Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What Ever Happened to 220 Grain .30 Caliber Bullets?

These used to be recommended, when magnums were scarce and the .300 and .338 Winchester had not been invented, for heavy game like brown bear and moose in the 30-06 and even the 30-40.

220 grain bullets were one reason the 30-06 was said to be superior to the .308 Winchester. Barnes even made a 250 grain bullet for handloaders.

Now it seems that the heaviest .30 caliber bullets anyone talks about are the 200 grainers. A similar thing has happened with other calibers. When the .338 was new, people talked about 275 and 300 grain bullets for it. Now you tend to read about 210 and 225 grain bullets in .338.

Is the reason for this that bullets have been so much improved that 180 grain and even 165 grain bullets penetrate deeply enough?

imo two reasons - first, most people look for speed and the 220 is too slow for their taste. second - with the many great 180gr and 165gr bullets available, most folks see no need for a 220gr. just one mans opinion.

Too much idiotic insistence on maximum muzzle velocities and stupidly ignoring impact force.

Just because an idea is popular doesn't make it correct. In the 50's the 348 Win and '06 with 220 grain bullets were about the only things Western Montana Griz hunters used. I still find the 200 grain Partition is perfect for my uses out to 300 yards, and I'd need a GOOD rest to hold tighter than it's trajectory.

Wayne

A number of years ago, one of my hunting partners decided to hunt with something a bit different, so he loaded some old Winchester 220 gr. Silvertip bullets in his 30-06 for elk hunting. He had something like a 100 yd. opportunity on a bull that face facing him head-on, and at the shot, that elk dropped where it stood, and the 220 Silvertip went clear though that bull, stem to stern. I helped field dress that elk, and I can certain vouch for the effectiveness of that anitquated load.

If I ever decide, for the fun and education of it, to go with 220s in the '06 for any of my own hunting, I'll try the 220 gr. Nosler Partition first.

Now, do I think that 220 gr. bullets are necessary for any of the hunting I'd undertake with a 30-06?

No. Modern 180s and 200s will do it all in my opinion. In the old days, before the advent of much better-built hunting bullets, those 220s were used far more widely than they are now. Quality bullet construction has made them sort of obsolete, and when you really need or want a big, heavy bullet to do a big, heavy job, there are far more great medium-bore rifles available today then there were back in the days when you had the choice of a 270, 30-06, 300 Savage, 30-30, 7mm Mauser, 35 Remington in the form of a factory hunting rifle. Plus most guys back then had just one big game rifle for all purposes, and the 30-06 largely ruled the roost.

For my own purposes, today I'd rather just take a 338 Win. Mag. loaded with premium 225s or 250s rather than load 220s in the 30-06........

AD

With present company a notable exception, many gun writers today don't even know about the concepts of knock down power, "thump","wallop",retained momentum, projectile frontal area and whatever your granddad called it. The thing that sells, today, is "paper energy".

Wayne

I was a wee young lad when Dad was going to Canada for moose. I can remember him sighting in his Mauser '06 with those big old 220 grain Bunker Busters. Dad took a decent bull in '69 on one of his guided trips. The guide didn't even think he hit it, but Dad was certain he did-and the old man just didn't miss very often. The bull never flinched at the shot, and just trotted off indignantly. He went about 200 yardcs-the shot was true, right through the boiler room. Dad said the big bull never gave any outward sign of being hit.

The "outward sign of being hit" is when all four feet do a slow roll over the bushes. Happens right soon, too.

I can't remember who it was (Ken probably does) but one old-time writer used to call those 220s "Blue-nosed Whistlers" due to the generous gob of lead exposed at the tip - and the sound all the air made whistling through whatever you shot with them. You know what? He was right.

It is also true that bullets were nowhere near as well made then as even ditchwater-common cup and core slugs of today. The only way to get absolutely reliable performance was to hit things with a LOT of mass. There was very likely a strong carryover from blackpowder days, too. Remember, that was the era in which the .30-40 Krag was THE hot magnum of its day; it's most common bullet was a 220 roundnose.

Also overlooked is the fact that while the 220s kill like lightning, they also tend to blood-shoot a lot less good eatin' meat, without ceding impact to the lighter, faster, more ruinous bullets.

I'll never be able again to hunt anything bigger than a called-in coyote � if I did, I'd opt generally for the heaviest good bullet that I could get for any big-game cartridge � especially if I wanted a maximum of meat in the freezer and a minimum in the dump.

I believe EK called it the Peter's Blue Nose? Anyway, you simply cannot make a boat-tail, plastic tipped 220gr. 30 cal that will stabilize in most 30 cal 1-10/1-12 twist barrels, nor can you get 3,000+ fps, even in magnums, and everyone knows you need a premium, $1-2 apiece bullet with high energy figures to kill anything. Those bullets are obsolete, and we are much smarter and better hunters than our forefathers! In order to kill its meat damage, not holes through vital organs, that kill.

