Working up a Light Recoil Lead Free 30-06 Load?

[dubious]

Hi... I'm looking for a lead free hunting load with low recoil for my Remington 700 30-06. I'm thinking of maybe a barnes bullet or some other lead free using hogden h4895. I read somewhere that's a good powder for light loads on up to more thumper. I'm totally open to suggestions here. I'm hoping to load up a few that are 30-30 power levels and some that are halfway between 30-30 and 30-06. Ideally they would zero nicely on my scope at clever ranges and be accurate too!

I've only reloaded 357, 45acp, and 44mag... not a lot of rifle reloading experience. I'm using a lee deluxe turret press.

 

[DWFan]

Hodgdon Youth loads...

 

[Funshooter45]

Ideally they would zero nicely on my scope at clever ranges and be accurate too!

I have no idea what that means but...

Barnes makes lead free bullets at 110 and 130 gr. I think the 130 gr would be perfect for light recoil but still effective. Hornady also makes their GMX bullet but the lightest one is 150 gr.

Using the Barnes 130 gr bullet and somewhere around 39 gr of H4895 should get you a nice light load running around 2500 fps. Adjust the powder weight a little up or down to get the best accuracy.

 

[DC Plumber]

Try some IMR Trailboss with a leadfree bullet. I've used it with 125 TNT bullets in my 06. Very nice and mellow.

 

[kingmt]

I use a powder that is hard to find but the same burn rate as Blue Dot.

 

[dubious]

Are these bullets going to expand reliably at low velocities? Would it be possible try to 30-30 leverevolution bullets for 2200 fps level loads?

 

[Funshooter45]

Yeah, they should expand down to about 1800 fps or so. But the loads calling for Trail Boss won't be going that fast even, so they won't expand much. As for the leverevolution bullets, they would probably expand at 2200, but they are not lead free. But honestly I have no experience with those bullets.