which 30-06 bullet to use for first time reloader

[crazycastor]

Just got a savage 111 hunter xp and planning on reloading. I know different rifles prefer a certain weight bullet. Does anyone reload for this rifle and tell me a bullet weight to start with. I'm planning on hunting mule deer and doing alot of target shooting. Distance right now is unknown. I'm not looking for expansion just yet. Just want to see how good the rifle handles a certain bullet under normal middle range powder measure

[Uncle Jack]

I would recommend a 150 gr bullet as a starter. A .308 150 bullet is more than adequate to put down any deer size animal. The 155 Palma bullet is a great target bullet out to 600 or 700 yards. The lighter the bullet, the cheaper the bullet. The lighter the bullet, the less the recoil....and the 150/155 gr bullet gives you a wide range of powders to choose from. Before the 7.62 Nato came along, the 30-06 was our target and hunting cartridge of choice for 50 years.

Good Luck my friend. The 30-06 is a great cartridge to experiment with, and learn from.

uj

[crazycastor]

Thanks Jack for the info.

[fgw_in_fla]

I would recommend a 150 gr bullet as a starter. A .308 150 bullet is more than adequate to put down any deer size animal. The 155 Palma bullet is a great target bullet out to 600 or 700 yards. The lighter the bullet, the cheaper the bullet. The lighter the bullet, the less the recoil....and the 150/155 gr bullet gives you a wide range of powders to choose from. Before the 7.62 Nato came along, the 30-06 was our target and hunting cartridge of choice for 50 years.

Good Luck my friend. The 30-06 is a great cartridge to experiment with, and learn from.

uj

What he said.
And you'll find it like a wide range of powders. My favorite or should I say my rifle's favorite is IMR4350.

Good luck with it.

[bythebook]

[QUOTE=fgw_in_fla;177155]What he said.
And you'll find it like a wide range of powders. My favorite or should I say my rifle's favorite is IMR4350.

+1 on the powder and after 45 or so years of reloading and I started with the 30-06 like a lot of people on here. My favorite bullet for hunting is the 165 BTHP SGK. I have used it in several 06's and 300 mag. and it always performs with great accuracy.

[crazycastor]

Thanks guys, looking forward to getting started on reloading and testing out this gun. Its my first large caliber rifle other then my 8mm mauser. But hardly ever shoot it due to the lack of ammo I can find for it where I live.

[stomp442]

168 Sierra Game King. Better B.C. and more energy down range than the 150s and still wont hurt the shoulder. The game king is an excellent hunting bullet too.

[bythebook]

My Son has a 110 FCP-k and we can change the 168 match kings for the 165 game kings and not tell any diff. on the target. They both shoot the same in his gun.

[fgw_in_fla]

[QUOTE=bythebook;177164]

What he said.
And you'll find it like a wide range of powders. My favorite or should I say my rifle's favorite is IMR4350.

+1 on the powder and after 45 or so years of reloading and I started with the 30-06 like a lot of people on here. My favorite bullet for hunting is the 165 BTHP SGK. I have used it in several 06's and 300 mag. and it always performs with great accuracy.

My '06 is a mutt. Stevens action, & then I'm not sure what I used to put it together. All I know is it's a real shooter. I got a few boxes of the SGK's by accident. I thought they were SMK's. They still shoot great. It's good for .5 to .65" at 100yds on days when I'm doing it right.

Learning to really like those SGK's. Not quite as tight as the SMK's but darn close.

[crazycastor]

You know what they say about Mutts. Best dogs a guy can get. A mutt for a rifle is kinda they same thing in my book. I bought some winchester soft tip165 grain bullets to start off with this gun. Figured that would be a great starter when sighting the gun in. I've heard different opinions. Some say that most 30-06 likes that grain and then I heard that the 30-06 likes a bigger grain for accuracy. Figured I would meet in the middle and get the 165.

[stangfish]

168 Sierra Game King. Better B.C. and more energy down range than the 150s and still wont hurt the shoulder. The game king is an excellent hunting bullet too.

This

[5spd]

For all antelope & deer to 600 yards out here all I use is a 125g JSP bullet. It will flat out drop them on the spot.
I use a 165g jsp for Elk.

