Load ?? 30-06 RL17 208 amax and 200 gr Lapua mega in a factory bbl ??

[tammons]

Anybody have a load for above ??

IE 30-06 RL17 208 amax and 200 gr Lapua mega in a factory bbl.
Also have RL22, IMR 4350, H4350, H4895 and some others.

[scope eye]

I have loaded 55gr of RL17 in an 06 with no signs of pressure, It was close to 3000 FPS but not quite,
that was with a 26" 12 twist barrel.

Dean

[tammons]

Which Bullet ??

[scope eye]

They Amax's, sorry about that,

added barrel info

Dean

[tammons]

That sounds about right.

I have a 30-06 shorty 18.5" barrel I am setting up for what else but hog hunting.

208 amax for long range 200 mega for the short range bush slammer.
Looking for about 2500 or so.
I got 2450 out of my 19" 308 so 2500 should be doable out of a 18.5" 30-06 bbl along with a big fireball - LOL.

[scope eye]

The 10 extra grains of powder they 30-06 has over the 308 comes in handy, especially when you are launching 208gr Amax's,
the thing that's neat about a fireball, is that it cauterizes the wound on the hog after you killed it, LOL

Dean

[tammons]

Funny - I had a few that were worse. 460 magnum handgun was a real blazer and a 444SS that was pretty bad too.
Had a 21" bbl 458 winmag but never shot it when it was close to dark.

[bootsmcguire]

tammons, IIRC i ended up with that barrel an owner or two later. I had a side discharge type brake on it, and with the 325/350gr (can't remember which now) SST loaded up with RL7 that thing shot fire 8" forward, and 16" to each side. Took my eyes a second to re-adjust after that in the dark.

[tammons]

LOL - Yeah that thing was a handfull when I had it.

[keith1]

I have a 30/06 with a 22 inch barrel. It shoots the 208 grain A-Max into very small groups like 0.3 inches. With my rifle 61 grains of RL22 and that bullet shot like a shotgun but when I dropped the powder to 59.5 it started producing the small groups. The velocity is 2560 FPS. I use this load mostly at 800 yards.

From what I have read I would be afraid to use this set-up for hunting because lots of people report bullet failures.

Regards, Keith

[tammons]

I am not using it anything except deer and hogs.
I hunted with the Amax for 3 years a few years ago in 7mm and 308.
Shot several deer and hogs.

Shot a 250# ++ boar hog at 300 yards with 7mm-08 and the 162 amax and it blew through him like a freight train and left a 3" exit hole.

I do think pushing them too fast like in a magnum could cause problems. For up close and personal I will be using the Lapua Mega. Never used it before, but supposedly it just drops hogs like a sack of potatoes.

[keith1]

For sure last year I really considered using the A-Max and the way things worked out I'm sure it would have been fine. I used a 270 shooting 130 grain Ballistic Tips. The shot was at 403 yards at a nice 4 pointer. I didn't draw an elk license for the areas around here and didn't buy a general license so deer was all that I hunted. Maybe an elk this year with the A-Max.

Regards, Keith

[tammons]

I dont know about an Elk with an Amax.

I think I would tend towards a heavy Barnes LRX.

A 208 amax might make it though and elk as it has an SD of over .3 but if you hit a heavy bone not sure.
Its definitely going to come apart and you would hate to lose a trophy Elk.

Most of the deer where I hunt in the southeast are small animals with a very rare occasional 250-300# buck once in a blue moon that will have people talking for years.

Hogs I dont really care about because they are so destructive. If I could hit one in the head with a pellet gun I would probably try that too. They are a real pest and destroy a lot of local farmers crops and are a real plague.

[bootsmcguire]

I would not try the A-Max on an elk. I shoot the 155 A-Max out of my 12FV 308, and on deer they do ok, but they act similar to a Varmint bullet (upset is about half way between a varmint bullet and say an SST) if they hit even smaller bones. A rib on a 125lb. deer will get the A-Max to upset pretty quick and not always exit. Only reason I have used them for deer is my supply of 150 SSTs had run out a couple years back and was out of options. It worked well on the deer. DRT. But if I were going for elk, moose, etc. this bullet is just not constructed for it. I highly doubt it would exit at all if it encounters any bone resistance. I am going to go with tammons on this one and say go for a barnes, or maybe a Berger VLD Hunting series bullet (if they are up to elk, not sure as I have only used their target bullets), or even a good ol' Nosler partition or one of many other bullets better suited for the task.

Loosing your trophy over a poor bullet choice leaves you kicking yourself all year til next season.

JMHO.

[keith1]

The only reason that I would consider using that rifle and A-Max set-up is because it's so accurate at long range. Where I hunt here in southern Wyoming sometimes long range is it. There are millions of trees around but they are only about knee high. They are called sage.

If using the 30/06 I usually hunt with 165 grain Partitions and they work fine.

Regards, Keith