Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 30-06 200 grain speer for elk?

4x4sneak loaded 6 rounds of 06 with the 200 grn. nosler and 59 grns. of h4831. will give it a try. what kind of velocity are you getting? dan

Ya might give IMR-4350 (49-53 grains Nosler #5) a try with the 200 grain Nosler bullets. My 06 loves it and I found 2 powder charges that shot sub MOA at 100 yards.

OU812 what kind of velocity are you getting with 53 grains of imr4350?

I have not ran it through a chrono yet but I plan on doing so very soon. I'll send ya a PM when I get my velocity.

I don't have a chrony. I know I get a hell of a "whop" on elk!

I have shot several moose that are larger than elk with a 180 gr Hornady BTSP loaded with 55 gr of IMR4350 or 54.2 gr of H414, and they are very accurate and very deadly on moose. I shot a large cow through both shoulders and found the bullet in the meat just before the hide on the far side. This cow was very thick and very large -- about 1,100 pounds round. She dropped at the shot and stayed down. Can't imagine an elk would be harder to penetrate than that.

finally got to shoot the 06 sunday. shot several 180 and 200 grain loads. group sizes were smaller with the 200s and velocities about the same. shot 2 5 shot groups less than an 1" with 58.5 grains of r22 and 200 grain nosler pt.at 2550 fps. and 57.6 grains of h4350 and the speer hot cor.at 2650 fps. looks very promising. loaded some 180 grain barnes triple shoks with 58 grns. of h4350. 2" group at less than 2700 fps. im sticking with the 200s

Where did you get your load data from? I'm glad it's shooting good for ya but those charges seem a little high according to my manuals.

OU812 the r22 data is from alliants web site and h 4350 from a speer manual.

Got ya. My books indicated your loads might be a little hot. Glad to hear you found a great shooting load.

finally settled on 57.2 grains of h 4350, just over 2600 fps. shoots 3/4" groups with 200 grn. speers

In those glorious younger days of mine when I had only two rifles, a 270 and a 30-06 I did all my elk hunting with 180 and 200 grain Speer bullets. I worked up till I saw the slightes amount of case head deformation and backed off 1 grain. Turned out to be 60 grains of H4831 with the 180 grain Speer Mag Tips and standard Hotcor's and 58 grains for the 200 grain Speers. Never had any problems killing elk but the work that began after the shot. Thought I'd try the 338 and the then new X bullets, what a fiasco. Sold the rifle after two seasons as it kicked harder and didn't kill any better than the 30-06 or as well using the early x bullets..

RIKT300 i still like the 300 ultra and the 338 win mag for certain areas, but where i hunt now i dont think you could beat the 06.all these new bullets are great but i seem to have just as good of luck with the old speer and hornady interlocks.

H4831/IMR-4831 would be my first choices for 180's in an '06. Both powders produce excellent velocity/accuracy with a decent bullet. MR 3100 is also very good.