[big honkin jeep]

I've had great sucess with the 165-168gr pills from several 1-10 twist 30-06s. The Nosler guide shows IMR 4350 to be the most accurate powder tested with this bullet weight and I have had great results with the combination. I think you'll find the 30-06 very easy to load for.
Good luck

[langenc]

Try to pick just two bullets at most. One for deer the other for small stuff-coyotes and real small stuff.

On the other hand, 150s will probably do for everything. Then you know exactly where it shoots and you dont have to mess w/ resighting two or three times/yr.

On the other hand-how many hands do you have??

[Luckus]

150 gr Hornady IL. Luckus

[BRIAN G]

Let me muddy the water. My hunting rig loves Hornady interlock 165btsp over H4350

Well I guess Big Honkin Jeep muddied it before me since he suggested the same thing... Lol

[GSXR]

180 accubond, IMR 4350 and about .010 off the lands out of my adl 700 remy. Five shots groups where .545 Cant remember the charge, was about a grain off max load I think. Wanted to load 175mks but the throat jump is horendous on rem 700 and couldnt get close. Accubond was long enuff of a bullet to reach. Was over.300 thousands past what book said for max overall cartridge length, but those are just guidlines. Use a guage that measures off the objive. More accurate way. Anyway to answer your question I was Impressed with the nosler accubond for accuracy and its a good hunting round.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

My 111 shoots .50-.75 (depending on me) groups with 130 gr. Barnes TTSX pills on top of 60.5 gr. Ramshot Big Game. But where I hunt in N.E. TX 130 gr is more than enough for anything.

[GSXR]

I see all these these recomendations on lighter bullets which is fine but I prefer the heavier bullets because they retain energy over longer distances and If you get the speed up there simply just a better load. The 06 Is at home around the 180gr bullet weight, execellent energy and good speed. Remember theirs only one degree of dead. I dont get caught up to much into these disscusions about over kill. Ill put my once fired necked only brass and my 175's against the lighter stuff any day off the week.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

I see all these these recomendations on lighter bullets which is fine but I prefer the heavier bullets because they retain energy over longer distances and If you get the speed up there simply just a better load. The 06 Is at home around the 180gr bullet weight, execellent energy and good speed. Remember theirs only one degree of dead. I dont get caught up to much into these disscusions about over kill. Ill put my once fired necked only brass and my 175's against the lighter stuff any day off the week.

There's certainly nothing wrong with having more energy, to be sure. But on CXP2 game the on-target KE differential between a 180 gr bullet and, say, a 130 gr bullet of the same construction doesn't really matter until you get out past around 400 yds or so...which is honestly well past where most of us (but certainly not all, of course) ought to be shooting at live game anyway. As you said, there's only one degree of dead. But if you've got the skill and the inclination to shoot deer-sized game from well past 400 yds away then your concern is certainly a valid one. But even then a 150 gr will have enough KE for the job out to around 700 yds or so.

[rattfink]

I see all these these recomendations on lighter bullets which is fine but I prefer the heavier bullets because they retain energy over longer distances and If you get the speed up there simply just a better load. The 06 Is at home around the 180gr bullet weight, execellent energy and good speed. Remember theirs only one degree of dead. I dont get caught up to much into these disscusions about over kill. Ill put my once fired necked only brass and my 175's against the lighter stuff any day off the week.

I was thinking the same thing. I am actually very interested in shooting some of the very heavy .30 bullets from an .06 (200 grains plus) but since I have never loaded such a bullet, I of course would not make that recommendation.

[Stockrex]

fyi: 150s might be hard to find or stock may not last long as garand guys (like moi) buy them by truck loads.

[hub]

Just for discussion I thought I might talk about the 200 grain gameking a little. I have a friend who has taken 6 elk with his 06 and 200 gamekings. He sits on a migration trail and picks them off at under 100 yrds. The load was 56 grains of IMR-4831 for 2600 FPS according to the chrony. The load worked fine in his remmy 760 pump. His report is that the 200 gr.gameking puts elk down quickly. I have shot targets with the same load in my savage 110 along with 200 PT,s. Both bullets got just under MOA. in my rifle.

[langenc]

++ what Jack (second post said).

165 grain will do anything but moose and grizzly. Many will say you need 200 (or 180) for elk, 165 is plenty when you know the rifle/ammo combo.. Dont shoot 400 and 500 yards.