180 grain vs. 150 grain .30-06

[hipoint]

I hope you folks will forgive me, this may be better suited for the "rifle" forum, but I get less trolls and smart alek comments in the handloading forum as opposed to the rifle forum... That's why I like the revolver forum better as well

I sold my reloading supplies, I was honestly a bit overwhelmed by all the variables and don't have the funds to experiment enough. I shoot for utility on the farm, not for fun anyhow, so it isn't like I go through a bunch of ammo...

Anyhow, to the point... My A-bolt .30-06 REALLY likes the cheapo federal powershok 180 grain, I haven't even tried other ammo in it because there isn't much of a point, when I put a 5/8 inch group on some paper, I called it good. Now that rifle stays in a case 99% of the time and I have recently traded off my .30-30 for a savage 111 in .30-06 so I can buy for one rifle instead of buying ammo for multiple different calibers. My question is regarding the ammo shortage, I have some mismatched .30-06 ammo. Some is 150gr. some is 180gr. and I don't know which is which, it is a mishmash of different brands as well... My A-bolt is my precision rifle, the savage is my farm gun. It wears the factory open sights and no scope. Will the point of impact be different enough to matter using this "grab bag" of ammo? I'm talking minute of deer at 150 yards and under. My own shooting is minute of milk jug at this range with open sights.

Thanks in advance for the information I may end up taking a 200 yard shot with the open sights, but that would be stretching it to the max for my skills with open sights. Before I get flamed, I'm not "hunting" I'm removing pests, my pests happen to be deer instead of coyote or prairie dogs.

 

[mljdeckard]

No.

 

[Reefinmike]

Its hard to say. without further information, id just sort them first by headstamp and then try to sort them further by the general shape of the bullet. this may help. Its better to be consistently 6" lower than point of aim than getting one on poa and the rest everywhere else.

I dont load any rifle but in my 1911 with fixed sights, any 230 grain load is right on the money at 15yd. a 200 or 185gr load hits 6-8" below poa at 15yd. same goes for 38spl. 158gr right on target, 125gr low 110gr real low and 105gr is off the paper.

 

[hipoint]

I wish I knew more about this stuff, obviously I can read the headstamp, but that's not gonna tell me what is 150 and what is 180...

If I could just go to the store and buy a bunch of my preferred cheapo 180 federal, I'd just burn up this mismatched stuff on milk jugs and other "fun" targets, but until I can get more I don't wanna burn up my stash of stuff that I have my scoped rifle set up for.

Thanks for the info so far, I'm kinda leaning towards the thought of "yes POI will be different, but not enough to matter on minute of deer".

I'm no precision shooter with open sights, maybe my eyes aren't what they used to be, but 150 yards, that milk jug is getting pretty small haha

 

[chanson88]

I mixed up some 150 and 130 Barnes 308 before and was able to sort them out with the reloading scale. if you don't have a scale you could set up a balance to figure out the heavy and light ones. inside of 150 they should be within a couple inches trajectory wise. my 180s hit about 4 inches lower than my 150s at 100 yards coming from a 308.

 

[Bart B.]

hipoint, weigh the rounds. Those with 180's will be about 30 grains heavier than those with 150's.

Cases alone will weight about 180 grains, with a spent primer about 185. With about 55 grains of powder and primer, a round with a 180 will be about 420 grains; a can-do job with a scale with a 500 grain limit.

 

[hipoint]

good idea, thanks! haha, shoulda figured I'd miss something stupid like that. I don't have a bunch of any one kind, but a pretty good handful of rounds total. Somewhere around 30... I'm asking for you folk's best guess here, but would different brands of the same grain weight projectile give me a noticeably (I'm still talking minute of deer) different POI?

Sure do wish this dang shortage would hurry up and wind itself out, I don't wanna waste the ammo I have experimenting, but in all honesty, I might need 2 rounds per deer, so that would put me at 15 deer, that's probably a year's worth of deer here on the farm so maybe ammo will be more available by the time I get around to needing some...

 

[TooManyToys]

Hello HiPoint,
You might try picking out 2 rounds ( one light & one heavy) from your selection, and carefully bench rest shoot them at say 100 yards, then plan to sight your aim somewhere in between.
This will at least give you a real world test of how your gun likes them both without blasting away too much ammo.
My guess is they will both print well within your requirements for what you want to do.

 

[readyeddy]

Not enough difference out to 200 yards. Both will impact around 2.5" high at 100 yards. It's when you get out to 300-400 yards you will see the 180 drop around 2-4 inches more.

Note that this is all from memory so it's best to go to a ballistic calculator if you want really accurate numbers.

 

[jmr40]

At open sight ranges it won't matter much. You'll probably see geater differences among ammo in the same weight from different manufacturers than from different weights made by the same manufacturer.

 

[Lloyd Smale]

depends on your gun and the actuall ammo your using. Ive had guns shoot some 150s and 180s within 2 inches at a 100 yards and the same gun with two different 150s and 180s shoot 8 inches differnt. You should be able to weight those rounds and between that and headstamps seperate them. No way id going hunting with that mismatched ammo. You might get away with it but then the buck of a lifetime might come out at 200 yards and it could cost you that trophy. Or worse yet it could cause you to wound a deer and have it run off and die a terrible death. Is it worth it over a 30 dollar box of ammo. Put some beer cans out at 50 yards and practice your off hand shooting with that ammo and buy some new stuff for hunting. If you cant find a couple boxes local run a add in the classifieds here and maybe someone can help you with it.

 

[GaryL]

depends on your gun and the actuall ammo your using. Ive had guns shoot some 150s and 180s within 2 inches at a 100 yards and the same gun with two different 150s and 180s shoot 8 inches differnt.

That mirrors my experience. Factory ammo is usually much worse than handloads for point of impact in my experience.

 

[gspn]

depends on your gun and the actuall ammo your using. Ive had guns shoot some 150s and 180s within 2 inches at a 100 yards and the same gun with two different 150s and 180s shoot 8 inches differnt.

That is my experience as well. I switched weights one time and rather than have my impact shift vertically as I thought it would...the lighter weight bullet hit 7 inches to the RIGHT at 100 yards.

The only difference between those rounds was the weight...same gun, same brand.

Always check it. It might shoot great through your gun...or it might shoot like mine did. I'd sure want to put rounds on target before I put them on fur.