Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Light load for 30/06

Anyone have a light load recipe for a 30/06. The wife has decided to start shooting with me and has taken a liking to my savage 30/06. Right now she is using fusion lite ammo and doing very well with it. Looked in all my reload books and can't find a lite load to work off of. Any help could save me lots of money! Thanks!

125gr bullet and 27grs of 5744

Hodgdon used to have light loads using H4895 on their web site. I tried the 30-06 and 308 loads, and it was a lot less kick.

The general gist was that you could take 60% of the max load for any Hodgdon published loads for any cartridge with H4895 and get a load resulting in a 1500fps to 2100fps round. I can't find it on their current web site, but here's what it was back in August.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070823182126/http://www.hodgdon.com/data/youth/index.php

My wife and oldest daughter have no trouble with 46 gr of IMR3031 and a 150 grain Partition. This is in a rifle that has been modified to fit their size for LOP, with a decent recoil pad installed. Bare bones the rifles were about 7.25 lbs. Scoped, I guess about a little over 8. And that combo accounted for several deer just under 200 yards - complete pass throughs.

The secret is never let them shoot until it gets uncomfortable.

Look in the Speer loading manual! The last load they list is a reduced load. I load the IMR 4759 and a 150 gr round nose 30/30 type bullet for about 2,000 fps. VERY mild and accurate!
whelennut

I use the AA5744 for cast loads in the 45-70 and it works good, and I also load some 41Mag pistol bullets in my 405 Win with 25 gr of AA5744 for a grouse load, and it is very scarey accurate. Never thought about it for 30 cal loads. No reason why it shouldn't work.

I support Whelen's loads using 4759... the only problem I have with 5744 is that for reasons unknown, it has a bigger boom to it than 4759.. I have found that this initimidates kids sometimes, whereas 4759 does...

accuracy with both is on par with each other, which both are excellent...

Remington's Managed Recoil loads that you buy at the stores, uses a charge of 35 grains of IMR 4198 and a 125 grain bullet... if that helps you out any... a 150 grain bullet wouldn't increase recoil substantially, and there are several good bullets to use in between 125 and 150 grains that would perform well also..

Ok, thanks for all the help! Now to the bench!!

150 grain Corelokts and 35 grains of Reloder7 makes your 06 into a 30-30. It's the load my son used last year (his first season) in his Rem 700 SPS. He stepped right from 22rf and 223 into the 06, no problem. This year will be enough H335 to simulate the 300 Savage.

Dale

My kid uses 42 grains of H4895 and a 150-grain Remington CoreLokt RN in a very lightweight Huskvarna carbine.

Best kids rifle I've ever seen.


Okie John

First thing I notice that SERIOUSLY AFFECTS ALL NEW SHOOTERS is muzzle blast, their own as well as others on the firing line, so good hearing protection is a must, as are protective glasses. For hearing protection I suggest foam plugs under muffs.

Load . . .

One of the top reduced load experts did not share his method when he posted above, but I have adopted it for many different calibers and find it pleasant way to go. Accurate and low recoil all the way to fully effective hunting loads.

My suggestion 125 Remington spire points, and UP TO 26 grains of Blue Dot. 25 is the sweet spot in a couple of my 06s, and some others prefer the 125NBT or the discontinued Hornady 130 gr. SSP. You might compare these to something produced by a large company for hunting with lighter recoil.

Cast boolits is another way to go and will get her (and you) a lot of shooting with out wearing her out. If you go with cast use "Wipe Out" or other good copper cleaner before the cast Boolits if you want accuracy.

Nothing like a few hundred rounds downrange to get her to enjoy the shooting sport, especially if you can do some shooting at reactive (clay pigeons on the berm IF you range allows it) or auditory targets if you range has a gong out there.

Just an opinion of course!

Louis...

I didn't bring up the Blue Dot loads.. I use them all the time, but I have been getting flamed alot recently on another forum, by Two guys in particular.. about using them in sub 22 caliber rifles...

however I have then been flamed for suggesting it an ANY cartridge after that by them, and a few tag alongs...although most admit to never having tried it...

But Seafire JR started hunting this last season.. he was carrying a 243 with a load of 22 grains of Blue Dot and a 100 grain Corelokt...

next season he wants to move up to a 30/06, and has fallen in love with my Browning A Bolt with the synthetic stock... so he will be toting a load of 25 grains of Blue Dot and a 125 grain Ballistic Tip or a 130 grain Speer FN next season...

Just for training a young shooter with an 06... a 125 grain Corelokt and a load of 15 grains of Trail Boss will also really be a good starting point... smaller targets at 50 to 75 yds, with that load is a great youth training load.. work'em up from that for next season...

I started my boys with 40.5 grains of H4895 behind a 125 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip, Remington cases and CCI 200 primers. The kids tell me it recoils about like a .243. This load has killed several antelope with no problems. Good Luck!

When my son first started practice shooting with the 30-06 we used the Sierra 110 gr RN for the M1 carbine with 20 grs. of IMR 4759.
This is a low recoil practice load and would work on varmints pretty well.
When he wanted to hunt deer, we stepped up to the Sierra 125 gr. spitzer with 48.6 grs. of IMR 4064. This is plenty for deer!

This year we are trying 31 grs of IMR 4759 and a 150 gr RN at 2400 fps. It is very accurate and not disturbing for a 16 year old shooter.
I hope the wife will enjoy one of these loads.
whelennut

15gr of unique and a cast bullet will be a seriously fun plinker.

This load is not just for plinking, She likes deer meat so much that she went through the hunters saftey course to get her hunting linc. If she had it her way, our deep freezer would have deer only and no beef or pork. Thats how much she loves it! Now she has to start pulling in some meat and not just me! I loaded some rounds. Started with Hornady 150gr SST bullets with 30-35gr of H4895 and Sierra 150gr BTSP with 30-35gr of H4895 and CCI primers. Quick question, should I use magnum primers? I thought I read or heard something about using mag primers in reduced loads.

Thanks

No, just use standard large rifle primers.

I load 41gr. 4064/ 165gr. Sierra BTHP in my 6lb. custom Mauser. Impressive results on deer + excellent accuracy. That light rifle is murderous to an arthritic shoulder when using full throttle loads but this load makes it comfortable.

Put a decent recoil pad on the rifle, that will "lighten" the load a bunch. Load with something like a 150 gr. bullet with enough 4895 to get 2500 fps and she will love it.

Good lord, I stsrted this thing almost a month ago and just got to the range today. I'm a big slacker!! Well anyways, put some light loads together with H4895 and hornady 150gr SST bullets. Out of the 7 loads I tested I got two loads that did good. Remember this load is for my wife and her savage 110 30/06. Load data for my best loads where as follows: 32.0gr of H4895 with 150gr hornady SST, 35.0gr of H4895 with 150gr hornady SST. I'll most likely go with the 35.0gr charge as it has more speed behind the bullet. Now we will see if she can drop a deer or two this comming season and she has plenty of time to pratice between now and then. Here are some pics of the targets. Both had good groups with 3 shots and then a flyer on the 4th shot. Oh well it was most likely me and not the rifle or the round.