I started off shooting 180 grain Silvertips in factory loads at Texas whitetails and Colorado mulies in the very early 1960s. Someone in the group always had an elk tag in our Colorado camp and in those days, if you shot an elk, you had to go to town and buy another tag in case someone else got the same opportunity. (I never got the opportuntity.)

When I started reloading, I shot 150 Partitions (this was about 1967) and they were sudden death on both whitetails and mulies. Later, I switched to 168 grain Sierra Internationals which not only grouped better in my rifle, but also killed everything DRT. Then, as always happens, Sierra changed their bullet and they didn't work so well on game anymore.

When I could actually afford to draw an elk tag (I was a poor undergraduate and then graduate student for several eons), I began loading the 165 partitions. For about twenty years, every animal I shot from coyotes up to bull elk and nilgai antelope were taken with a .30-06 and 165 Partion handloads--this included a lot of animals taken on herd reduction and research permits--many, many more than most hunters shoot in a lifetime.

If I had to go back to using the '06 for everything, I would once again use a premium bullet weighing 165-168 grains. If elk were the only game, 180s or 200s would be the choice. By the same token, if I just hunted deer (whitetails, mulies, Coues), the 150s would be my choice. FWIW...

Ben

Some days it takes most of the day for me to do practically nothing...