.30-06 Whitetail Load

[Rokman]

If your rifle like 168gr. bullets like mine does, try a 168gr. Nosler Btip. Try a 165gr. Sierra Gameking. Try the Hornady SST. They will definately work on deer. There are so many good .30-06 bullets, it shouldn't be easy to go wrong with a deer load. You could try any of the bonded bullets out there, but probably overkill for small deer.

 

[juk]

Use anything but the AMax... had a bad experience with one not bringing a deer down. My money ( and reloads) get Sierra 165 SPs. The way I have it set up, I can plink, shoot for groups, and hunt with the same load. I was open to trying ballistic tip bullets when I started, but I read several reviews that didn't favor them highly. On the other hand, a traditional bullet had taken every deer that I had seen killed and rarely got bad reviews. I know, I know...A$$holes and opinions....everybody's got one

 

[Steve C]

Lets put things into perspective. This a a deer hunt, not a once in a lifetime Big Horn Sheep hunt where you paid $10K for a tag and have 5 days for your hunt. Most people want to eat the game they take so ruining 20% of the meat with a high velocity light weight bullet should not me an option. There's also no reason to waste money on some premium bullets either. Don't know what the "limit" is in your state but I once saw a guys Texas hunting license and it had a 3 deer limit (no tags required).

Buy Remington 150gr core lock soft points and load them to around 2,600 or so fps and you will have a perfectly good deer killer that's worked fine for half a century or more and will kill deer as far as you can shoot. You can get a box of 100 from Midway for just under $20 which will leave you enough to develop an accurate load for your rifle and leave you 20 or more rounds to hunt with. Any similar bullet from Speer, Sierra or Hornady will work as well.

 

[Remo-99]

I don't agree that high velocity and meat damage equals less humane kills.

Paul meat damage alone will not cause fast enough bleeding for a humane death, the impact shock maybe enough to knock an animal down, but it has the likelyhood to get back up and run off.
Unless shoulder bones etc. are smashed and/or vital organs perforated causing excessive bleeding and loss of consisness within a short moment, I'm not confident that the kill was as cleanly as I could've made it. Choosing the correct bullet for the task is one way of ensuring this.

 

[Smith357]

Well it took me a while to find some basic 165 grain 30 caliber hunting bullets, It seems like i could find tons of 110 130 and 200 grain bullets and a lot of 168 grain target bullets. I finally found a couple of boxes of Speer Hot Core 165 grain Spitzer Soft points. I loaded up a bunch of them using my 47.9 grains of 4895 and took them to the range for testing. I'm very happy to report that they are shooting right at 1 MOA with a few groups just under and a few just over. I don't have a chronograph but the books say I should be in the 26-2700 fps neighborhood. These results give me great confidence in my rifle and its load. I also spent a day tracking my cold barrel shots by waiting 15-20 and cleaning my rifle between shots, I found that there is no variation. All I have to do now is practice shooting from hunting positions, I think this is a job for the .22, my shoulder is a bit sore from all the .30-06

 

[sonier]

id go for a big bullet, not to explsove bullet either. something that hits hard. instead of a 125 gr spitzer blowing stuff up. my mule deer lost his whole chest nearly. my next bet would be a 220 gr bullet at 2200 fps. once hit he wont be gettin up. slow impact tremendous energy, will slow down pretty wuik not at 3000 fps range

 

[KODB]

I use 165 Hornady SSTs and/or 165 Sierra Gameking SPTs over 47gr Varget.
OAL on the SST 3.250", 3.30" on the Gamekings. Both work great.
I suspect given the responses here that the 165s are pretty popular which may account for the difficulties finding them in our "ammo component depleted" world we are living in now.
Regards,
Bob

 

[hillbillydelux]

Been using nosler 150 grain ballistic tips over 4350 for a long time now. Very accurate and deadly on whitetails. However sonier has a good point, A long time ago I used to use a 7mm Mauser for deer. That slow 175 grain bullet dropped about every deer I shot dead in its tracks like they were struck by lightning.

 

[Roughwater]

Light VS heavy 06 bullets

Hi, I'm new to this site and I'm not young but still trying to learn.

My opinion on this light fast VS heavy slow bullet which is the best for deer? I believe either will do just fine if you use the right bullet and load. If I use a 30-06 (308), 130 Gn controlled expansion bullet such as a barns TTSX on deer it will not explode like a varmit bullet and will not cause excessive meat damage. Even a minimum load with this 130gn or a similar bullet will fly at 3000+ FPS out of an 06 giving it a flatter trajectory than the heavy bullet out to 3-400 yds. It will always penetrate a broadside shot deer for a good blood trail though most deer drop in their tracks. On the side of heavier bullets they will have a slight accuracy advantage and better at busting thru brush.
My buddies wife just killed a doe at 220yds with her 243 using a 95gn Winchester XP3 bullet. The deer was hit in the shoulder and it dropped in it's tracks. It penetrated through both shoulders. They had been using ballistic tips previously which they had good success with except on deer shot in the shoulder. The XP3 seems to have corrected that problem but most likely other good controlled expansion bullets would do as well. Now, the bullets I'm talking about are considered premium bullets by many so if your budget can't afford them or you just prefer less expense then most any of the heavier bullets that shoot well in your rifle will probably do the trick for deer.
I load both the cheap and premium bullets and use the cheap ones for sighting in and play and the premium one's just for hunting.

Terry

 

[All4eyes]

For our North Dakota whitetail most use 150gr bullet. I use Sierra 150gr. btsp over 26.5 grs. IMR 4895. Very happy with this load. If you get a bad hit, it doesn't totally destroy the meat (hind quarters). If you wanna see a mess shoot one in the but with a .243.

 

[tactikel]

The classic .30-06 deer bullet is a 150 gr soft point. Bullets 150-165 gr are perfect for all but the largest deer. Cunsult several loading manuals for loads. I like Hornadys 150gr SP spitzer- but have used Sierra's 168 gr BTSP both were very accurate, and would take deer with good placement. Find a load your rifle shoots well and PRACTICE until you really know your rifle/load.

 

[spd1303]

Remington Core lokt 165gr. This is what I use for my 30-06