Why don't more people use 220 grain bullets in .30-06's and .300 Magnums?

For decades the factories claimed 3,480 ft/sec for the 110-grain '06 load, from a 26" barrel.

The Sierra Spitzer bullets have a bit thicker jacket than the boat-tails, particularly in the 150- and 165-grain weights. I've had the 150-grain SPBTs blow up at close range. I wouldn't expect this with either shape in the 180-grain.

For a close-range varmint load, swage the .32-20 80-grain flat-nose down to .308 and load max. It's very much like a tiny hand-grenade. :D

Art
 
I just loaded 20 220grn RN over 57 grains of H4831. These will hopefully knock the living -CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED- out of a feral hog and stop it in its tracks next week. I will be shooting these out of a Marlin XL7 3006 with a 24" 1:10 twist barrel. I dont look forward to sighting these in.
 
A 14 year old thread bought back to life. :confused: But since we're here.

Used on the largest animals on the planet 220 gr RN at 30-06 speeds has proven to be at least as effective as rounds such as 338 WM and 35Whelen. At least at close range.

The problem is that at ranges greater than about 100 yards they shed speed and energy so fast that good 180, even 165 gr bullets out perform them. Unless you need to stop a big bear of moose up close in self defense they are a handicap that isn't necessary.
 
It's because the 220 gr round nose is ballistically inferior to the 200 grain or 180 grain bullets, and the velocity loss moves the round to begin behavior less like a magnum. I have a .300 win mag with a 24" ER Shaw stainless steel barrel, savage 110 action and rifle basic trigger in a McMillan stock and Nikon Monarch Gold on top 4x16x50.

For elk I use 180 grain nosler Accubonds, 81 grains of H1000, CCi - 250 primers, and Remmington cases. Clover leaf groups at 200 yards. BC of the accubond at 180 gr is .507. 3115 fps. that load took a 4x5 bull at 476 yards DRT. I have taken deer and hogs with it too, on a pig that load will blow out both shoulders on a shoulder shot (I know that for sure )and would send a moose to the promised land at 500 yards.

I have a 200 grain load using nosler Accubonds and H1000 also but the muzzle velocity drops to 2984 and recoil increases noticeable.

If you want to shoot 220+ grain pills, you should move up to a .338. where you can keep the flatter trajectory of a magnum with heavier bullets.....
 
I guess it is a rite of passage for a new guy to raise a long dead thread. But I suppose this close to Halloween raising the dead is OK.

I didn't know it was that hard to kill pigs. A buddy killed one with a Ruger Single Six with a 22 between the eyes. There is a video on youtube of a hunter killing one with an air rifle and one of the lightweight alloy pellets. With todays excellent bullet choices I don't know why a 220 gr bullet would be needed. A common Nosler partition should do the job in about any weight you care to use.
 
I do!

They are super good on game from both 30-06 and 300 H&H.
I hand load only, and I use the Hornady and the Nosler.

I have loaded the Sierra's in the past for friends in Idaho and they tell me the loads are very effective on elk. Personally I have never loaded any Sierras for myself, but I suspect they would be fine based on what my friends have told me.
 
If Wayne Short's books about homesteading in coastal Alaska are representative for the territory, then the 30-'06 with 220 grain bullets was considered fairly standard for the Brown Bears up there, lesser ammo and calibers were deemed unreliable, especially when being charged by the Bear.
 
premium bullet

I suspect the modern "premium bullet" in the 165-180 weight has largely superseded 200-220 class when shooting really big critters with .30 cal. HIgher velocity, flatter trajectory, and likely the same penetration and lethality, all with less recoil.

I have an Interarms Mark X carbine that shoots 200 gr Partitions very well, but the recoil is fierce when trying to get the higher velocities in the manuals. Loaded to Krag speeds, is much more tolerable. But 180's, loaded to .300 Savage velocities, kills whitetails just as well, and is soft shooting and a bit flatter too.
 
I shot some 220 corelock at the range a week ago. The recoil was not 'fierce'. Not even close. If blind folded, I doubt I would be able to guess what bullet weight I was shooting, 180 or 220. Side by side you can tell, but just given one round and a bling fold, I would never know. I dont have any immediate need for a 220 and that is the simple answer for the OP. No deep mystery or ignorance going on here. I got better accuracy from 180 Nosler partition and it is a better bullet- IMHO (better than corelock).

I am not handloading and I dont see much 220 on the shelf. I assume it is due to where I live and local needs.

I think the shooting public is coming around to understand the benifit of heavy for caliber bullets. I wish we had more 06 220gr worthy prey to shoot. Did they load a 220 FMJ at one time?
 
Whee! Necrothreadia! :D

As with the .223, the answer (mostly) is bullet maker R&D. While 150-grain bullets will kill any whitetail or mulie in NA, many hunters report success on elk with 165-grain and 180-grain bullets. So, it's a case of little demand at the retail level.
 
