Most explosive 30-06 varmit bullet?

Brian, when I first began reloading, my uncle had some swaged-down 80-grain .32-20 bullets lying on the desk. I asked; he suggested that I just use the 53.5 grains of 3031 that I used with the 110-grain Hornadys.

I could get five-shot groups of about 1.5 MOA. Enfield, K2.5.

So we go out one night to spotlight jackrabbits. I center-punched one at maybe 50 yards. Yuck. Pieces.

I've not used round-nosed 80-grain pistol bullets, but I figure they'd work.

Phil Sharpe had a load of a ton of 2400 behind an 80-grain pistol bullet which he claimed chronoed at 3,900.
 
Scubasimmons, the recoil from a 110 is not much, and from an 80 is trivial. And, generally, you don't find all that many coyotes or jackrabbits in a hunt session.

Not like prairie-dogging.
 
Good lord a 30-06 for varmint? A day of varmint hunting with a 30-06 would leave me hating life the next day.

There was a time I only had one centerfire so the '06 had to do it all. Took 10 groundhogs in a row one day, 10 shots.
 
I use a similarly constructed 90grain Sierra HP, ahead of a mild charge of IMR 4895 in my .270 Win and it's been very accurate and explosive. As a side benefit, it shoots to the same POI as my hot hunting 130 grain loads.
 
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