30.06 Rounds

[Jeremiah Johnson]

I currently shoot 165gr Rem. core lokt out of my semi-auto. Anyone recommend a flatter shooting round for a little bit longer of a range? It seems like the 165s drop pretty quick after 100yds...

[remington 300]

I also shoot 165 gr.in my -06, i use the federal vital shock 165gr seirra gamekings btsp. i found these have the best ballistics for what i was using them for.

how far you planning on shooting?

[remington 300]

Jeremiah,

Ialso just bought some remington rounds 30-06 accutip 165 grain boattails, heres the #s

short range trajectory 100 yrds +.8", 150 yrds 0", 200 -2.1"

250 yrds _5.9".

long range +1.8" @100yrds, 0 @ 200, -7.9"@300.

The energy and velocity is slightly better than the core-loct,trajectory not much difference, accutip is 1" better at 300 yrds. check for yourself

hope this helps,

mike

[Jeremiah Johnson]

thanks guys; I might have to switch to the accutips. I shot a buck last year perfectly at about 60yds, but when i tried shooting a doe later on in the season, about 125yds, she shot really low.

[AF-1984]

Any specific reason for using 165 gr.? I use 150 gr. Federals. out of my 30.06. I don't worry about much drop until around 175 - 200 yds.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

I dont know, the 165s are the 1st rounds i started to shoot, so i stuck with them, but I'm thinking of going to the 150s

[echotrail]

I've used the 150 gr. remmington shells in my 30.06 for many years with no complaints. However I cannot remember when I've needed to take a shot over 150 yards.

[remington 300]

Theres really not much difference between 165 and 150 grain rounds as far as far as velocity and trajectory go the difference is in energy, the heavier the bullet the more energy.

It all depends on what your looking for.

good luck &

shoot straight

[Huskiedevle]

Several years ago after buying my Tikka in 30.06, I patterned several different loads, and the winner was Hornady Light Magnums in 165 gr.Those sierra boattails have worked great for me the last few years. I did try Remington, Federal, and Winchester as well.The gun will tell you what it likes. Pattern it with several different brands, and bullet weights. It costs a bit to do so, but what is it worth to you?Maybe blowing the shot of a lifetime at a trophy buck, because you had the wrong load for your gun, or could have used a better load for your gun. I am not knocking any one persons choice of cartridge/bullet on this thread, but I know what works in my gun.That is all that matters.

[PerchJerker]

General rule of thumb is that 165 gr bullets should be the best shooters in a .30-06, although 150 grs shoot plenty good out of them too in most guns. I prefer 165 over 150 for more energy. I usually shoot Winchester ballistic tip or Feberal sierra boattails out of my Browning.

With a .30-06, if you sight it 1.5 - 2 inches high at 100 yards you should be able to hold dead-on any deer out to almost 200 yards. Then you don't need to worry about bullet trajectory until you get out to 200 yards.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

thanks for the info guys!

[Muddog]

Take it to the range, shoot as many different 165's as you can. Let your rifle tell you what IT likes. Shoot that kind. Throw in some 150's it may like them better. If you can't hit somthing with a good shooting 175 that you can with a 165, well I don't think it is the gun or the round!

My tip would be, Get a bolt gun. Say; in 7mm-08.

[Ray Mysterio]

My brother is a sales manager for Federal and knows more than most about ballistics. He has taught me everything that he knows about balistics.

First off, do not concern yourself solely with the drop of a bullet. Target shooters who shoot 30-06 use 165 or 180 gr. out to 1,000 yards. The key is just knowing how much your bullet drops and adjusting accordiingly.

The main thing for whitetail hunting is finding a bullet that has integrity and is designed for whitetail.

Here is a list of good rounds that I have used:

165 gr. Sierra game king btsp

165 gr. Fusion soft point

165 gr. Nosler partition

165 gr. Barnes triple shock

My 2 cents... the Remington load mentioned in the first post might not be the best round for what you are wanting to do with it.

Of course I am bias.

Mysterio

[BobT]

It's important to understand the bullet type and what it is designed for. I previously used Winchester silver tip bullets and found that too often they didn't appear to mushroom on impact if I didn't hit something fairly solid. Turns out these are more useful at longer range than the <50 yds one encounters in northern MN. I now use 150gr nosler partition with much better result.

Bob

[Insp Gadget]

What a bullet will do when it gets there is important yes. but having one you can poke a hole with every time is more important. All the pros will tell you to try many different loads and find the one that flys best from your particular gun. What works in my Rem 7400 is not necessarily the best in your 700, or savage, or whatever. I found that I can shoot 1 inch groups at 100 yards with Fedreal premium 165 sierra boattail soft point. Plus I know that the boat tail does no good until 150 plus yards. (engineer from federal told me that) What the round does when it gets there is less important than if it's in the boileroom or not. no matter what it does when it hits the a$$ I'd rather know that every time it's in a 3 inch circle behind the shoulder. If you can do that, up to 250 or whatever range you likely will shoot....in MN its likely less than 150.... pretty much any hunk of lead between 125 and 225 grains will do the job. I'm thinking of trying some of the newer 165 loads that are cheaper than the premiums cause they are getting up there!

my 2cents.

