Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ask John Barsness Questions About "GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR .30-06"

JB,
Was wondering if you have any experience with the Hornady SST. Is it as tough as a regular Interlock or does it tend to expand more violently?

ar15a292f,

I tend to favor 180's, but have shot a heck of a lot of animals with cup-and-core 165's. Either will do the job.

The reason I prefer 180's is that heavier bullets tend to drift less in the wind and a little less velocity tends to help standard bullets act a little more reliably. I have yet to see a 180 fail to open up on even the lighest big game.

Plus, I have become so familiar with the trajectory of 180's over the last decade or so that it's relatively easy to hit with them--something made easier with multi-point reticles. So instead of having to sight in my .30-06s with different bullet weights for various purposes, I tend to keep them sighted in with 180's and change the bulet design instead of the weight.

I'm sooo glad you mentioned this. Every season I get dozens of guys in the shop that want to buy 150s for antelope and switch back up to 180s for elk...I always ask if they are sighted in with 180s, and always get the answer "Yes" whereupon, with my usual tact-which you are familiar with- I tell them " you know, you can kill antelope with a 180..."
The other thing Ive noticed shooting '06s is the trajectories of 165s and 180s are so similar that you literally can't tell the difference under most field conditions, why not go 180, for the reasons you stated above?
Ingwe

would you mind giveng me the magazine and issue so i can look it up, please.

orion,
My hunting group has been using 165 grain SSTs for the last 3-4 years. They are superbly accurate, but from our results they do seem to open up more violently than the Interlocks. On Tennessee deer this is no problem, but I would probably try something else on larger game.

ringworm,
That article and chart is in #193 of Handloader.

John - another excellent article!!! I keep wanting to buy another rifle (and then another, and then another, etc.), but can not now find a good reason. The 30-06 does it all. What an excellent round, versitile, accurate and, powerful enough for any North American game. The Army ballisticians of the early 20th century got it right!

Except for varmints, the 30-06 is all I need, although I've got 27 more.

It looks like the latest batch of questions were answered already by others!

I just took my latest .30-06 to the range yesterday morning, a Ruger No. 1A purchased new at Capital Sports & Western Wear, from Ingwe, who is the grouchy guy behind the gun counter. After mounting an older 4x28 Leupold M8, I rummaged through my .30-06 ammo and found I had a few 180 Sierra GameKings loaded up in new Norma cases with 58 grains of Hunter. I tried one in the Ruger's chamber and found out (surprise!) that it fit.

After firing a couple of shots at 25 yards to get close and foul the bore, the first 3-shot group at 100 yards measured a hair over 1". I adjusted the scope and fired the last 2 rounds, which landed a little less than an inch from each other, right where they needed to be. Average muzzle velocity was 2750 fps. I'd say load "development" is over.

Be NICE if they were all that easy!

i looked at 193 and didnt see that listed in the table of contents. a link would be great thanks.

Anyone tried RE-17 in an 06?

I've tried RE-17 in my .30-06 with 150 gr Accubonds. Tried a couple combinations, but none were close to as accurate as good ol' IMR4350. Your mileage may vary....

I'll probably be trying Ramshot Big Game next.

I will too when I see some around here, probably be sitting right next to some Win. Large Rifle primers!

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/yukon375/3539935181/[/img] took me 40 yrs to realize the greatness that is the 30-06. now i'm an 06 nut.

Your use of magnum primers with Big Game powder. Is that something I could try with my 6.5 x 55 Winchester Model 70? Or is that as bad an idea as crossoing the streams in Ghostbusters?

If I don't get the results expected with standard primers when shooting any ball powder I usually try magnum primers. I've had very good results with F215's and Big Game in cases as small as the .220 Swift. In fact in the Swift they shrank groups from 1-1.5" to half that.

Mule Deer, In reading this article I noted that several times you referred to Hodgdon's H4350SC powder. Is this a non-catalog item that is going to be introduced or is the current H4350 already a SC powder? I switched over from H4831 to the H4831SC version ten years ago for use in my .270 WIN and would readily switch to a SC version of H4350 for the .30-06 SPRG (I am using IMR4350 now). Enjoyed the article and forwarded to several friends who own .30-06 SPRG rifles. Thanks, Odessa

H4350SC has been out for quite a while. I have been using it for years. As a matter of fact I don't know if the "long cut" version is still available.

I think it's just called H4350 now. I only see H4350 listed on Hodgdon's web site.

H4350
"This Extreme Extruded propellant is a burning speed that has been known to shooters for decades. During that time, Hodgdon has modernized H4350 by shortening the grains for improved metering and making it insensitive to hot/cold temperatures."

from: http://www.hodgdon.com/extreme.html

Also, it looks like H4831 and H4831SC are still different products though.

-Bob F.

So I'm not the only one?? I've got a couple -06's in the safe now, and lots of 308's. So for me the 180 Hornady or Partition at 2800 FPS in the 30-06 is enough "more" gun than the 308's to make it worth using. With 165's and lighter I've never had an 06 run them so much faster than the 308s that I bothered.

I had to giggle though where JB said "I'm not convinced that 7mm is the ideal all around bore diameter..." Agreed 100%