Best load for 30 ' 06

[LongSpur39]

I'm currently shooting hornady sst 165 gr through my 06. I have to say out of all the deer i hit with them.Somewhat devistating as far as wound channel and exit. Actually looks like over kill somewhat,if that makes sense. I'm not complaining about them at all. Luckily haven't had a bad hit on any yet. But what other loads would any of you recommend? I haven't tried many out of it. The coreloks did so so. Win 165's didn't shoot all that great(boat tails). But thats about it. Any ideas would be very much appreciated.

[Kt29]

Here's my opinion for what its worth. I do believe the SST is a good bullet, if you are planning on using it for long range (300+-) killing. Mostly, you have to load them to light speed to achieve accuracy, which translates into a pretty fast bullet. My experience is that, yes they do seem to be overly devastating at shorter ranges. I don't like em for that reason. When I do use my 06 for deer hunting, I've had very good experiences using 150 gr. Sierra Prohunters along with H414 powder.
The Prohunters also proved to be very accurate. One I haven't tried in the 06, Is the Nosler Accubond. Have shot them in other calibers and must say they performed very well, and also were very accurate. Personally I don't see the need to shoot a 165 gr. bullet in an 06 for deer. Just another of my opinions.

[LongSpur39]

Apr 5, 2010 19:55:21 GMT -5 Kt29 said:

Here's my opinion for what its worth. I do believe the SST is a good bullet, if you are planning on using it for long range (300+-) killing. Mostly, you have to load them to light speed to achieve accuracy, which translates into a pretty fast bullet. My experience is that, yes they do seem to be overly devastating at shorter ranges. I don't like em for that reason. When I do use my 06 for deer hunting, I've had very good experiences using 150 gr. Sierra Prohunters along with H414 powder.
The Prohunters also proved to be very accurate. One I haven't tried in the 06, Is the Nosler Accubond. Have shot them in other calibers and must say they performed very well, and also were very accurate. Personally I don't see the need to shoot a 165 gr. bullet in an 06 for deer. Just another of my opinions.

Excellent! just what i was looking for. I'll give them both a try. When i get around to gettin the prohunter. i was looking at getting The .308 barrel for it. So while i'm asking. LOL! What cartridges would you recommend for the .308? Thanks buddy for the recommendation. Between you and ghost i figured one of you would have some knowledge to pass along. thanks

[Ghost]

KT? I am not as familiar with this as you are but let me ask this. If you increase the weight of the bullet thus dropping the speed, would this lessen the amount of damage? I do not know. Thanks for your input. Don't mean to hijack the thread Long Spur. Sorry if I did.

[LongSpur39]

Apr 7, 2010 1:06:29 GMT -5 Ghost said:

KT? I am not as familiar with this as you are but let me ask this. If you increase the weight of the bullet thus dropping the speed, would this lessen the amount of damage? I do not know. Thanks for your input. Don't mean to hijack the thread Long Spur. Sorry if I did.

Not a problem. Hey useful knowledge is never a bad thing!

[Kt29]

Apr 7, 2010 1:06:29 GMT -5 Ghost said:

KT? I am not as familiar with this as you are but let me ask this. If you increase the weight of the bullet thus dropping the speed, would this lessen the amount of damage? I do not know. Thanks for your input. Don't mean to hijack the thread Long Spur. Sorry if I did.

This bullet stuff is always interesting and controversial to say the least, as is rifle and caliber selection. Thats part of the fun and Mystique of shooting and hunting. The point I try to make is that some bullets are designed more for expansion at longer ranges than at shorter ranges. I believe the SST to be one of those designed for longer ranges. At short ranges at high velocity it seems to be really frangible, that is blows up pretty bad, but at longer ranges the velocity has slowed down considerably and at impact the bullet is far less frangible and holds together better. One can always say, well just shoot them alot slower for closer range shooting. I believe you can do that, but I've found that when you slow these bullets up, you seen to loose quite abit in accuracy.
Hence you still find alot of people using the core-lokt, sierras, and speers for moderate range hunting. They seem to perform well if not shot at super high velocities and they also maintain good accuracy. I guess the bottom line is, like most things anymore, the proper bullet for the job. There are indeed alot of bullet designs out there and a whole lot of individual experiences with each. Sometimes one just has to try different one out on game and draw your own concllusions. Hey, thats kinda fun in itself. One of my pet Peeves on bullets here, sorry I can't remember the brand off hand, but the gist of there add is, that when you shoot the animal with this bullet, it will leave a good bloodtrail. I guess for some folks thats a good thing, but for me personally, I really don't want to get into the bloodtrailing thing. When I shoot something I preferr it to go down within a very close distance to have been hit. I'd rather have the lungs blown out than a nice small hole through the animal that leaves a nice blood trail to follow for who knows how far. I'm certainly no expert here on bullet performance, but the fact that you are thinking about bullet performance is a good thing. Its well worth the time and effort to study up on them, but in the end you will still have to draw you own conclusions. For sure not all bullets are created equally. Don't know if any of this really helps or not, but it is a fun subject.

[LongSpur39]

I think once turkey season is over I'll be tryin the sierras and the accubonds. And yeah i understand where you are comin from Terry. Thanks.I'll let ya know come June how thye work out at thr range.