Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Stability of 110 Grain Bullets in .30 Caliber Rifles

Mule Deer wrote an excellent article about twist in the current "Sports Afield." One of his conclusions was that twists nowadays are faster. There is little danger of over stabilizing short bullets because bullets are more precise (mass is not off center) than in the past.

Years ago, I was taught or read that 110 grain bullets were not accurate in a 30-06 with its 1-10 twist, presumably because they were "over stabilized." The one load I worked up did not, IIRC, have this problem.

Can we conclude that with current bullets it is possible to achieve about the same accuracy with 110 grain bullets as with 150, 165, or 180 grain bullets? Does anyone shoot 110 grain bullets in 30-06 or .300 magnums?

IndyCA35;
Good evening to you sir, hopefully this finds you well.

Way back when in dinosaur times there used to be a Canadian firm that made ammunition for center fire rifles - CIL Industries Imperial line.

They made 110gr ammo for the .30-06 and somehow the initial box I shot up must have made a positive impression on me because when the company closed it's doors for good and sold off the components I bought "a whole lot" of those 110gr bullets.

If memory serves I loaded them in a .308 carbine, the same '06 and a .308 Norma. I'd have to look up the resulting velocities, but foggy memory seems to tell me that I couldn't get the 110gr bullets going any faster than say a 125gr Ballistic Tip or 130gr Speer HP.

I hunted coyotes a fair bit back in those days - early '90's this would be - and try as I might I could not get the 110gr load to hit stuff far away.

They'd group fine at 100yds but if we stretched it much at all misses were more common than hits. I went back to shooting 165gr Hornady BT in that particular .308 Norma and made a few hits on targets far enough away that neither I nor the witness will mention it today for fear of being branded stretchers of the truth.

Anyway I wish the medicine line wasn't in our way as I've likely still got a couple hundred of the 110gr Imperial bullets someplace.

I ended up shooting many of them with 8gr of 231 in that '06 for a grouse shooting/horse training load too now that I think of it.

Hopefully that was useful information for you or someone out there tonight sir. Good luck with your light .30 cal bullets whichever way you decide.

Dwayne

I spent a summer groundhog hunting with a Remington 721 .30-06 loaded with Sierra 110 hp's. It was a sub MOA combination.

I'd guess part of it could be attributed to lead core 110's being a 1/4 mile from the lands.

110 Vmax fly great from my 30/06's. They are as accurate as anything else I've tried through them.

The only high speed 110gr loads I've ever used were some Remington factory .308s I tried in my old 600. That was about 45 years ago and I didn't even have access to a range then.

Later, I loaded some 110gr Speer hollowpoints, the ones that look like a revolver bullet, over some 4759 to more or less turn my Ruger UL .308 into a .32/20. It would goup them into about 1 1/4", had a trajectory like a softball, and killed groundhogs and one fox like lightning. Have to get some more of those.

Indy. Years ago as newly wed I was broke as Job's turkey. I bought a western àuto Revelation 30-06 bolt for $90. ( it was a rebadged savage 110.). The crummy beech stock was warped and was pressing against the barrel so I hogged out the barrel channel with a wood rasp and used a couple l of shims cut from a cool whip container under the action to free float the barrel.

I got a bunch of 110 rn Hornady bullets for cheap and as is often the case that ugly looking son of a gun would print them in your thumb nail at 100 yds. This was before ebay and the ability to find replacement stocks for cheap so I eventually sold the rifle for about what I had in it but out of the dozens of rifles I have traded for over the years it has to be in the top 3-4 shooters. Go figure.

The Speer 130 gr HP is the cats meow in 30 cal varmint bullet

That is one heck of a varmint bullet. Accurate & effective on rock chucks. No doubt.

I still load some 110 grain Sierra HP's and run them through my .308 Win time to time. Accurate!

Guy

Lots of folks use those on pigs of all sizes here and swear by them in the 308 Win.

Back in the day, Dad had some 100gr varmit bullets out of his 1903 Springfield come apart before the reached the target. I suspect it was the combination of the thin jacket, poor balance, and being pushed hard.

I haven't heard about folks having these issues with modern bullets, but Nosler does recommend limiting the velocity on their SHOTS product line to 3800 fps.

While not 30 cal but along the same lines the most accurate load in my 270 wsm contains a 90 grain Sierra bullet. Also 125 BT is wonderfully accurate in my 308.

Ernie

I'd really like to try some 110gr TTSXs at around 3500fps out of a 30-06 on deer. I think it'd work quite well.

While not a current offering Federal loaded 30-06 ammo with a 110 grain Barnes Tipped Triple-Shock bullet to a MV of 3400 fps. That copper, plastic tipped bullet is long for its weight at about of 1.022 inches, but given its high MV it stabilizes well in anything with a 1 - 14 twist rate or faster. With a 1-10 twist rate it has an SG of 2.9 (1.4 is about the min you need) at sea level, but that's not considered excessive nowadays given the quality of modern bullets.

With a BC of 0.333 the load can be zeroed at 275 yards and be within 3 inches of aim point from the muzzle to 320 yards where it still has a velocity over 2470 fps. Maybe Federal was trying for a 30-06 varmint load.

Maybe for the small southern deer.

For your big Indiana deer it's just not a wise choice unless it's a perfect behind the shoulder shot at close range.

These discussions are remindful of the old days.....in the 1950s we couldn't afford more than one rifle so guys were always talking about using the '06 for varmints and questioning the 110 grain bullet (which had a horrible reputation).

Today almost all of us can afford a 22-250 in addition to our deer rifle.

When combined with their short bearing surface, and possibly a generous throat diameter, a long throat could throw a wrench in the works.

That said, a goodly jump to the lands by itself does not guarantee poor accuracy. I shoot good groups all the time with several 308's with bullets jumping nearly 1/8".

In a tight chamber, jumping may not be so bad. Look at Weatherby's that shoot very tight groups with long freebore. I'm working with a 26 Nos and it seems the more I jump some bullets, the better they shoot.

I just got a couple of boxes of Barnes 110 gr. TAC-XT for the .300 Whisper. I may try some in my .308 to see what they'll do.

DF

You realize I'm talking about Barnes bullets right? I can't imagine any deer in Indiana being big enough that an all-copper bullet of 110gr wouldn't work on. If the rule change goes through and they allow rifles this year and I can get some to shoot less than 2" groups I plan on testing my 'theory'.

I think light, fast monometals will work on WT. I've blown big holes thru WT's and hogs with 120 gr. E-Tips out of a 26 Nos. at 3,450 fps.

I don't see a .30 cal 110 at warp speed doing other than the same thing. The drawback with the 110 gr. .30 cal. is low B.C.'s. But that't not an issue within normal WT kill ranges.

DF