Sir_Springer and all:

Howdy again. I got to thinking about the whole weight/caliber conundrum not so long ago. I used to just call it good (and it still is) with 150's or 165's for my 30-06's since I was 12 when I started reloading many, many, moons ago. The part of the equation that should be considered is just what you say, bullet construction. The pin hole effect as you so aptly put it...

In the past, I have resisted buying premium bullets because I am cheap by nature in many things and luckly because of this trait I have always ended up with bullets, mostly Sierra, Speer & Hornady, that vigorously expand and drop stuff pretty much right now. 165gr standard bullets at a moderate speed of about 2700-2800fps seemed fine and are fine depending on the bullet construction, game construction and area hit by the bullet.

The idea of using the lighter for caliber bullets seems valid to me as they will likely be travelling 10 - 15% faster (3000-3100 for the 30-06) encouraging a higher degree of expansion in the Barnes type bullets but in cup and core types possibly preclude the shoulder shot due to the damage to the cut of meat but more importantly to me is the fragmented lead bits that will be ingested from the cup and core type bullets. A nice side benefit of the lighter bullets is the flatter trajectory of the loads when the lighter weight projectiles are ran to decently high speeds.

Somewhere online there is a flouroscope investigation of the wound channels of the various type bullets in actual game animals and I REALLY sat up and paid attention to the results. The spray of particles in the meat quite far from the wound tract was most impressive and troubling. Never really thought of it like that before. It looked like a shotgun blast of near powder like particles spread out much farther than I suspected was possible.

Obvious to many if not most here, many cup and core bullets suffer from the +'s and -'s of explosive expansion at he expense of slinging miniscule particules of lead everywhere in the beast hunted. Good for varmints bad for edible critters.

The Barnes types, to me, have the benefit, when properly sized for the game sought and driven at speeds that assure expansion, stay if not more intact then they are in maybe 5 or so larger pieces of copper with the heaviest part often passing through.

I recently bought alot of 130's (for a great price) in .308 to share between my 30-06's and a 30-30. The bullets are Speer FN 130's and HP's and Hornady 130 PSP pistol bullets. I am going to try the PSP and FN 130's in the 30-30's and as a moderate to reduced load for the 30-06 to limit expansion. The 30-30 has a 16" barrel so that will keep the velocities down with heavier bullets and I am curious if there will be decent performance and accuracy with the 130's as compared to the 150/170's. I really want to try some Barnes 130 TSX and TTSX (I think they make them in .308) when I can part with the additional coin. If the 130's don't perform well or aren't too accurate I will just use them for plinking and varmints.

I reread my last post here and noted I left a bit out that adequately spoke to my thoughts above. I guess my thought train overtook my typing ability and it got left out. I am a doofus for this and apologize for my incomplete post. Sorry about that...

Be safe

Patty