Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Speer 180 Hot-cors for deer?

Hello all,

I've had a 30-06 project rifle in the works for a while, I just finished it up and am beginning some load development for it. another long shelved item is a bulk box (500 or more) of Speer 180 30 cal spitzers. I've got plenty of 150s, and a variety of 165s but since I have a lot of these and a 'clean slate' rifle to start with I thought I would ask;


Has anyone used the 180 gr bullets on deer sized game? are they too heavy (don't expand) on like sized animals? I may go for an elk with this rifle too, but usually I go with my .35 whelen if I draw a tag for them

Thanks in advance, Desertshooter

I have used Remington round nosed core-lokts and Federal blue box 180's on deer. They worked fine for me but the shots were 100 yards or less. I once shot a coyote with a RNCL and lets just say it didn't "pencil through"......about cut him in half so they expand for sure. I am not familiar with hot cors but I expect that they are similar.

I took the biggest whitetail buck 254# field dressed with a .308 handload with a 180gr. Hornady RN bullet. Back in the day, the early 1970's most of my hunting buddies shot 180gr. bullets, Remington CoreLokt in factory ammo. I also have a .35 Whelen and my go to load is a 225gr. Sierra or Nosler with IMR 4064,I developed that load more than 25yrs. ago and have found none more accurate. five shot groups at 100yds. are frequently nice tight cloverleafs.

Thanks for the replies RJY66, and gunwizard, I feel more confident working up some 180gr loads now.

Gunwizard, thanks for the listing of your 35 Whelen load, years ago I went with Nosler 225s and IMR 3031- very accurate, but 3031 was a 'one caliber' powder for me, and today with reloading supplies being iffy in stock, and expensive to boot . I have been thinking of reworking loads for it too, 4064 is pretty versatle for several calibers- AA2520 ball powder is listed too, and it's listed for .308, .223 and a few other calibers as well, was thinking of giving it a try, but 4064 has some serious appeal.
Thanks again, Desert shooter

My go to load for 30-06 is 56 gr of 4350 and a 165 projectile you'll feel the 180 a bit more in the shoulder unless your shooting a moose I doubt you'd need it if you didn't go the 180 route I'd look at 4064 or 4831 for powder from my experience

That’s a lot of bullet for deer. In my limited experience with hot cor, they need speed to do their thing.

No reason the 180s wouldnt kill deer well, and in fact you may find the bit lower velocity the 180s have will be a little more 'meat friendly' than a fast 150...

I spent this spring and summer working up loads for .257 Roberts, .30-06 and .35 Whelen IMR 4064 proved itself to be a good choice for these three calibers as was IMR 4350. Other powders utilized in my load development work were RL-15 and Varget neither of which produced as good results as did 4064 and 4350. Bullets used in my testing were 100gr. in the Roberts, 165gr. in .30-06 and 225gr. in the Whelen. For a lighter weight bullet in the Whelen I tried 180gr. Speer FP's with good results.

I totally recommend the 180 grain 4 30 06.

Merry Christmas!

When I was in college, the first dozen or so Texas whitetails that I shot with my then new Winchester Model 70 in .30-06 were taken with a box of Remington 180-grain Core-Lokts. None required a second shot, and I don't remember ever having to deal with any great amount of bloodshot meat. Don't try to hot rod them and they will work fine.

Zone, I'm not being sarcastic.

The only hot cores I've used were 180s in factory 300 WM. I killed 4-6 WT and in every one, the 180s fragmented. (3000 fps) and left small exits
with poor blood trails.

In my limited experience I'd think those would do better at 06 velocity.
?Maybe I got a bad batch..... I don't know.

Jerry

There was a most excellent thread about 30 caliber penetration involving cattle bones, joints, and wet newspaper.

It seems the 200 grain hot cors in that test totally failed and was very frangebile.

desertshooter,

Fwiw, I load a "homebrew" FN 180 grain GCCB at about 1900FPS (It's a "near clone" of the original .30-40 Krag loading of the old SA War era round.) that is an excellent KILLER on our Texas WT & similar sized game animals, while spoiling almost NO edible meat.
(In point of fact, the same bullet loaded down to .32-40WCF ballistics, about 1400FPS, is also a GOOD killer out to 100M plus on the same sort of game. = MANY thousands of deer were killed with a plain lead bullet in the old .32-40 Ballard loading at "woods ranges".)

You may want to try a similar GCCB load for your purposes.

yours, tex

There are a lot of people out there who believe Hot Cors are bonded and therefore tougher than other cup and core bullets.

Back about 30 years ago I used the 180 Hot Cors in hand loads for my 30'06. I would estimate that I killed 30 or so head of deer with them, and I was always pleased with the results. The bullets never gave any evidence of a reluctance to expand, and I don't recall seeing any core/jacket separations.

I shot 180's for 20-some years before switching to 165's and 150's.

I did not see a difference in performance but did see a huge reduction in recoil.

In my bullet tests into wet media, the 200gn .338 Hot Cors come out looking like a Bonded bullet, though I realize they are not. Ballistic Tips and SSTs do not. I have not shot them at game yet.

Dad used that bullet over a healthy dose of IMR4350 in an '06 for a bunch of deer over three decades or so. It always gave good performance on them. The only reason he stopped using it was a worsening problem with his shoulder. They definitely do have a bit of a kick.

I've killed whitetails with both 220 and 180 factory .30-06, and really like the 180 RN. It's difficult for a deer to stop that bullet, which I like.

It might have been the sierra 200 grain that blew up in the trial I can't recall exactly.