30-06 rounds

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V00DOO

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excuse the ignorant ?, but what are the characteristics of all the different grains of 30-06 rounds and why should one be used over the other?

is there a "magic" do everything well grain?

trying to determine what grain to use for my new Kimber 8400 montana rifle?

my dealer recommended I start off with remington core lokt psp 180 grain.

I am going to the range for the first time this weekend and want to try some different grains, but dont know all the physics behind them.

can I get some recommendations and why?

the barrel is 10:1 twist.

I plan to hunt caribou, black bear, and possibly moose and hope to keep it under 300yards.


thanks,
Jeff
 
An awful lot of people shoot 150s for deer and caribou, and 180s for bigger stuff like elk and moose. The magiucal "do-all" bullet is the 165 gr, but like most compromises, it works OK but is not quite enough at the top end, and works well at the low end although it will give heavier recoil. But before telling you what to shoot out of your rifle, you should test a few different rounds to see how they shoot from your rifle, THEN decide what to pack.

Try some of the premium ammo too (A-Square, CorBon, Federal Premium, Nosler, Remington Premier, or Winchester Supreme Elite), as you can get that loaded with Nosler Partitions and Barnes TSX or MRX bullets. A 165 gr bullet of any of those will kill anything you shoot at.
 
it is generaly thought that the heavier bullets are more accurate in the 06,however the heavier the bullet the more recoil.generally i use 165s in my remington and encore for deer sized game.
 
I have shot everything from rockchucks to moose, including a couple of black bears, with the 180 grain bullets (Sierra 180 SPBT.) I used the 220 Barnes on my brown and white bear. I used the same bullet for competition by switching to the Matchking (180 grain HPBT,) using the Gameking for hunting.

The lighter bullets give you a little more velocity, but the 180s make up for that flatter trajectory at distances over about 400 yards.

Pops
 
A 1:10 twist oughta do just fine, particularly for the 110-grain to 180-grain range. Modern bullet design is giving the same sort of penetration from a 180 as in the olden times' 200s and 220s. Maybe not as much bone-breaking, but certainly plenty good for everything this side of the Big Bears.

I've always used 3031 with 110s and 4064 behind the heavier bullets. I've mostly used Sierras, these last thirty years. 150s have been plenty good for a fair number of deer, but don't drive the boat-tail above 3,000 and shoot at a deer up close and personal. :) The boat-tail will come apart unless the velocity at impact is around 2,700 or less. No trouble with the flat-base.

I recently tried some H414 behind the Sierra 180-grain SPBT, and my first test group was three shots in 0.4 MOA. I'm accustomed to three-shot groups around 3/4 MOA; 5-shot groups around the same to 7/8 MOA.

I've found the 180s definitely make a much more noticeable indentation into steel at 500 yards than either the 150s or 165s. I'd expect it to do a number on elk.

Art
 
165/168 grain is your "Do-all" round. I have knocked down everything from Coyotes to a huge Canadian Elk. It is supposed to be the most ballistically efficient round for the 30-06.
 
168gr

I use Barnes in a 168gr, I've also heard this is the best weight for the '06. Was this a military development?

By the way this site is absolutely great!
 
The WW I-era military bullet was a 172-grain boat-tail. One story I've heard is that the recoil in the relativly light-weight Springfield '03 brought about a lot of complaints. Steet buttplate, remember. The M2 Ball ammo that succeeded the original bullet was 153 grains; it was the standard load through WW II.

Art
 
For deer sized game i would use a 150 grain and as you step up to elk and moose sized game a 165 would do nicely. From the little bit I know about bears the shots are close and you dont want the bear to get away I would use a 180 grain premium bullet.
 
went out and got some premium federal barnes tsx vital shox ammo in 180 grain
P3006AE

salesman said I wont need to worry
 
That should do quite nicely for the bigger game.


The beuaty of a .30-06 is its versatility, if you ever go deer hunting keep in mind that the 180 grain bullets have more of a rainbow trajectory and if you step down to a plain old 150 or 165 grain soft-point youll be better off. On the smaller thin skinned game such as deer the premium 180s may not open up enough because of their heavy construction and just pile on through without a very big wound channel.

When you go Caribou hunting I would go with a 165 grain boat-tail bullet because from talking to people who have hunted caribou before the shots can get quite long because of the lack of cover and youll want that flatter shooting round.

Also salesmen will try to tell you that you need forty-dollar a box premium ammunition for everything but to be perfectly honest a good old soft point will perform as well or better in almost any situation you can think of. I shoot 130 grain Speer SPBT bullets in my .270 and they are killer.
 
There's not a nickel's worth of difference to 300 yards between the 150-, 165- and 180-grain bullets in '06. Maybe 6¢ worth at my 500-yard range. :)

I started in with a sight-in for 2" high at 100 yards, way back yonder. That's right at dead on at 200 and about 6" low at 300. I've never found a reason to change. Once you've sorta got married up to your rifle and get used to distances toward 400, it's all pretty much a piece of cake--if you know the distance. The main thing is to get out in open country and guesstimate the yards, hold what you think is righteous and shoot rocks; that's real helpful. Sure can make a fella feel real stupid, sometimes, though. :D

Art
 
so when bullet manufactuers decide to build bullets for the '06, they second guess the hunter.

150 grain bullets are clearly designed for deer, so they open very quickly.
180 grain bullets are clearly designed for big game like elks, so they can hold together through the impact of an elks front shoulder bone (pretty substantial.)
a 165 is the compromise bullet. hit an elk right, and it dies. hit a deer right, and it makes a big hole through the deer.

i got lucky with both of my rifles of '06. they shoot 150 and 180 grain bullets in the same spot.
if i'm deer huntint, i shoot ballistic tip 150's. if elk, then partition 180's, or grandslam 180's.

if deer and elk, i like the grandslams, but i might be dated.
 
I guess if I were going on a high-dollar elk hunt I might use a premium bullet. However, I have no idea what's wrong with the basic Sierra 180-grain SPBT. All the other Sierra bullets do just fine on whitetails and mulies. So do Hornadys and Remington Bronze Points.

I've come to believe that the 165-grain is sorta betwixt and between. It won't kill a deer any deader than a 150-grain, but it has more recoil. After trying a few on deer, I went back to the 150.

Based on indentation depth on steel at 500 yards, I'd definitely select the 180 over either the 150 or 165. I'd expect more reliable penetration in an elk.

FWIW, the 110-grain Hornady bullet does horrible things to jackrabbits and coyotes. So do the Federal Premium High Energy 165-grain bullets. :D And if you use an 80-grain pistol bullet, you have a serious 4,000 ft/sec mess-maker.

Art
 
FWIW, the 110-grain Hornady bullet does horrible things to jackrabbits and coyotes.
Click to expand...

Your not kiddin i hit a bunny the other day with my .270 and turned it into a red splash in the field good grief that was cool.
 
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