Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles lets play with 180's in .30 caliber

I've mostly used 150's and 165's in the '06 and .300WSM. Powders on hand mainly H4350 and IMR4350,

Neither I nor the factory rifles are capable of bragging rights accuracy, so knowing these conditions let's grab a box of 180's?

Target load mainly, reputation has an 'accurate' bullet is always a good starting point. If said bullet is a decent hunting bullet also, better yet.

Accubond....
TSX....
Gameking....

??????

I've had excellent accuracy with TSX and TTSX but haven't shot anything that required 180's in years. Back when I hunted elk with a 300RUM, the old X bullets got the job done with sub MOA performance.

I have several hundred TSX and Gamekings sitting here, all 150 and 165.

This is more about midwinter blues,

Load something new and make a reason to go to the range.

180gr Nosler Ballistic Tip

180 Accubond or Partition
59 grains Hunter powder (easy to find and a Mule Deer aka JB recommendation)
WLRM primer
.30-06

My rifle prefers the Partition.





P

TTSX for hunting. A-Max for my only ever four-rounds-touching group at 100 yards. H 4831 SC, .300 H&H.

I don't own a 30 cal magnum but help a friend load for his Win Mag. For deer and antelope, we used a 180 NBT over IMR 4350. I tried IMR 4831, but the 4350 shot a little better. He's quite happy with that load.

For accuracy I've had great luck with 180 grain Sierra Pro Hunters in my Weatherby Vanguard 30/06. My load was 57.5 grains H4350. Last summer I shot a 2 1/2 inch group at 350 yards with that load. Only animals I've shot have been antelope, and they worked well. I will be trying some RL16 now that I'm out of H4350, and I'm also out of Sierra's but I've got a box of 178 grain Hornady ELD-x's to try.

In the 30/06 I'm 180 Ballistic Tips and 59-60grs of H4831.


59grs H4831 and the 180 make 2737fps and it groups very nicely from my 22" Ruger. The 180 NBT has crushed every deer I've shot with it and I've never recovered one.

Can your big toe reach the trigger?

Nothing better to do with your life than sitting on your ass and displaying your mental issues's?

To All,

I no longer use anything BUT the 180 grain bullets in my various .30 caliber rifles. = The 180 grain bullets will stop most any critter in the Western Hemisphere & mostly W/O trailing them for a long distance. = WT & feral hogs fall like they've been poll-axed in most every case.

For the same reason, I use nothing but the 286 grain loads in the 9.3x62mm. = The largest animal that I've ever killed as an >2,000 pound Brahma bull that was "in the process of destroying the local scout camp" when I was called to kill him.= One shot from about 60M stopped his charge forthwith. The Brahma took exactly 2 steps before collapsing/expiring.
(The bull was dressed-out & ground into hamburger meat for the scout camp & fed a lot of boys/leaders that year.)

yours, tex

Funny stuff coming from a liberal PIECE OF SHIET. I know you pulled the lever for Obama at least once and that your old lady pulled more for black cock.

Feel free to act like an ass in the General forum, but leave the dedicated forums to the adults please.

Blow me. Notice I didn't have to say please.

You've just explained your fascination with black cock.

To try and get this thread back on track, I had a good load for my 300 WM with H1000 and 180 gr Sierra Game Kings. Took a few elk with it. Accuracy was 5 shots around .6" as long as I did my part. One shot was on an old axis buck a friend wanted off of her ranch. Picked the spot on the side and squeezed off the shot. Shot wasn't all that far, about 275 or so. Bullet went right in the spot I'd picked. Axis went 3' straight down.

And no, I've never even considered voting for our past president.

Someone will be along shortly to try and tell you different.

To All,

Forgive my "prudishness" but LADIES & CHILDREN read this forum. = I'm retired Army & I've heard "all the words" but let's keep things G or at least PG for their benefit..

yours, tex

180 grain Hornady Interlocks have worked well in 30-06 and 300 WM for me. I have not tried more than 168 grain in the 308.

I couldn't agree more Tex

Never used it on game, but I've found the 180 Sierra Pro Hunter shoots quite accurately in just about any .30 caliber rifle from the .308 to the magnums.

I've had a 30 cal 180gr Sierra Pro Hunter pancake on a moose. It was the older Federal Classic 300 Win Mag load. They shot well but I won't trust them again.