I have used 220 grain bullets from Hornady, Sierra, and Winchester in my 308 Norma Mag. They work real well and all are VERY accurate. In fact, no other bullet I've tried equals the 220 Sierras for accuracy out to 300 meters. At a MV of 2775, they shoot flat enough too.
I've shot deer and elk with the 220 Hornady out of the 30/40 Krag (MV 2335. Not a Krag rifle) and it works great. I will say, deer drop faster when I use a 150 in the same rifle but the 220s will penetrate no matter what angle and the deer will die.
I have an original box of Winchester Lubaloy 220's (for thin skinned game, it says on the box)in 30/40 Krag. I 've thought I should use these and my Krag carbine on a deer this year just to see if they will still take our modern animals. GD

The .30 caliber 220 gr bullets have gone out of favor??? When did this happen??

Just for the nostalgia and to do it the old fashioned way, I used the 220 gr Woodleigh round nose in my .30-06 on a plains game hunt in South Africa back in 2002. Handload velocity was 2460 fps. The rifle is a Ruger M77 MkII with a Leupold Vari-X III 1.5-5x 20mm scope.

Well guess what?.... Those 220 gr bullets worked just fine.







And if you think those 220 gr bullets in the .30-06 are going too slow to do any real damage here's a photo of that Warthog's heart back at the skinning shed:




And, I guess contrary to conventional wisdom, those 220 gr Woodleighs also worked just fine even on the smaller animals:







Actually, for hunting in the bushveld where shooting distances are not that far, I think you can do a whole lot worse than choose a heavy (high sectional density) round nose bullet at around 2400 fps. I've also used the 8x57JS with a 220 gr Woodleigh RN at 2400 fps and the 9.3x62 with a 286 gr Woodleigh RN at 2390 fps for hunting plains game in the bushveld. They all worked just fine. Besides, it's kind of fun being a little old fashioned!

Cheers!
-Bob F. [img]http://www.bunduki.com/bob/emoticons/beer2.gif[/img]

Cool pics, Bob!
I don't even have an ought six, but when I see these kind of pictures, makes me want to pack up my 9.3 CZ and fly to Africa...

Now, let's see.... where did I leave those two boxes of Woodleigh 240 gr bullets I've been meaning to try out???



Link to a pdf file describing the Woodleigh 240 gr bullet.

Woodleigh's web site:
http://www.woodleighbullets.com.au/

Cheers!
-Bob F.

If the supply is short then blame me as I have never bought any. Well maybe I shot some old loads out of the Krag I had.

Harald at "Blowing Holes in Wounding Theories" was talking about trying 220's. I did not follow up on it as, to me, the bullet gives up too much in recoil, trajectory and drift.

I use them because when I went to the local gunshop they had several boxes for sale at $5.00 per box. I bought them all.

I don't know what happened to everyne else's 220 grain bullets but I shot the majority of mine -- although I still enough boxes left to finish out my career. I think Nosler still makes Partitions in that weight and they are superb game killers.

I know that second-hand recommendations don't carry a lot of weight around here. But, if I may, I'd like to tell you a bit about my Dad.

He was born in 1905, (and died in 1995) he came to BC (out of the prairies) late in his teen years looking for work and he found it logging in BC's wildest places. His love of the real wilderness saw him making his living with a "portable saw mill" he put together. He travelled all over BC with that thing.

He hunted a lot, for sport and sustenance. He shot bears when he thought they were giving him "attitude", as well as when he needed meat, fat or thought he could use a good pelt. He said he shot "about 20" grizzlies in his life - and many many more black bears.

His preferred bear caliber was the 30-06, his preferred rifle (late in his life) was the Remington 760 pump "with extra clips in his pocket" - "just in case", and his preferred bullet for bears - the roundnose 220's.

He said that load "just flattened them", and he could never understand the desire of others for a bigger rifle in bear country.

I saw him shoot his last two grizzlies - same story - bang - flop.

No adventure, no dramatics - just like he said was always the case - "when you hit 'em where you're supposed to - with a good bullet".

Readers aspiring to accomplishments as great as those that contemporary writers write about remind me of something that Peter Ustinov quoted from one of his instructors at Sandhurst:

"Mister ______ sets for himself abominably low standards which he unfortunately fails to meet."

I started using them when trying to get my Winchester 1895 (30-40 Krag) to shoot. The lighter bullets weren't doing well in the accuracy department so I went with the original loading of a 220 gr roundnose at 2250-2300 FPS and the groups shrank in half. Deadly on mule deer and will be chasing elk with one in the future. Haven't tried them in a 30-06 but thinking about it. Have a Husqvarna that needs to make meat and that might be the ticket. Ryan