30-06 hunting load out to 400yds

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luckylogger6

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The last two years my hunting load has been a 150gr Corelok over 49gr IMR4064. It got the job done and I was happy with the .75” groups.

This year I am looking to extend my range to 400yds so I changed bullets to 165gr Sierra Game kings and H4350. The best I could get was 1.5” groups at 100yds. IMR 4350 was the powder that most people have been using but I had a can of H4350. I would really like to get the groups down. Should I play with COL or do you think going from H4350 to IMR 4350 would get my groups sub 1 inch? Or try a different powder, or go to a 150gr Sierra Game king, or just stick with the 150 coreloks?
 
are the bullets flatbased or boattail? if different, make em the same. if the same try a different powder.

reloader 15 and 165 grain boattails works for me. not real fast, but real tight.

murf
 
I am impressed that you are getting 3/4" groups with core locks. I shot them and mine were not that good.

Actually 1.5" at 100 yards is not bad with any hunting rifle, but if you want to improve groups you are going to have play with different combinations of powders and bullets.

I have shot lots of IMR 4350 and H4350 (and AA4350) in the 30-06 and with the powders I bought, the differences in velocities and groups were due to lot to lot variations. I believe it is just happenstance that you are not getting better groups with 4350. Maybe your rifle does not like it.

It is my opinion that out to 400 yards a good 150 gr bullet will give you everything you need on deer, so why not try some premium 150's and IMR 4064?

It is hard to beat IMR 4064 in a 30-06. Usually it is hard to beat 4350.
 
"are the bullets flatbased or boattail? if different, make em the same. if the same try a different powder.

reloader 15 and 165 grain boattails works for me. not real fast, but real tight."

The coreloks are flatbase and the Sierra GKs are boattail. That is somthing to think about. Thanks.

"It is my opinion that out to 400 yards a good 150 gr bullet will give you everything you need on deer, so why not try some premium 150's and IMR 4064?"

Do you have any bullet recomendations in 150gr? The 165 Sierra GKs seemed to be very popular with long range shooters. I see there is a 150 sierra game king what do you think about that one? Thanks.
 
I'm using that combination, a 165gr SGK under H4350. I am chargeing 58.0gr H4350 and that load is delivering sub 1/2MOA groups @100 yards and 1/2MOA groups @200 yards.

If you decide to stick with IMR4350 drop the charge weight to 57.0gr under the same 165gr GameKing.
 
what i was trying to get at is your rifle will like a certain bullet. when you change the weight, shape, design or brand, your rifle may not, obviously in this case, like the change.

if you want a 165 grain bullet, you are going to have to start all over in the load development process.

one thing you could try before you start changing things. use a different primer.

murf

p.s. also, try shooting the load at 200 yards. might take the extra yards to settle that boattail down.
 
Last edited:
luckylogger6 said:
The last two years my hunting load has been a 150gr Corelok over 49gr IMR4064. It got the job done and I was happy with the .75” groups.

This year I am looking to extend my range to 400yds so I changed bullets to 165gr Sierra Game kings and H4350. The best I could get was 1.5” groups at 100yds. IMR 4350 was the powder that most people have been using but I had a can of H4350. I would really like to get the groups down. Should I play with COL or do you think going from H4350 to IMR 4350 would get my groups sub 1 inch? Or try a different powder, or go to a 150gr Sierra Game king, or just stick with the 150 coreloks?
Click to expand...
What I would like to know is, why are you screwing around with different bullets when Core-Lokts have worked for you in the past? They'll work just fine at 400 yards so use them.
 
I can tell you what works best in my CZ-550 .30-06 but it's not nessisarily what will work best in you rifle. My rifle likes Hornady 165gr SST bullets with a WinStd primer and 57.5gr of Re-19.I came up with this load by shooting a lot of different powder/primer/bullet combos. I don't know of a shortcut to load developement. Good luck.
 
I've run the same load in 5 different 06's using that 165 Sierra Gameking with great accuracy. 57g IMR4350-WWcase-CCI200. I've never had that load go over an inch in the 5 06's I've tried it in. I'd switch to IMR4350 and play with seating depth if you need to. Those 165 gamekings should shoot.
 