Indeed.


Always the same couple people on this forum trying to bring others down down to their level.

Others have been banned for less. It's also why so many posters have left.

150’s kill anything I’m apt to shoot

180 partition, 56-57 grains H4350. Play with the oal until the groups are tight. Kill anything you want in NA. They always just work. One of the best killing bullets ever designed.

180 NBT was good for me in .308; probably better in -06.

180gr Sierra Gameking SBT over 72grs of IMR4831 for my 300WM. Great combo.

30-06,180 Pro-Hunter, 60 grain H4831.
Kills deer, all I ever shot with it.

When I had a .30-06 I loaded 150 grain Hornady Spire points for deer and 180 grain Sierra GameKings for elk However an elk or two fell to the 150s while hunting deer, and a few deer fell to a 180 Sierra while I was hunting elk. I guess it was more about bullet placement than bullet weight.

When I re-chambered my .30-06 to .30 Gibbs it liked 180 grain Nosler Partitions for elk, moose, and anything else that I shot with it.

About 8 years ago I got a .300 Weatherby Vanguard. My first loads for it were Barnes 168 and 180 grain TSX bullets. They both shot sub moa, but I opted for the 168s for slightly more velocity. They worked great on Texas Exotics, elk, and South African plains game up to a Sable bull.

I also get good accuracy for practice with 168 grain Hornady HPBT Match bullets.

When I was planning my New Zealand trip I switched to 168 grain Barnes TTSX bullets because I thought they might expand better than the TSX bullets, although I never had any complaints with the expansion of the TSX bullets. These bullets worked very well on New Zealand animals, Montana elk, and on a variety of African plains game up to Sable and Leopard.

This past year I switched to the 180 grain Barnes TTSX bullets, mainly just to get a little more bullet weight downrange. These bullets also shoot sub moa in my rifle and although I have only shot one bullet at an animal with them (a Dagestan Tur at 328 yards), I think that I will probably stick with them for my hunting bullets in my .300 Weatherby.

I've used a lot of those in my 308 760 carbine. Everything died.

Gonna try some Hornady 180gr RN this year in the same rifle.

I'm surprised no one has suggested a quick trip to the SPS website. Pick the 180 that sounds cool to you, do the same with the 4350, and load up some ammo. Maybe hold off on the range day until it's a bit warmer, though.

I've never used RN bullets because of their low ballistic coefficients.

However most of my hunting is in Montana or in countries where longer shots are possible.

Most our shots here are well under 200yds so the olde RN still is a good choice esp in the 308 carbine.

I have 400pcs of the old 175gr RN here for my 275Rigby as well for the full-route old school load.

No doubt, minus 10 this morning.

I'll be leaving the house today only to go see The Darkest Hour at the theater.

SPS?

Happy New Year Kenneth.

SPS is Nosler's Shooters Pro Shop. You can buy Nosler blems and overruns at really good prices. Just google Shooters Pro Shop and it comes up top of the list.

Shooters pro shop. They carry blem and over-run Nosler bullets and brass. The deals can be pretty impressive. My old place over by the Richmond St Taco Johns may have sunk a few inches from the weight of the components I bought from them over the years. The new places basement is made of sterner stuff, thankfully.

trplem,

WISHING that I had 500 of those "blems".

yours, tex

shootersproshop.com

they sell Nosler 2nds for a discount.

Hornady ELDX (However that would be a 178gr but close enough.)

Running that 178 ELD X in my 300 Win Mag. Haven't shot a game animal yet but they sure shoot like a house on fire.

Yep, my buddy is using them exclusively in his 300wsm and 308 winchester. They are damn accurate.

Amen Brother! Love that load!

Any idea what powder and charge he's using in that .300wsm?

7stw, your recipe?

I am a fan of the 180 gr Partition, particularly the Protected Point version. Muledeer once noted that he realized great accuracy with this bullet, and my experience agrees. I have been loading them over 76 gr of RL22.

No prob.

