Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .30-06 for speedgoats

My wife and I drew a NM antelope tag for this fall. I've got a .243 and a .30-06. I'm going to let her tote the .243, so I'm trying to figure out what ammo I can shoot out of the 06 without destroying the front half of a goat. I was thinking maybe the 125gr SST Hornady custom lites. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

If you want to go that light, I'd use something other than an SST, which will blow up a whole bunch of meat at high velocities. A Barnes TTSX would work much better.

In my experience, just about any 165-grain bullet at 2900 or so won't shoot up much meat on a pronghorn. it will also drift a lot less in the wind than a lightweight.

I've been wondering WHY some of these shooters have not considered or recognized the wind drift w/light bullets. IIRC they say the Hi Vel offsets for it. I ain't so sure.

Speed goat country is usually pretty windy. I like longer bullets with good wind handling capacity.

I agree with JB. If I was going to use an '06, I'd see what my gun would do with some of the sleek, 165's with good B.C.'s and use the one that shot best.

DF

I used 150 grain E-tip and it worked perfectly in my 30-06.


Steeleman

Thanks for the input guys. I'm going to be bear hunting in August with the 06 so I might just go with a GMX or TTSX. I think that would serve me well for both.

FWIW, because my rifle likes them, I use 180gr Gamekings pushed by RL22. Inexpensive bullets, not bad on the drift, no big holes, and it lines up well with the Burris Ballistic Plex recticle out to 500yds.

405wcf

I'm not a gun writer.
I agree with JB here. I have used the .30-06 with the 150 TSX @3,000 fps on Pronghorn and the damage wasn't bad at all, I'm sure a 165 C&C would be similar. Also, my first Pronghorn was at about 100y and my best one about 225, its not all long shots!

Use the heaviest slug one can push out the barrel. Lighter/faster generates more explosive forces.

With something like a 45-70 and 405 grain slug going 1,250 fps, one can eat right to the bullet hole.

SIL had rifle problems just before the doe pronghorn hunt several years ago, so I loaned him my 30-06 and some handloads with 180 grain bullets, which was all I had.

He shot a doe quartering toward, in through the neck, transited the chest cavity, and broke a couple of ribs on its way out on the other side. It wrought considerable havoc with the doe's heart and lungs, but did not destroy meat.

She was delicious.

Use whatever works in your 30-06 and be happy.

I went on a pronghorn hunt sponsored by Nosler maybe 8-10 years ago, and they provided some of their first rifles in .300 WSM. Everybody else shot 150-grain bullets, but I requested 180-grain Accubonds, knowing they'd shoot plenty flat, drift less and (MOST IMPORTANT) shoot up far less meat. Got a 15-1/2" buck at around 240 yards, and lost maybe 3-4 ounces of rib meat.

Due to an ammo mix-up, I also once shot a pronghorn doe at around 200 yards with a 200-grain Nosler Partition started at about 2675 fps. She went about 40 yards and keeled over, with almost no meat damage. (The mix-up occurred because that was so long ago I only owned one big game rifle, a Ruger 77 .30-06, thanks to a divorce. I used two loads, the 165-grain Nosler Solid Base and 58.5 grains of IMR4350 in Remington brass for deer-sized game, and the 200 Partition with 60 grains of H4831 in Winchester brass for elk. The only obvious difference was the headstamp, and they shot to exactly the same place at 100 yards--and 200, as it turned out.)

The 180 ballistic tip would buck wind well and is plenty stout enough to not blow up at 06 speeds. That's what I'd use for both and not look back. It works well on whitetails in ms without much meat damage

I killed both of the two I have taken with a 165 NP around 2850. Both were around 250- yards.
Good luck!

Spot on advice here. Those SST's are about the last bullet I'd use.

I plan to use a 150 grain TTSX.

I use 168 grain TSX/TTSX in my '06s for everything from antelope to elk. Works very well.

Huh, well err, umm do we have a CROSS shooter???

Thanks for all the good advice folks. I appreciate it.

SIL = son in law. Naw, he's a regular guy.

180 BT from 300 RUM - Just don't shoot it in the shoulders.