[Muddog]

Yea. What Insp Gadget said.

[Ray Mysterio]

I agree that a 3 in. group is critical. But, when you are sighting in, your on a shooting bench with a solid rest.

Now, when out deer hunting in a stand with the wind blowing and no solid rest, what happens when your shot is 3" to far forward into the shoulder? Thats when the right bullet comes into play. If your bullet doesn't perform when hitting bone then you might end up loosing a deer.

You are right that a sierra gameking btsp shines past 150 yds. I am leary of using that bullet fo myself where I hunt because I don't shoot out past 100 yds.

My 2 cents...

Mysterio

[Muddog]

Well if his auto loader can only throw 3" groop at 100yards what would be the logic in having a bullet that would hit dead on at 300yds with a 3.5" hold over at 100yards? No one who knows how to shoot would try to shoot somthing at over 100yds with out a good rest. Any one can aim at somthing 300yard away, few can hit it 10 out of 10 times. That is knowing how to shoot!

[monstermoose78]

I use big bullets 180 grain nosler partitions. I know they are made for large game but I use my gun to hunt moose and elk as well so it makes sense to only buy one kind of bullet other wise i would be at the range for weeks at a time and to think of the cost with each box now pushing 30-35 bucks.

[Insp Gadget]

Agreed that one should not be thinking about long range shots without a rest. I also beleive that if you have a situation where you might have a long range opportunity, you should practice for it. The longest shot I've had was 165yards, but, the shack over looks a public slew that has some trails at about 250 from the deck. I did partice that last Thursday and am happy to say I put 5 shots inside 3 inches FROM A GOOD REST! I won't hesitate to take that shot notwithstanding a howling wind,if something walks out there. (and I'm on the deck and not in the woods.....?)

No matter what the gun or round, you need to practice to shoot well. (my opinion) And you should go to the trouble of practicing at all possible ranges that you shoot. My brother has the same gun as me and shoots the same shells. He hunts Wyoming with a rancher friend of his and for years got static about not shooting a bolt. "Ya city slickers need the auto to throw a bunch a lead cuz ya can't knockit down with one!" he eventually bought a bolt so his son could hunt with him. The rancher took him Elk hunting and my bro dropped 2 elk at 200yds with the auto loader and the 165 btsp. (2 shots)After that, that rancher told him to leave the bolt in the truck. It was more important to hit what you aimed at than anything else. Not braggin, just saying that if you hit the right spot everytime.......it works out.

[love to hunt]

Jeremiah Johnson

You arn't going to get a much flatter shooting bullet for that caliber. The 165 gr is about the best trajectory you are going to find in a hunting round.

I went to my Honrnady reloading manual and found the data for the 4 most commom bullet weights you can buy over the counter. Now keep in mind, to be fair I used the maximum velocity for each round, and the same type of boat tail soft point. Not to mention the Hornady BTSP is going to much differently then the nosler, fail safe or any other round for the matter.

Also there is no way your factory loaded ammo is going to perform like this but it should show you the differences in weights.

Also remember the heavier the bullet typically the lower the velocity, but velocity is not everything, the 165 gr outperforms the 150 gr in down range energy and trajectory but is slower at the muzzle.

This data actually shows the 165 gr beating everything in trajectory and down range energy.

It also shows that the difference between the rounds is so little it is hardly worth mentioning as far as actual trajectory. Really who out there can tell the difference of .2" at 200 yards? I surely can't.

In addition it shows that anything over 300 yards is futile and should be left on the range. A 30" drop is very dificult to judge and takes years of training. If a guy tells me he made a 200 yard shot I would say "Nice shot", if he says he made a 300+ yard shot I would say he got lucky.

Here is my sugestion. If the 165gr shoots good for you, run with it. Sight in 2" high at 100 yards and that will be like a 200 yard zero with most standard factory ammo.

Also if your groups arn't under 3" at 100 yards maybe you should try another bullet. They all shoot differently and just maybe 150 gr Winchester supremes will punch a 1" group for you or perhaps 150 gr Core-Lokt will punch 1 ragged hole.

I only say this because what ever your group is at 100 will double at 200 and triple at 300. A 3" group at 100 will translate to a 6" at 200 and that could be a miss.

My humble opinion.

Here is the data:

[Jeremiah Johnson]

thanks for the info love to hunt; Its probably just the type of round, right now im using the rem. corelokt, so I'll be able to check up on it agian this Thursday and maybe try a diff. brand.

-thanks

[Muddog]

I don't know if those stats are right. But they look close enoph. I don't know about you but 2800 fps is a vary good muzzle velocity.

Look at it again it shows the M,V of the 165 at 2872 and the 150 at 2801 ( I don't think that is right ). A 165 starting at a faster speed then a 150 would fly flater then 150.

[love to hunt]

Those #'s are the energy not velocity.

I see the picture is gone, I will reload it when I get home tonight.

[monstermoose78]

if you sight in at 200 yards with a 30-06 the drop should only be about 7+- inchs at 300 so for a 300 yard shot. after 300 things become a long shot 400 yards i drop about5 27+- inches that is to much to try to judge plus wind drift. Not a good killing shot.