Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Hornady 220 gr RN in the 30-06, actual hunting experience??

I have used them from a 30-06 to kill elk, but the loads used were mild. I used 3031 powder to keep the pressure down near the muzzle (In an M1 Garand) to prevent any bending of the op-rod. So my muzzle velocity was about 200-250 FPS less then what most folks would load their ammo to.

All kills were at closer ranges, from around 20 yards to maybe 40 at the outside. All gave me excellent results.

I should have kept better notes, but I can't give good details today because this was all being done in the 70s and early 80s and I swapped the 220 grain Sierra and the 220 grain Hornady back and forth, but didn't write the details down that would differentiate one for the other. Every kill on elk was quartering away to some degree or another except 1, and all were hit through the chest. I do not recall any of them hitting a large bone, but most hits ribs going in or coming out. The one that was not quartering away was quartering towards me, but the results were the same.

I also killed 2 bears with that rifle and 220 grain bullets and I had exits on them too. But thinking back to those 2 bear kills I don't know if the bullets were Sierra or Hornady.

Today if I were to do it all again I'd get some 220 grain Nosler Partitions, owing to the fact that is seems all 220 grain 30 cal bullets are hard to find today and the Sierra and Hornady are made on a very limited production schedule. The 220 grain Partition is easier to get today than either the Hornady or the Sierra, and I am pretty sure it would not be in any way inferior to the Sierra or the Horandy but likely better in every way. That's saying something because the bullets I used bought back in the late 70s seems to work well enough.

I like 220s I truly liked the old 220 grain Core Lokts made in the 70s, and Remington would sell them as components back then. I think those are gone forever.

My uncle used 220 grain Winchesters, but I don't remember what he told me about them, other than the fact he loved them enough to zero one of his 30-06 rifles for them if he's use them on everything from deer to moose and a few horses and cattle on the ranch. He had a stack of ammo he got in Alaska in the late 1940s and was still using it in the 1960s and 70s.