Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 300-350 yard 30-06 bullet weight?

What do you guys prefer and why?

For deer out to 300-350 yards using a 30-06, which bullet is flatter and which performs best? 150 or 165 grain bullets.

I like accurate bullets that realiabily expand and completely passes through a deer. Deer in the 200-250 pound weight range.

Sierra, Nosler, Hornady, Barnes?

Anyone have a pet load that checks all these boxes?

150 or 168 ttsx would be mine, though there seem to be no issues with 130ttsx for a lot of folks. I just can't quite get to really light bullets in my head yet...

168 has worked really well in our 308 out a fair bit past 300.

Barnes TTSX 150 gr.

I don't do a lot of shooting beyond that, and often as not pass at that distance, but...Barnes 130 TSX or TTSX bullets driven at laser beam speeds make hitting at that distance easier. They always go through and bone doesn't phase them. At short range they do not wreck a lot of meat, even at that kind of speed.

I started killing deer before it was even legal for me. I was 8 and my dad and mom had me shoot some on their tags. I am now in my 60s and I can't begin to count how many I have killed in the last 50+ years. In many of those years I could get several tags per seaason and probably about 20 years I was able to hunt in several states with several tags per season, per state. I have used a LOT of different calibers too but the 30 cals I have used:
300 Savages, (3 of them)
30-30s, (3 of them)
30-40 Krag,
7.5 Swiss,
308 Winchester, (8 of them)
30-06, (6 of them)
300 Win Mag,
300 Weatherby mag
300 H&H, (2 of them)
308 Norma mag, (2 of them)
and 300/378 Weatherby.
And in the rifles listed above I have also used numerous bullets and weights to kill deer.

The faster you shoot them the stronger a bullet should be if you don't like them shattering and doing a lot of meat damage, but from most 30 cals, any bullet from 125 grains up to 220 works fine for killing deer. It's easier for me to list the bullet I would stay away from then those that are fine.
All bullets will kill because there is no good way to get shot. But the ones that work very well and still don't do odd things inside the deer and don't come apart like metal sand are quite numerous.

The ones I dislike compleately are:
The old 150 grain Winchester Silvertips. Shot from 300 Savage, 308 and 30-06
The old solid base Nosler Ballistic Tips in 150 and 180 grains both. Shot from 30-06s
The 125 grain Sierra flat base. Shot from 30-40 Krag and 308 Winchester.
And although I have not killed with them, I have seen about 8 deer shot with Bergers from 150 to 180 grains and all have broken up badly. (so far) Shot from 308s 30-06s 300 Win Mags and 300 Ultra mag.

Bullets I have used to kill deer that were erratic with some working perfectly and some of the same blowing up or peeling back on one side and doing weird things inside the body at least 1/3 of the time:
150 grain Sierra Boat tail (not the hollow points, which seemed to work perfectly every time. I know that seems backwards, but that what I have seen)
Remington 150 grain Bronze Points.
Speer 150 grain Boat Tail.
Sierra 165 grain Boat tails. Lead points not HPs. (note...these were shot at high velocities from 300 mags, including the 30/378, so the fault with them breaking up could be my fault for shooting them too fast and they may be fine in a 30-06)

In a list of bullet that are good about 90% of the time I think the list would be too long to write here. But you probably could pick about any one from the list in a Midway catalog and be just fine.

