30-06 rounds

Whatever bullet you choose, think about the maximum ranges you'll encounter game and if it's over 200 yards, be sure to choose a pointed bullet and perhaps a boat-tail to minimize velocity/energy loss and drop.

A 180 grain Nosler Partition is good for game larger than deer. For deer, I like 150-165 grain bullets.

With the exception of "Managed Recoil" rounds, .308 diameter bullets under 150 grains are generally thin-jacketed varmint bullets and should not be used for game over 40 +/- pounds.

If 90% of game shots may be under 200 yards, round nose bullets are probably a good choice.

Picher
 
If you're assured of a shot inside 200 yards, and you hit either the neck or the heart, you could probably seat any 150-grain or heavier bullet wrong-end-to!

My point is, we spend an inordinate amount of time picking flypoop out of pepper. Poor career choice.

:D, Art
 
i go on a lot of low dollar elk hunts.

and for every single one of them, the choice of a quality bullet is totally worth it to me.

frankly, i don't understand why someone would ever hunt anything other then wolves with less then a quality bullet.

a gut shot wolf is still gonna quit eating.
 
drmiller100, my experience is that there's "plenty good" and (I'll stipulate) "better".

Name me a "bad" bullet? One that's not "quality"?

:), Art
 
any 110 grain 308 caliber bullet used on an elk for hunting purposes is a bad bullet.

the matchpoint 168 is not a quality bullet if you are shooting moose.

the 180 grain nosler partition is not a quality bullet if you are shooting rockchucks at 450 yards.

IMO, any 150 grain bullet is inappropriate for elk if you have a choice. Have a bunch been killed wtih a 150 grain 308 bullet? Absolutely.

But if you are going elk hunting, and have the extra 25 bucks to spend, why not buy a QUALITY bullet that is designed to kill large, tough animals like elk.
and by definition, there are better choices for killing elk then a 150 grain 308 bullet.

For sure there are some great 165's designed to hold together through an elk's shoulder. For sure there are some 180's. For sure there are a few bullets that are great at expanding fast enough to kill a little itty bitty white tail, yet retain mass to crunch the second shoulder bone of a 7 point bull elk.

My opinions.
 
i don't understand why someone would ever hunt anything other then wolves with less then a quality bullet.
Click to expand...

Because a regular plain-jane soft-point will usually perform just fine for a lot less cash.

Buy a variety of different weights (150, 165/68, and 180 grain) of ammo to see which shoots best in your rifle. Use those for just about everything. After all, you're shootin' a thirty-caliber round.
 
"Because a regular plain-jane soft-point will usually perform just fine for a lot less cash.

Buy a variety of different weights (150, 165/68, and 180 grain) of ammo to see which shoots best in your rifle. Use those for just about everything. After all, you're shootin' a thirty-caliber round."


Everything you wrote above I disagree with. For hunting, "what shoots best" doesn't matter as long as you are under 2 moa.

what matters is the game you are shooting at drops within a timely manner. If you can't afford the 25 bucks to buy a decent box of ammo for the game in question, you should stay the heck home.
 
"what matters is the game you are shooting at drops within a timely manner."

I don't think anybody here would disagree. However, I still want to know what brands of bullets and construction-styles are of low quality.

Art
 
Regular Remington Express Core-Lokt soft-point rounds (as an example of a plain-jane sp round) have killed deer, elk, and moose quite well for years, long before the premium rounds were manufactured.

I'm not saying that Premium rounds don't perform well; I use Federal Premium for deer, but only because they shoot the most accurately through my particular rifle. But I've also killed lots of deer with regular soft-points.

My point is that he shouldn't confine himself soley to the premium rounds; he needs to buy a wide variety of rounds to see which shoot most accurately through the rifle. If it happens to be a regular-brand soft-point, he's good to go.
 
I love Rem Core-locks for just about everything, but I must admit, when it comes to elk hunting, where I may see only 1 shootable elk, I go with the Fed Premium bearclaws, 180gr or a Nosler Partition 180gr. If anything, it gives me an added sense of confidence. They all shoot great out of my Tikka and Abolt.
 
Almost nine years passed.

Did the thread starter find those perfect cartridges?
And did he go hunting with them?
 
I had a pleasant supersize this year.
I and my wife both had elk tags and I also hunted with a friend who borrowed my Mossberg 308. I killed my elk with a 270 with a 160 grain Nosler partition.

She and our friend killed their elk with the 308 using 150 grain Winchester Power Points from handloads I made myself. I was quite surprised at how accurate they were from this rifle. They shot into 3/4" at 100.

But the real surprise was how well they held up on the elk.

4 shots were fired by my wife and my friend. All were hits. 3 hit heavy leg bones. One when through the chest above the heart. I recovered one of them on the skin, and the other 3 exited the animals after breaking bone. The exits were about silver dollar size. The one I recovered weighs 128 grains. That's only an 18% loss.

Now this is a "plane vanilla bullet", but it preformed as well as the best A-Frames, Partitions, and bonded bullets I have used and seen used in the past.

I bought 25,000 of them some years ago and was using them in my M-1 Garand, FN-FAL, and M-14. I never hunted with them. Not for any good reason, I just never shot one at game. That changed this year. I have to say I am impressed!

I, like Huntergirl, have liked most of the Remington Core-Locked bullets over the years, but I have never seen a 150 grain 30 cal C.L. that would hold 82% of it's weight. I also have seen elk killed with them and as a rule they don't exit. The 165s and the 180s usually exit elk, but not the 150s.

Well these 150 grain Winchesters did far better then I thought they would. So much so that I may rethink the use of the 150 grain 30 cal for elk.

4 shots is not a comprehensive test, but what I have seen so far is impressive.
Too bad they are no longer cheap.
 
