Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa 30-06 and 180 Ballistic Silvertip ??

A couple of years ago one of my buddies went to Africa for plains game with his .300 Win mag. I gave him a few boxes of ammo for the trip, including both 180 gr Partitions & 180 gr Ballistic Tips.

He and his PH were both more impressed with the quick/instant kills from the 180 Ballistic Tips.

FWIW, Guy

Id much rather use a 180 BT than a 180 Partition.

Thanks for posting all the good info on this thread ref the BT. Last time I shot them was in the early 90's out of a 300 Win Mag. Much akin to firing grenades at game. More meat wasted than put in the freezer. Perhaps I'll give them a go again. Thanks.

Yes, I loaded some 165 B-Tips for a buddy and his .300 Win mag back in the early 1990's. Deer carnage. Filled tags, but dang...

The current B-Tips are much changed from those days, twenty years ago.

Guy

Have to agree. I am no fan of a 180gr bullet out of the .30-06. Drops too much for my liking, as I don't think it has the necessary powder capacity to shoot it flat enough. If you know your rifle with 180's, then by all means go with it. All of my rifles are set up to not needing to aim off the animal whether I am shooting 100-350 yds. The 165's or even monolithic solid 150's will turn the .30-06 into a sweet rig.
IMO

Good to hear. It still kills me to refer to the 90's as "twenty years ago," makes me feel old. I had some 150's, new generation, and stoked them to 59 grs of IMR 4350 I believe. Don't hold me to that. The ripped along a wee bit over 3K and grouped really well. Flatten deer and black bear like the hammer of Thor.

Believe me, I understand. Until I look in the mirror and see the gray hair, I sometimes think that I never really left the 1980's.

Ah well...

I have been wondering about the 150 gr ttsx bullets as I have recovered only one 165 gr so far. It went through both humorus of a big gemsbok and was found cutting the off side skin without exiting. It is hard to change down when the 165 wworks so well. The 150 would give a slightly flatter trajectory. Do you have experience with the 150 monolithics?
Randy

Me too! It made my day.

Nice Thanks for your post Doc.Guess everyone is too cool to answer my question.

Nothing on APG but I do have some of those old blue coated things(XLC's) in 150 gr and they are incredibly accurate out of my No.1 RSI with IMR 4064. Absolutely the hammer of Thor on WT deer and black bear. I recovered exactly one because I dug it out of the bank after being shot angling through a fat Michigan whitey. Looked purdy too.

At this point I might comment than my wife Eileen used a .308 Winchester and 150-grain Nosler E-Tips on her last safari, taking game up to a big zebra with no problems. The list also included a big bushbuck standing behind a prickly pear. The bullet expanded on the prickly pear but still penetrated plenty on the facing-on bushbuck.

I wouldn't hesitate to use a similar load on any animal under 1000 pounds.

Im mostly hunting whitetail and black bear so I will probably go for a 150 gr year. Or I should probably just go with 140gr 7x57 and leave the 06 with the 165 gr. 06 is pretty much over kill for deer anyways.
Thanks for the input.

I like heavy for caliber bullets, and I don't think you can have too much gun. I've shot black bears with .375 H&H and .458 Lott. As far as the .30-06 Springfield, I think the 180 grain bullet is perfect, versatile, and particularly suited for tough game like African antelope. It will be ideal for wildebeest, kudu, oryx, and zebra. I favor more controlled expansion than a ballistic tip, however. Partition, A-Frame, TSX, even a Scirocco would be a reasonable choice.

The caveat with the OP was 'plains game UP TO KUDU' say 500 lbs. Yes some get bigger...

As Kudu aren't the toughest antelope out there, a 180 ST would be perfect.

As to trajectory:

Doesn't the 180 from an '06 approximate a 270/300grainer from a .375H&H. That is one of the reasons both work so well for North American hunters in Africa as the trajectorys match and are familiar to a lot of riflemen.

MSK07,

Apparently you've never shot anything with the recent 180 Ballistic Tips. You would find they ARE controlled-expansion, since the jacket is about 2/3 of the bullet.

I've shot quite a few animals up to 550 pounds with the heavy-jacketed 180-grain .30 and 200-grain.338 Ballistic Tip, both in Africa and North America. The ONLY bullet recovered was one mentioned earlier in this thread. It was a .338 that hit a quartering-on gemsbok bull at about 150-175 yards, dropping the bull instantly--and was recovered from under the hide of the rump on the opposite side.

I've just worked up a load with the 180 Combined Tech Ballistic Tip for my 308. Should work great at 308 velocities. Extremely accurate. Might be my load for sheep hunting this yaer. With a turret I'm not worried about it not being flat enough.

I would be afraid of the 180 BT being too tough at 308 velocity levels, but that's just me.

The rear end of the heavy-jacket Ballistic Tips is tough, not the front end. They open up very well even at moderate velocity, due to the thin jacket around the big hollow-point under the tip.

I'm sure they would open up just fine, I just think a 308 might be better served with a 150gr BT. I believe the lighter bullet might kill a bit more decisively on the size game we are talking about here(small cow elk in size).