178 ELD X
Once fired Federal brass
Fed 215m primer
C.O.A.L 3.460
73gr Reloader 22 Most accurate and consistent powder charge for my rifle

In the rifle with marginal accuracy. Try a flat base bullet. Speer hotcore 180gr comes to mind. Sometimes wasting money on expensive bullets, is just that. A waste of $. In the 30-06 fill the case with 4831 set a 180hc to factory oal then crimp it with a lee crimp die. You might be surprise how people really over think reloading

I've loaded 52.0 grains of IMR 4250 behind 180 eTip with great accuracy out of my '06. BUT I will also say, I do not hunt with that load. Its amazing the drop difference at 100 yards between that bullet and my 150 grain bullets ( I think they were SGK's iirc). So why not hunt with that load? I did it probably for the same reason you are looking for a load, just to have one. I could be wrong on your reason and if I am I apologize. The eTip mono metal is a very tough bullet and I think for what I hunt for, that would be too much bullet. Now if I were hunting Bison, I would use the 3000 RUM or 338 Win Mag. If I have to use my 30-06 as a back up for that hunt, then I would probably load up the 180 and keep my shots within 300 yards. YMMV.

Good luck. I hope you find your load!!!

HaYen

Hornady 180gr SST's and 54.5gr of H4350 are very accurate out of my 06 but.........I have not had good luck with them holding together on several deer and elk. So I have gone back to the good old 180gr Interlocks. I don't shoot over 1/4 mile and they work good as anything I have ever tried under that (and the are cheap).

I used to use 180g Partitions for everything in my 30-06. 56g of IMR 4350 was a very accurate load. In the 300 H&H I used 180g Hornady Interlock SP under 67.7g of IMR 4350. Another accurate load.

Is there any other load for a bolt action '06? I've heard rumors, but never believed them.

Bought a bunch of 180g Partition blems from SPS a while back. Couldn't get them to shoot in my 300H&H with either 4350 or 4831. I tried R17(300wsm load) and that worked great, thanks Mule Deer. I also have a 300wsm and it likes IMR4831 with that bullet.

Killed my biggest buck in 1974 with a .308 handload consisting of a Hornady 180 gr. RN over a moderate charge of IMR 4895. I now shoot a .30-06 with 165 gr. Sierra or Nosler bullets over IMR 4064 or IMR 4350. I have tried RL-15 and Varget but the other powders work better in my rifle.

Correction IMR 4350 not 4250 since that powder does not exists. Damn FAT fingers.

I use 180 Ballistictips and 180 Accubonds in my 300 WSM Kimber over what on paper sounds like a mild load of H4350. 61 grains is barely over the starting loads in most books but the velocity comes in at a tad under 3000 fps. In what might be pure chance 165 ballistic tips shoot to the same POI and match the 180s all the way out to 500, or at least good enough that they both track the B&C reticle.

Sounds like some of you are having some fun. Good for you.

Take care

I've had good accuracy with the 178 ELD-x in both 308 and 30-06.



Most any high BC 180 gr bullet fired from a 308 is faster than a 180 gr RN fired from a 300 WM at 175 yards. When fired from a 30-06 the high BC bullets makes up the difference in speed in under 75 yards.

I've used lighter 150 and 165 gr bullets most of my life with no complaints. But recently have experimented with heavier bullets up to 200 gr in both 308 and 30-06. There doesn't seem to be any real downside.

Running the numbers on the Sierra 180gr RN with a BC of .240 at 3100fps from the 300WM vs the 180gr SGK with a BC of .501at 2600fps from the 308Win, the RN from the 300WM is still 100fps faster than the 308Win at 200yds. The other consideration is the toughness of the bullet at 308Win speeds.

You don't hunt moose and elk?


If so...why use 150 grain?

So many good 30 cals in 180 gr range for a WSM. I'd suggest any of the Noslers (Partition, Ballistic Tip, Accubond), particularly if you plan on hunting big animals. Sciroccos are good bullets as well at WSM speeds, if you want to hunt big stuff. Or if you're looking just to shoot 180's at paper, try some cheaper flat-base bullets like Interlock, Prohunter, or Hot Core.

Well that's just a given. Most here know that by now. It doesn't even need to be suggested anymore.

I've always used 180gr Hornady Spire Points behind 58gr H4350 F219 primers out of my Browning Safari. Sub MOA and always works.

58 grains behind a 180, 30.06?

I shot my biggest buck with a 180gr. Hornady RN in .308 over a moderate charge of IMR 4895.

I also use 58 grs of H4350 but with the 180 Accubond and WLR mag primers for velocities that pretty much match factory advertised velocities. It’s worked great on elk from 25 yards to 475 yards.