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The very first deer I shot was with a 150 gr Core Lokt.

I have shot every whitetail deer since then with a 150 gr something.

Since 1976, I have used the Speer Hot Cor 150 gr and all of them have been one shot DRT.

When I hunted Elk, I went to the 200 gr. That is what I would use for everything that you listed game wise.

I have loaded and shot 220s and some Woodleigh 240 gr. The Woodleigh will get your attention, but they are damn good bullets.

I have always been a cup & core guy and don't use monolithic at all.
 
I've used the 30-06 ever since 1954 in some form or another. Mostly on deer and used the 150 gr. Sierra Pr0-hunters, although they were not called that way back then, as I recall. Around 1968 or so I switched to the Sierra Pro-hunter 180 gr. bullet as to was less destructive on good eating meat plus the Nevada Mule Deer were a lot bigger than the California Blacktail "dog sized" in the coastal area. In 1973 I went to the .308 and back to the 150 gr. bullet but switched back to the 180 gr. bullets. The rifle was a lot lighter at the 8 to 9 thousand foot elevations I was hunting. When I moved to Arizona I ended up using the 165 gr. Speer Hot core in the .308 and would take a 30-06 or .300 Win. Mag. when hunting elk in AZ. About 6 years ago I started doing landowner elk hunts and have done five so far. For some reason I didn't book in 2011. Of the five hunts I used a .35 Whelen with great results but last years hunt was done with a custom 30-06 with a non-standard 1 in 12" twist. I found out heaviest bullet that would stabilize was the 165 gr. Nosler Accubond. Loaded to almost 2900 FPS I got a shot at just about 100 yards. The elk went maybe 30 feet tops and expired. The old colonel was right. "The 30-06 is never a mistake. :D
Paul B.
 
Interesting read.
I brought this thread back from the dead to learn a little about bullet choices for my 30-06.

Personally I have used 200gr Norma Oryx for Scandinavian moose. I haven't shot any moose yet. But I have seen the effects of this bullet. I was surprised too see the effects from lesser, plain Jane, softpoints.

I know the Oryx works well, but Geco softpoint also work really well.

I would like to hear from some one with experience using Remington Hypersonic.
 
I would say it depends on the type of bullet you will be shooting. If you like cup and core bullet I would probably be inclined to go with the heavier 180 gr. If using a premium bullet then I would say whichever one your gun shoots best from 150s and up.

From what research I have done (not much experience with non magnum cartidges) there has been a mountain of elk, moose, black bear, caribou, etc killed with the 270 win. Most being a 130 or 140 grain bullet. SD is commonly going to be lower with the lower grain bullet but if you are presented with a good lung and heart shot any one will do.

I like the 165s in my 300 wsm. I have loaded it close to 30-06 levels with a nose partition and my dad has killed many moose with it.

Good luck to ya!!!
 
You are 100% correct Jebby.
In fact I know a man in Green River Wyoming that has killed 9 elk with a 243 with 100 grain Barnes X bullets and done very well. He's using a 270 Weatherby Mag now that he had me build for him, but until I made that rifle for him he only had his Winchester M88 in 243, so that how he filled his freezer.

We have a tendency to look in the wrong places for our answers.
The truth is this;

What kills is the wound.
Not the rifle.
Not the scope.
Not the shell.
And actually not even the bullet.
It's the bullet HOLE that does it.

If we can make a hole at least 3/4" in diameter and have it go clear through an animals vital organs and out the skin on the other side, it matters not at all what made the hole. A 243, a 300 mag, a broad-head on an arrow, or a drill bit.......... all will kill the deer elk or moose.

So the smaller the bullet the better it has to be. A 45 cal 500 grain lead bullet from a black powder Sharps is just fine. So is a 58 caliber ball of lead from a muzzle-loader. They are a bit more sophisticated then a rock, yet they do a super good job at killing game.

But when we start to try to do as well with small bullets at higher velocities they MUST hold together.

I have killed a good number of elk with 270 bullets and all but one exited the elk. All were dead with only one shot except this years elk. I shot that one 2 times because my 1st bullet hit the liver (I misjudges the wind) so I shot again.
But my point is that thew 270 did fine with 150 and 160 grain bullets where as most 150 grain 30 cals would not exit and for whatever reasons didn't drop the elk as fast as the same weight of bullets form the 270s. I believe it's because the bullets I used in the 270s have thicker jackets in proportion to their diameter than the 30 cals. So if we have 2 150 grain bullet at the same speed the amount of power is the same, but the penetration of the 270s was better because they bullets didn't come apart and made a deeper if somewhat smaller diameter hole.
Not that the 30s were bad. they were fine. But I have been amazed at how the 270s kill now for about 45 years. They just seem to think they are bigger than they are. I butcher all my own game and all the game for my clients now for several decades, so I get to look at wounds from many different calibers and bullets. As the Former CEO of a bullet company I also had 2 full filing cabinets or reports and details from kills made with out bullets and about 1/4 of those reports were from clients using other bullets so I could make real comparison. In all I have come to believe that any good diameter wound that exits an animal is going to kill well.

If a bullet doesn't exit even when it is on the skin, you don't get the double sucking chest wound that you do when you get an exit. Any medic will tell you that closing the wound will keep someone alive a bit longer. "Stop the bleeding and start the breathing" are a 1st rules of life saving. Same with hunting animals, but we try to do the opposite. That is why an exit helps so much. at least that been my experience, and I hunt with 4 different doctors (2 are trauma surgeons) and they tell me the same thing.

Complete penetration with good cavitation is what you need. Put the bullet through the chest of an animal and get your knife out.

How you put the hole there is up to you.
 
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