Grumulikin got it right. Use what is already shooting well. I have shot 150's out past 1000 yards. and they maintained MOA accuracy out to 1000. So I am very confident to say that your load will do fine at 400 yards.

Just go out and shoot, you may be surprised at how easy it is, even at 400. Allot of shooters seem to allow a lack of confidence in a firearm to limit thier attempts to trying longer range shooting.

Go give it a try.
 
Another possibility, no offense meant...

You didn't tell us how far you were shooting when you got those .75 MOA groups. Many shooters who can shoot well @100 yards can't reproduce the same accuracy @400 yards. There are a lot of factors involved in shooting well @400 yards. Is it possible it's not the ammo?
 
Thanks for all the reply’s.
I was loading the 165 Gamekings over 57.0, 57.5, and 58.0grs of H4350 and seating to what the manual printed for the COL. Nearly everyone I talk to says this load “should” shoot.
Every thing was shot at 100yds, maybe I will give 200yds a try with the same load and see what happens. I have been shooting the 150gr coreloks out to 300yds and getting a 3-4” group. I have yet to try 400yds, that’s a ½ mile walk to set/check my target. Just kidding
Do you guys think changing from H4350 to IMR 4350 should be my first change or play with seating depth and try different primers?
 
If you're seating at saami COL then you'll no doubt shoot better by adjusting your COL. Most of my hunting loads are .010"-.005" jump and it increases accuracy most of the time. Also increases velocity by decreasing bleed off of pressure while bullet is traveling to leade.
 
luckylogger6 said:
Thanks for all the reply’s.
I was loading the 165 Gamekings over 57.0, 57.5, and 58.0grs of H4350 and seating to what the manual printed for the COL. Nearly everyone I talk to says this load “should” shoot.
Every thing was shot at 100yds, maybe I will give 200yds a try with the same load and see what happens. I have been shooting the 150gr coreloks out to 300yds and getting a 3-4” group. I have yet to try 400yds, that’s a ½ mile walk to set/check my target. Just kidding
Do you guys think changing from H4350 to IMR 4350 should be my first change or play with seating depth and try different primers?
Click to expand...
If it were me I wouldn't change from H4350 to IMR4350 because I get better results with H4350. Like I said, I can achieve sub 1/2MOA groups @100 yards and 1/2MOA @200 yards with a 165gr GameKing over 58.0gr H4350. I'm not shooting a very expensive rifle either, it's only a Howa 1500. I get similar results from an almost 100 year old 1917 Enfield and my sons Remington 700 with the same load.
 
My bolt gun target load, for a while, was a 168 SMK with 55.0 grains IMR 4350. This shot well out to 300 yards, at 500 and 600 yards I would use a 175 SMK or 200SMK gr bullet.

I personally preferred a 168 SMK with 47.0 grains IMR 4895 as it kicked less and I could not tell any differences in the rapid fire groups.

You didn't tell us how far you were shooting when you got those .75 MOA groups. Many shooters who can shoot well @100 yards can't reproduce the same accuracy @400 yards. There are a lot of factors involved in shooting well @400 yards. Is it possible it's not the ammo?
Click to expand...

This is very true. You will see 100 yard groups shot by people who swear by Lee Factory Crimp dies, but you don’t see any past that distance, most likely due to range limitations. No one, and I mean no one good, deforms their long range ammunition with crimp dies because it will show up at distance. I have shot with Nationally ranked shooters all the way out to 1000 yards, and the good shooters have stories about weird effects that only show up around the 400 yard distance. One gentleman, who is one of the best shooters I have ever met, mentioned a certain brand of bullet (Bergers, I think) in 6.5 mm that actually shot tighter MOA past 300 yards. He thought it might be due to damping of bullet oscillation, but that was just a guess. What it shot on paper was not a guess. They shot well.
 
I use IMR4350 for the 06 with a 150 gr. BT. They fly nice and flat, and group quite well from the old Rem 700. I am just a tad above 3000 fps average and groups are nice and tight at 200 yds., under an inch if I do my part. 400 yds. is not a difficult task with these loads.

GS
 
if you go to 200 yards, don't forget to adjust your parallax on the scope.

murf
 
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