Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game ...And One Bullet to Kill Them All

When did Nosler start putting steel shanks in their Partitions? All of the Partitions that I've shot and seen had lead both in front of and behind the partition.

As to the OP's original question, back when the only rifle that I had was a .30-06 I would load Hornady 150 grain Spire Point bullets for mule deer and pronghorns, and Sierra 180 grain GameKings for elk. In the 10 or so years that I hunted with that rifle, I killed deer, elk, and antelope with the 150 grain Hornadys and I killed deer, elk, and antelope with the 180 grain Sierras.

Today if I was wanting one bullet in a .30-06 for all of those critters, I would look at the Barnes 168 grain TSX or TTSX bullets. I've used both of those bullets in my .300 Weatherby to take quite a few African, New Zealand, and western US animals varying in size from a 20 pound Klipspringer to a couple of Montana bull elk.

10 years ago I'd have said trophy bonded bearclaw and still would but I have never had a TSX/TTSX fail me yet. There are so many good bullets these days that you'd be hard pressed to find a hunting bullet that wouldn't serve all your purposes.

Rather than alternating between a .25-06 for deer and antelope and a .30-06 with a really strong bullet for elk this year; I'd prefer, for the sake of both keeping things simple and doing a little experimenting, to just use one round out of one rifle for all three. That means finding a bullet that wil hold up and penetrate on an elk but isn't too tough and will provide proper expansion for antelope and deer (last year I used my elk cartridge, a bonded 180 grain .30-06 which is marketed for its weight retention, to bring down a very nice mule deer buck, and let me just say I was not impressed. Maybe I'm just talking out my ass here, but it just seemed like the bullet was too strong to provide the appropriate expansion and resulting terminal damage on the body of a lighter-than-elk big game animal). The bullet I'm considering using this fall is the 150 grain Nosler Accubond. The Accubond has a good reputation, and as I understand was designed to act around the same principles as the legendary Nosler Partion. Personally, I'm not worried that a 150 grain 06 won't be enough for elk. I know for certain that elk can be killed quite handily with 270s; in fact I know people who do just that, and some that even use smaller 6.5s. Plus, the lighter weight will help ensure better expansion on lighter game.

Does anybody else have an 06 cartridge they use for multiple game species? And what do you think of the 150 grain Accubond for the task I want performend?

These Federal Trophy Bonded Tip bullets look pretty good. Basically a lead core bonded front with a solid copper shank.

Federal Trophy Bonded Tip Bullet

I'll be curious when and if they are available for sale. The TBBC was sold in 25 packs for a ridiculous price. Maybe this time around Federal actually wants to sell some.....

Available now at MidwayUSA: Federal Premium Trophy Bonded Tip B...Grain Polymer Tipped Boat Tail Box of 50

Available now at MidwayUSA: Federal Premium Trophy Bonded Tip B...Grain Polymer Tipped Boat Tail Box of 50

I use a Lapua 155 gr Scenar. I shoot it in a 308 but an 06 would work as well.

A lot of folks on here use it on elk and I know it works well on deer and antelope.

Best of all, it seems to shoot well in every gun I've tried.

Try a box, you'll like them.

When Grafs was selling those 1k boxes of 155 Scenars, I picked some up. I could hunt deer, elk, coyotes, rockchucks, rabbits, etc for a good while before I run low. It is nice having one load that will hammer all manner of critters within reasonable ranges. My daughter and I run them in our Tikka .308s and have no complaints.