Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Federal 30-06 Fusion Velocity Question

Has anyone chronoed the 180-grain load? What results did you get?

Thanks,


Okie John

Not 180s, but I have some limited data on 165s if that helps.

Yes, it would help. What is it?


Okie John

Not the Federal Fusion but I ran a test on the 180 gr. Winchester power points in three rifle. One a 22", another 24" and a Ruger #1B with 26" barrel. he only one that came close to the advertised 2700 FPS was the Ruger #1. IIRC the average was 2710 FPS. The 22" was around 2620 or 2630 FPS as I recall and and the 24" 2660 FPS. The 24" gun might have given a bit more speed if it had a 1 in 10" twist but the gun is a custom with a 1 in 12" twist. I doubt there would be much difference between the two brands.
Paul B.

^^ Good info. I'm getting 2509(3 shot average) out of a 17.5" bbl w/ Federal 180gr Power-Shok ammo.

Souds right, they test ammo in 24" supertubes, I always assume I'm getting 50-100 fps less in normal length for caliber barrels, and 150-200 fps less in my chopped carbines

OK, so I got some quality time on a chronograph today and answered my own question. I only fired three shots per load because I was checking a bunch of other stuff at the same time.

Temp: ~40 F.

Test rifle: Ruger M-77 Mk II with a 22" factory barrel

Federal 180-grain Fusion averaged 2,631 fps, with an extreme spread of 31.99 fps. SD was 16.49.

Federal 150-grain Fusion averaged 2,816 fps, with an extreme spread of 20.34 and SD of 10.81.

Federal 3006A (blue-box 150-grain load) averaged 2,820, with an extreme spread of 41.28 fps and a SD of 22.13.

Federal 3006B, (blue-box 180-grain load) averaged 2,652, with an extreme spread of 45.16 and SD of 24.63.

Greek HXP, the 150-grain FMJ load sold by the DCM for the M-1 Garand, averaged 2,719 fps with an extreme spread of 66.03 fps and SD of 29.06.


Okie John

FWIW I've chronoed a fair bit of factory 30-06 during range sessions where I chronoed 308 Win factory ammo as well.

Most of the time the factory 308 stuff was just as fast or faster than the 30-06 stuff in the same bullet weights and barrel lengths!

Nor surprising. If I ran an ammo factory, I'd worry about putting my products into guns that were made almost 125 years ago.


Okie John

Okie John, with that post you are perhaps talking us out of a lot of old chamberings...

Old chamberings tend to be fine in new rifles.


Okie John