And in the list of those that (in my personal experience) were as close to perfect as you can get there would be:
150 165 180 and 200 grain Nosler Partitions. Shot from 308s 7.5 Swiss 30-06s 300 mags and not one ever was less then perfect.
130, 150 and 165 grain Barnes TSX. Also shot from the rifles listed above, including the 30/378. All worked as well as I could ask for.
*Old 150 grain Remington RNs. Always shot from 30-06 300 Savage and 308 Winchester. All worked as well as I could ask for.
220 grain Sierra and Hornady RNs, Shot from a loaded down 30-06 for use in an M-1 Garand, (2300 FPS) used on deer and elk and also one bear,and also 3 shot from 30-40 Krag to kill deer. Perfect performance every time.
*180 grain Remington Core-Lokt RNs Shot form various 30-06s.
180 grain Sierra RN shot from 300 Savage and 308 Winchester. Perfect performance every time. 100 and 200 yard accuracy was so good as to be "shocking" with them too. You'd have to try them to believe how well they shoot, at least that's what I saw from 2 of my 308s I used to own.
180 grain Speer Grand Slams Shot from 30-06s and 300H&H. Perfect performance.
*180 grain Speer Mag Tips. Shot from 300 Savage, 7.5 Swiss, 308s and 30-06s. Perfect performance but even with a lot of retained weight these sometimes didn't exit, but opened up REAL wide.
*220 grain Remington Core Lokts. Shot from 300 H&H. Perfect every time.
220 grain Nosler Partitions. Shot from 300 Win Mag, 308 Norma mag and 30-40 Krag. All exited including the ones only fired at about 2100 FPS from the old Krag. Large diameter holes.

What I consider "perfect" for a bullet is 75% or more weight retention and/or a large STRAIGHT hole clear through, even if bone is hit with exits. Others may disagree, but that what 1/2 century of deer killing (and lots of other game too) has convinced me of.

*The sad this is that some of those in this "list of the perfect" are not made anymore.

165 gr GameKing

Gotta say I’m a fan of Barnes and lead free steaks.

300 to 350yds really isn't all that far considering today's technology. You should be able to do it with whatever good hunting bullet that shoots well in your gun. Case in point. I have a Savage 116 in 30 06. It likes 180 grain Corelokt hand loads the best. Tested several different bullets. It shoots right at an inch group 5 shots. Top that off with a SS 3x9 scope. My 350 yd group is 4" . My 500yd group is between 5.5 and 6" . All shooting is from the prone position.Nothing very fancy but good enough for consistent killing at those ranges.

Great post....thank you!

I too like complete penetration for deer bullets. I wasn’t even going to consider Berger bullets for the same retro mentioned.

Sounds like Nosler Partitions and Barnes TTSX or TSX either in the 150 or 165 grain range.

Avoiding away from the softer Sierra or Speer type bullets 150/165.

All I load and shoot in 06 for several years are 165 H B T S P.
No reason to change.

Jerry

ps: for deer hunting

Max load of H4350 with 155 scenar seems pretty proven.

I shoot 165/168 ttsx out of my 06.
I shot a deer with 130 ttsx out of 270 and even though it’s heart was turned into burger. He ran off and I thought I missed.
For deer I switched to cup and core and keep the ttsx for elk.
Plus it’s a lot cheaper reloading game changers or SST than Barnes

Me, 06, 180 grain Ballistic Tips or Partitions...

stiff charge of 4831SC, then either a 200 grainer ( Speer or Nosler)

or my favorite... 220 grain RN...that one will penetrate thru a deer like a hot knife thru butter..

I have used many different bullets to kill deer with the 30-06 cartridge and none have performed better than Barnes TTSX 130, 150 and 165 grain bullets......Good luck...Hb

165gr interlocks, or accubonds have worked great for me.

1 week ago to the day I killed a 125 lb doe at 230 lazered yards with a 7mm Wby 150 grain ballistic tip that started at 3300 from the muzzle. I saw white belly when the gun recoiled. 2 days later I shot a 9 pt buck at 60 yards with the same combo, it looked like a hand grenade went off in the heart lung area, even the diaphragm was destroyed with a 4" exit hole. Just bear that in mind if the Deer shows at close range. I will have to handload that 7mm because of this experience and most likely use accubond or partitions.


Using an 06 any decent quality cup and core bullet will work reliably. I have had more bullet blowups with Winchester factory bullets and Hornady factory bullets FWIW.

Try the 180 gr Sierra game king bt. Been using it for years in my 30-06 for elk and deer . Many dead deer and elk. They shot well in any 30 caliber rifle I own.

Flatter doesn't mean anything to me at those ranges, a 200gr partition at 2700 fps with RL-22 or H-4831 will completely wreck any white tail deer at any angle presented, zero three inches high at 100 and have at it, that's the route I run with my old pre-64 '06.

180 grain Partition and a stiff dose of H4350 is all I've ever used.