Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting '06 load for whitetails

I have an '06 set up for elk loads and am considering it for whitetails. I'm thinking 150g in one of the following lines: barnes, nosler, hornady.

What do you use that has worked well out of an '06?

Every factory load I've ever used from an 06 has worked fine. Pick a bullet you like and run with it.

I've liked the rem core-lokt 165gr the best. I know a lot of folks like that grain for the 06 so try that for a starting point.

I'm using 165 gr SGK's for deer. Working on 168gr TTSX's for elk. Hoping the trajectories stay close enough to not worry about different zero too much.

I like 150NPTs, 150 NABs, and 165NBTs for deer in the great 06.

Stout charge of one of the 4350s lit by WLRs usally gets things moving along.

I was thinking about the 150 NPTs, so that's good to hear.

Anyone have experience with the Hornady SST or GMX on whitetails?

What are you using for elk? My guess it would be fine for deer to. You already know what is does, trajectory and all.

Yep...if you are shooting 180s...they'll kill deer too.


And they actually do a bit less damage to the meat than lighter faster bullets.

The elk load was the Hornady Interbond. I was just concerned it might pass right through without much expansion on a whitetail.

Bullets of all types ( except maybe Bergers) do all their expanding in the first 3-4 inches if flesh... common misconception.

They will kill deer.

what you say?

Try the load with a Spire Point of the same weight, assuming your not at max. I like the Spire Point better than the SST, have used both.

I prefer a 165 over the 150's, they tend to shoot better for me? So I would see what your rifles prefers. Next a Hornady BTSP, Nosler BT would be my starting point. Both of these rounds should be plenty accurate? Powders would be H4350 or H414 should be a good match with a 165.

Sticking with the interbonds would be a great solution as they shoot very well out of that rig and it'd save me the hassle of zero'ing, etc. This makes sense to me as I know other bonded(-like) bullets are used for whitetails (NABs, etc), but Hornady didn't necessarily recommend the interbond for deer. Maybe they just wanted to sell some of the other bullets.

This right here.

My 06 has been shooting 150 gr. Horn. for 30 some years.. Over I4350 it has been a deadly deer slayer.. Before that I used 165 Serria HPBT..

I leave my 06's loaded with their heavy game loads for all hunting, 200 gr. partitions at 2700 fps do a bang up job on deer and pigs without the hassle of re-zeroing and buying different brands/kinds of bullets.

Gunner

Ditto. When I set up a load for a 30/06 and comparable cartridges, I use a load that is "elk capable",and use it on deer. Always works well, so I don't believe in "deer loads".

If I were culling a bunch of does in fields, which I do't get to do,I might rethink the load thing..

Hard to argue with a 165 grn Nosler B-tip over some H4350

I had a good supply of Hornady 150 gr spire points on hand when I started loading for my son's '06. I loaded them at 30-30 and 300 Savage velocities using Rel 7 and H335 for him when he was smaller. Now that he's bigger than I am, I've been playing with Reloder 17. If that doesn't work out, I'm going to give IMR 4320 a whirl.

Dale

This is helpful. I really think I over-complicate things sometimes so simplifying with a single round out of the '06 for elk and deer is great advice. It sounds like I had no need to worry about the Interbond load, which is their factory SuperPerformance in 180grn. I also have the Trophy Bonded Tips in 180grn that zero'd about the same as the Interbonds. So I'll just use one of these for the '06. I guess the only real down-side is that I will have to listen to my dad tell me an '06 is too much gun for PA whitetails!