Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Favorite 30 caliber 165 gr. Bullet

All the above pretty much echos what I was going to say. 30 cal 165gr GameKings both the HPBT and non hollow point shot great out of multiple 30-06 and 308’s for me.

Depends of the cartridge
The 165 gr Nosler partition or Accubond covers nearly all the bases well. I use them in 300 Savage, 308 Winchester and 30-06, and did well with them in several different 300 mags years ago.

Also the TSX Barnes are very good especially for my 300 Magnum. My experience with TXS and all solid coper expanding bullets so far is that they don't open up at impacts much less then 2000 FPS but when shot at 3000 to 3200 they will still reach way out there before they shed that much speed.

For my 300 Savage rifles I have found the Nosler BT Hunting do well and so do the old Speer GS and Mag-Tips and when I could still find them, the Remington CoreLokt were quite good too.

When they were cheap, I bought a fair amount of BTs and AB blems from SPS. I load them the same in the .308 over IIRC 41-42gr of RL15. Last I loaded, again IIRC, 30 BTs and 20 ABs in a box of 50, and one ABs was used on a buck in 2022. Only killed a couple of does with the BTs, but no complaints. Neither seemed as ‘splody as the GameKing HPs I used years ago in the .30/06.

In general, I use smaller, gentler rounds these days.

The 165 grain SPBT Game King is hard to beat. They are fairly cheap, easy to find a good load, and have great terminal performance. I have loaded them down to around 2,600 fps and still get excellent results on game.

Corelokts, power points, federal blue box, and fusion will easily kill a deer, As will the premium bullets. I usually use 150s for deer and 180s for elk, but have used 165s too. Find a load, either factory or handload, that is accurate in your rifle and go hunting. Whitetails are the easy button for a 30-06. Good luck.

Corelokt's for decades, after covid I ended up with a different one for each rifle. Bottom line is they all work.

168 gr Tittysex

Speer 165gr Hot-Cor .... tough bullet!

30/06, 168 ttsx
308 165 game kings

The answer to this post is very highly dependent upon which 30 caliber is used and at what distance. There is a vast difference for the mv’s of a 30-30 (30 caliber) and for example a 30-378 Weatherby (a 30 caliber).

For the lower velocity 30’s, most cup and core bullets should be satisfactory. If a high velocity 30 cal is used , especially if the shots may be of short range…..a mono bullet may be the best option.

While I don’t use a 30 cal. 308 Win or 30-06, and haven’t shot either in many years at game….I’d probably go with the 130 grain TTSX for cartridges with mv’s less than that of (just “ball parking” it) a 308Win. For cartridges at or somewhat above the 30-06 mv’s ….I’d lean toward a 150 TTSX. For magnum range velocities, I’d go with 165 ish or heavier monos! memtb

Speer HotCor 165 grain flat base spitzer.
I load it for my 308 Win and 30-06 bolt guns (Win m70 Extreme Weather).

++1 My dad shot a ton of deer with this bullet out of his .30-06

Hornady InterLock Spitzer Flat Base #3040.
I've had good luck with all 30 cal. 165/168 grain bullets.

In my .30-06, I run 165 grain Game Kings. Great accuracy and never needed more for anything I would ask my .30-06 to do.

Before we moved to Alaska I had settled on the 165 grain Partition in my 300 H&H. I shot whitetail, mule deer and elk with it. It was my only load for many years. I opted to go to heavier Partitions while we lived in Alaska. I'd probably go back to the 165 Partition now that we're in Idaho but I have so many 180, 200 and 220 grain Partitions I'll either have to start trading for 165s or just use them. It'll only take me 40-50 years too us up what I've got if I hunt everything Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have to offer.

168 TTSX & 162 Tipped Hammer.

165 gr. Nosler Partition

Hornady Spire Point, flat base, nothing fancy but when time and money are on the line, that's what I chose for my 308

Sierra Game King over IMR 4350, kills deer dead never a need for a second shot.

It might be a good idea to note, for those who don't know, there are a few 165 grain .308's Sierra calls Game King. There's the "untipped" soft-point boat tail, the tipped boat tail (Game Changer) and the hollow point boat tail. I'm good with any of them. If I couldn't get any of them, I'd be just as happy with Nosler Ballistic Tips.

I've always found Sierra's hollow point boat tail Game Kings interesting bullets. They're a little odd-looking with that "four-pointed star" hollow point nose. Not the most aerodynamic of Sierra's offerings (which means nothing to me for my purposes.) They seem to be a somewhat "hard" bullet as well. They make that same bullet in .264 and I've been using it for a few years in my 6.5X55. It doesn't do a lot of damage at those speeds. Lung shot deer have travelled a little further than I would have expected. I shot a good sized buck with it last year, broadside, right through the center of the lungs at about 65 yards. Very little tissue destruction, about a 2" path of bloodshot tissue, side to side, through both lungs. Drops them right there with the high shoulder shot without a lot of excitement. The .308 version pushed kind of hard from my 26" No 1 gives somewhat more damage.