I can see a number of problems with this. Lots of little problems. The end of the story for me, at least, is that the 06 is just not designed to fire the long, heavy, case filling bullet. I don't know if it will be overall an effective round for anything but shorter ranges around 200 300 yards. I see it being turned into essentially a stronger version of the 30 30.

It has a lot of good points. If all of the questions I have can be addressed and it can be actually used with effective velocity, twist at the right pitch, efficent loads, magazine length, etc, we still have the question of whether a round nose that is so heavy will be capable of expanding properly and quickly enough at only 2400 fps to actually do the job needed on medium sized game, rather than just blowing through.

People use the 3030 with 170 grain round nose bullets at 2400 gps to get good results. I see that as an indication that it would work well, but just have reservations.

At 300 it is down around two feet, at 400 it is down almost four feet. that's over twenty inches more drop than a 150. Not much room for range finding error.

I still think that it will kill nearly anything in the lower states deader than a dollar. Will it be an truly optimal deer or hog round, coyote, antelope, long range elk, etc round? Not at all, but it will work. I think that it would be one heck of a round for close range elk and big mule deer, larger black bear, bigger, beefier critters that need a long hole in them. Myself, if I was hunting big and heavy game such as the big elk, unless I was expecting 300 yard shots, it might be my choice over the 150. I would be inclined to use it on a heavy black bear, maybe grizzly, but why bother on the scrawny little bears we have down here that are the size of a fat bottomed mastiff?
 
I guess in the first go-around of this topic 14 years ago they didn't have the option of Berger VLD 220 gr. Great bullets out of a 300 RUM.
 
In case wooly mammoths trample my flower beds, I keep a 30-06 behind the kitchen door loaded with 220 RNs. An adult male can go 8 tons.

The word must be out, I haven't seen one yet.
 
I didn't realize this thread was resurrected until I saw CR Sam's first post. I always :) when I see his name; one reason I don't mind an old thread. Sorry for the veer.
 
I am pretty sure that Fin Aagard and Phil shoemaker a guide in Alaska tested 30-06 220 bullets for penetration against all big game calibers and the .30 220 bullet was only barely beat by the 375 H&H. so I would guess the velocity was just right and higher speed could not match it
 
Finn aagard was a brilliant man the likes of Jack o Connor.

The fact is that the .308 caliber 220 grain has the highest sectional density of any modern "normal" hunting bullet. The .338 nd .416 come close but only the .458 exceeds it, only by .341 vs ..331. Most non magnum rounds with high sectional density are in a higher velocity range, but whether or not a 7mm non magnum heavy weight will perform as well as the 30-06 .220 is uncertain.
 
Briandg, back in my late 20s I guided hunters in Idaho and I saw a LOT of 7mm Mags used with various bullets. the 175 gr bullet did the very best on elk. However I started loaded the 220 grain Hornady and Remington bullet for my friends there (Remington would still sell them as a component then) and from the 30-06 and one 300 Win Mag, the 220s would always out preform all the 7MM Mags in every instance. The 7MM Was flatter shooting, but that was not important hunting in the Selway wilderness. Most shots were quite close.

The wounds from 220 grain bullets from the 30-06 and the 300 were always a bit larger in diameter then the ones made by the 7MMs, and I never recovered a single 220 grain 30 cal, where I did recover about half of the 7MMs.

These 220 gr 30 caliber bullets would shoot through large bull elk even if they were strongly quartering away, and just go off and hit trees after they left the bulls. The the wounds were large and deadly in diameter too. Probably 1/4 bigger around then what I saw with the 7MM mags.

The 175 grain 7MMs would always exit and so did the 160 gr Nosler Partitions, but the 150 and 154 grain bullets didn't always exit. And I cannot recall ever having an exit with a 7MM of 145 grains or lighter.

This is due to bullet construction, not just weight I am sure.

I have shot a number of elk with 150 grain Remington Core-lock bullets from 270s and I never recovered one of them either, but the jackets of them are very thick and they never come apart on elk.

If you look at this picture you can see the 150 gr .277" Remington bullet next to a 200 grain Speer 8MM bullet.




Anyway, just a few points of interest for you and other readers who may be interested.
 
I wish I could say this with certainty, but Frank Barnes started out making super heavy weight bracketed bullets, maybe up tob250 even. People rebarreled so those ultra long rounds would work. You could fire a round with a .300 magnum and wind up with almost 150 grains remaining after full penetration.

Extreme.
 
I would think that the velocity at 2400 fps in the 06 is the perfect match for the SD of the 220 grain bullet. I would think at a higher velocity in a magnum the same bullet would be erratic and not plow thru in a straight line glancing off bone and losing depth of penetration. years ago Brian Pearce in Africa used a Marlin 45/70 which his guide had no faith in on a cape buffalo not seeing a cow behind the massive bull. the hard cast bullet at around 1500 fps went thru the shoulders of the male thru the cow and killed them both. again the perfect speed for that bullet. the guide wanted to buy the same rifle
 
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