Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Going back to my (ouch!) roots: .30-06 reloading adventure

I'll be interested to see what kind of numbers pop up when I plug a .558 ballistic coefficient, 185 grains, and 2845 fps MV into the program.


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Unless I'm going moose hunting or maybe headed to Africa, I really have no use for a 30/06 any longer. I don't think I've shot one in a dozen years.

So I decided to see what all the fuss was about regarding the Berger VLD Hunting. I already worked up a sub-MOA load for my Tikka T3 Superlite 7mm-08 using the 140 gr VLD Hunting but I wanted to move up to the 185 grain in .30-06.

So it was time to move up. I bought some 185 VLD Hunting to try in my Weatherby Vanguard Back Country .30-06.

First, I established the max OAL at 3.428". I found this figure using the highly technical Sharpie method. Next, I loaded 6 rounds each, starting at 3.428" and reducing the OAL by 0.04" each time, for a total of 4 different OAL (24 total rounds). I used once-fired Remington brass, WLRM primers, and 58.0 grains Hunter. Disclaimer, this load is safe in my rifle, start lower and go slow.

Today was Range Day. I took my .223 and 7mm-08 to shoot while the barrel cooled on the BC. Very, very windy and hot.

I started with the shortest rounds, figuring that if I got crazy accuracy I could resize the longer shells. One three-shot group later dashed that hope.



It wasn't a group, it was a pattern. And did I mention the recoil? Holy Hannah, I think I sprained something.

After a welcome respite shooting clay pigeon fragments at 200 yards with the .223 and 50 gr TTSX, it was back to work.

A much better group this time, not much over the Magic Inch:



But boy howdy, once you get used to the 7mm-08 with a Limbsaver its hard to go back to a hot .30-06 load from a light rifle, Pachmayr or not.

I shot more fragments, this time with the Mighty -08, then I faced the music yet again.

Hmmm, I may be on to something. Just for fun I fired four shots, not three:



By that time the Fun Meter was winding down, so I didn't even try the longest load. The wind had really picked up and I had some Keystone Light in the reefer so I called it a day.

I'll be interested to see what kind of numbers pop up when I plug a .558 ballistic coefficient, 185 grains, and 2845 fps MV into the program.




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I hunt everything these days with a 7mm-08 and 140 gr Partitions. Deer, elk, antelope. I was just curious after reading about JB's hunt in NZ.

It's nice to know that I have a load if I ever want to shoot a loooong way.

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Would chose a .30/06 with either 180 or 200 gr bullets long before I would even consider a 7/08.

Would chose a .30/06 with either 180 or 200 gr bullets long before I would even consider a 7/08.

Get out of the sun, it's baking your brain.

Would chose a .30/06 with either 180 or 200 gr bullets long before I would even consider a 7/08.

And did I mention the recoil? Holy Hannah, I think I sprained something.
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Nice work there Pharmseller I think that last load is the ticket; I've grown addicted to Hunter!

I, like you and others, more often reach for much smaller cartridges these days, but I added an extension and decelerator to my trusty old 06 and LOVE it.

I've been running 168 gr NBTs & Hunter. It's my most trusted rifle and always comes on my hunts as a backup.

aww, didja git '06 PTSD ?

Any relation to Gersh [bleep] ?

“It felt to me like a bazooka — and sounded like a cannon…The recoil bruised my shoulder, which can happen if you don’t know what you’re doing. The brass shell casings disoriented me as they flew past my face. The smell of sulfur and destruction made me sick. The explosions — loud like a bomb — gave me a temporary form of PTSD. For at least an hour after firing the gun just a few times, I was anxious and irritable.”

please turn in your man card at the nearest firing range ASAP,

It recoiled so bad I sprained my cooter.

Happy now?




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Hard not to like a good .30-06 IMHO. A 165 grain Game King is a stud, over a stiff load of IMR-4350.

Ya know, all things considered, if I had to pick the "perfect" all-around hunting round for everything I do, antelope to elk, it would be the 7mm-08. A truly great, and supremely balanced round. It just hasn't been around long enough to achieve the status of the 270 or 308. But it's just as good. And even better in some regards.

Maybe its not a matter of someone being afraid of recoil...science proves that you can often get the same or better performance from a sleeker bullet bullet in a smaller cartridge. Why sit behind a 30.06 shooting 180's, when you can squat behind a 6mm with 105's?

hahaha, I recommend you have a cooterologist take a look at your injury !

just messin with ya although I find it ridiculous when recoil is excessively over exaggerated with mild recoiling cartridges, I've hunted and played with big 30 cal magnums for many years, most of my loads were max loads with 200 gr bullets at 3300 fps and 180 gr at 3500 fps but never gave recoil any thought as I understood that's what rifles do when you fire off a live round, now I shoot 236 gr bullets at 3200 fps in 30 cal and much heavier in 338 cal and 375 cal in cases with 110 gr to 160 gr in capacity and I still haven't died from recoil

America is getting so vaginalized even the shooters are whining like limp wristed sissies about recoil, rifle weight and barrel length, now you see adult grown men shooting with ladies and childrens size rifles and cartridges, then bragging about how well they shoot,

it's so pathetic that nobody even knows which bathroom to take a dump in anymore

I used to work with a guy that ate habaneros like popcorn. I guess they really aren't hot.


Now where's that friggin 577 TRex chambered Montucky?

Fixed it for ya.

You should write this in a Valentine's Day card and send it to yourself.





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