bullets for deer is the hornady 165 spire point. I used them in my garands and 03 springfields and they shoot like match bullets. I once,along time agop when my eyes didnt go down hill,shot a 15 round group at 115 yds using a tree trunk for a restand got a 1 1/4 group with the factory peep sights. You cant loose no matter what you do with it.
 
I have had good results with the 168 smk and IMR 4064. This combination was my go to load until i played around with some IMR 4350 i had and the 175 smk's. The 168's and 4064 were giving me an average group of 1 1/2"- 1 5/8" 5 shot groups at 312 yds. The IMR 4350 and 175's i get 1"-1 1/4" 5 shot groups at the same distance. The 175's and IMR 4350 will shoot 3/4"- 7/8" 3 shot groups without letting the barrel cool as long between shots. These were all shot from an factory Browning A-Bolt.
 
I have had the best results for my '06's using imr4350, imr4064, and Varget. Mostly with deer hunting loads, but very accurate. 150gr Ballistic tips shoot very well @ 3,000 fps.
Good luck, Gary
 
A lot of good comments above. However, if you are talking about a hunting load, I would dispense with use of the SMKs, and build your load with the bullet you want to hunt.

The choices are many, and you will have no shortage of workable loads with pretty much any standard hunting bullet.

If you are planning to do some paper punching too, then you might need a couple of loads.

Hold center.

dw
 
I second what "trailrider121" suggested....for hunting purposes.

Here's a mild load that is popular in the M! Garand for accuracy work:

Sierra 155 gr. HPBT Match #2155
AA2520 @ 46.5 gr.
 
I have had great luck using IMR 4064 with the 168's in a bolt gun. IMR 4064 is a pain to drop out of the measure because of the long grains. It was the best out of my match rifle. I would drop then trickle to the weight.
 
Not to beat a dead horse but H4350 in my deer rifle has been great with 150g to 180g bullets. My M1 gets IMR4064 and a 155g Nolser Competion bullet and loves it - did fine in bolt gun but H4350 is sooooo good I stuck with it. I would like to hear if people are getting good results with Reloader 15 as I use a lot of that in 223 and 308.
 
For match shooting, I have two load ranges, the mid-range load which will have a 155 gr. or 168 gr. bullet loaded to about 2800 fps with H4895 and the long-range load which will have a 185 to 200 gr. bullet (most commonly a 190) with H4350 at just under 2800 fps (28" barrel). Sometimes I use the heavier bullets with H4831sc at mid-range at about 2700 fps, tremendous accuracy and the lower MV doesn't hurt a thing at 500 or 600 yards.

There's a lot of .30-06 material on my website, cruise through the index and it'll pop out at you.
 
My 30-06 is a hunting rifle. I settled on 51 grns of Varget behind a 150 grn spbt. Shoots a dime size hole out of my Tikka at 100 yards. May be able to use your RL15 (similar to Varget), but check your manual and work up. I use this load for hunting and I went away from heavier bullets to get something a bit flatter shooting. Several of the powders you mentioned will work well with the heavier bullets.
 
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