Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Good 30/06 Loads

Cool! How'd that work out?

Couple of years ago I used the 30-06 with 200 gr Nosler Partitions over H4350 for about 2600 fps, and took a grizzly in the Brooks Range. The ol' 30-06 works well on quite a variety of game.

Regards, Guy

Harvester both my KY whitetails this year with 165gr. Sierra Game Kings over 56gr. IMR 4350. This is my go to load in .30-06 for whitetails, it is accurate and kills with authority.

Well he didn't get a bear so can't comment there, but it do as you'd expect on deer.

Took some rifles out to zero at 200 yards yesterday while I was playing with some 6mmAR loads at 100. Decided to see what my chronograph would tell me about my load on a cooler day (by about 25 degrees...just curious) since it was set up and ready to go anyway. Actually got slightly higher readings, averaged 2763 fps fifteen feet from the muzzle. No loss from 70*F down to 45*F, but that's no real test. Accuracy is holding up at 200 yards, too.

At 100 yards:

Just curious as to why use large rifle primers for 1 load and large rifle magnum primers for the other?? Also, what kind of accuracy are you seeing with the RL-16?

Hornady brass
WLR
168 AMax, 168 hpbt or 165 SST
46.3 gr. N135
Approx. 308 ballistics, easy shooting in the 30-06
Very precise
Learned about it from Dave Emary in an online conversation about Garand match ammo.

Thanks for sharing that load!

Try it, it's almost like cheating.

I've been working with a 30-06 that had a couple of issues and I wanted to test the fixes. I looked to Garand match loads to find ones with good precision potential yet at somewhat less than full boat 30-06 recoil. The idea was to be able to shoot a bunch without fatigue.

John Barsness published an article along these lines and his best loads also worked quite well for me. Those were with Varget, RL15 and N140. I tried the N135 combo because of Emary's suggestion along with the fact a local store had a very good sale on N135.

Nothing really new to offer. My 30-06 liked the Barsness Ramshot Hunter load with 180's. 56grains had better accuracy than 58 in my rifle. Consistent 3/4" load.

Federal GM Brass
180 Partition
56 GR HUNTER powder
Federal GM210M

Becoming a fan of the Ramshot powder. Rifle also liked the following load.

Federal GM Brass
168 Gr Barnes TTSX
53 Gr Big Game powder
Federal GM210M

This light weight rifle is a bit picky and a challenge to shoot for me. These two loads are very consistent in it.

I’m super late to the party here but for me 56-57 grains of IMR-4350 and any good 165 grain bullet will cook in any .30-06 Rifle I’ve tried it in. For the PNW, that’s plenty of bullet and a good all-around choice.

Ive had good results with 180gr Accubonds 57gr H4350 for 2800fps+ in a 24" barrel. Accuracy has been very good.

I really like 50 gr IMR 4064 with a 168gr. Barnes TTSXbt. In my rifle it is highly accurate, and the speed is perfect to drop deer in their tracks.

Here`s one if you use the heavies.

Krico model 700 .30-06 - 20 inch bbl

220 gr Woodleigh RN Weldcore
RL 26

chge - 60.7 gr
coal - 3.340

MV- 2570

24 inch bbl
Woodleigh Weldcore 240 grain PP
Hodgdon H4831SC 52.5 grains
MV: ~ 2280 - 2300
COAL: ~3.297" (between -0.040 & -0.045" from the rifling in my rifle)

30-06 variety:

180g E-tip
H4350 52g
CCI 200
OAL 3.262

165g NBT
H4350 56.5g
CCI 200
OAL 3.315

168g NBT
H4350 56g
OAL 3.315

168g NBT
Ramshot Hunter 58.5g
CCI 200
OAL 3.315

180g NPT protected point
RL-17 55g
CCI 200
OAL 3.225

150g E-tip
RL-17 58g
CCI 200
OAL 3.30

220g NPT
RL-17 50.8g
CCI 200
OAL 3.280

Sub-sonic
220 NPT
Trailboss 14.2g (21 in bbl 1:10 twist)
CCI 200
OAL 3.280

Here's one with Nobel Sport Tubal Vectan 7000, which is a lot like 4350. I emailed Barnes and Nosler looking for data but neither have done any work with it yet, so I used data from

https://www.grafs.com/uploads/technical-resource-pdf-file/20.pdf

and

https://www.lhs-germany.de/en/powder/smokeless-powder/vectan/tubal-7000/

This data seems pretty conservative but I'm getting a solid 2,700 fps with the max charge in a couple of 30-06s with 180-grain bullets. Still working on accuracy. Right now it's holding 1.25 MOA in two rifles using the Hornady 180-grain boat-tail.


Okie John

I would really like to load up a box or two of 30/06 with 4350. Only problem, I don't have any and having a hard time finding 4350. I do have some RL19 and it works well too. 4350 is no doubt the go to powder for 30/06. I can't remember what year I started using 4350 must be 35-40 years back.

I have an old, 27" heavy barrel .30-06 I take along on PD shoots. I shoot VMax's out of it exclusively:

Hornady 110 grain VMax
Hodgdon H4895 56.5 grains (+- 0.1 grain)
Lapua brass
Federal 210M primer
COAL: ~3.245"
MV: 3,300+ fps

It's a sad day when 5 shot groups go over 1/2"

Lately my .30-06 hunting has been almost exclusively hogs which around here can go over 300# sometimes well over. The shots in our setup are usually 200-275 yards using the truck hood and a bag of corn as a rest. I've opted for a 180 bullet as sometimes a Texas heart shot is all you get. My best results have been with the Speer RN but as the shots seemed to be getting longer I went to the Hornady 180 SST which does shoot tighter groups. Both were loaded over 58.5 of H4831 and the load has not been chronographed but I'm assuming about 2700 fps out of a 24 inch barrel. With the SST the only issue I have is they seldom exit and if a hog makes a run for the thicket there is no blood trail. I'm not confident enough to shoot for the brain or neck in the dark so POA and POI is the middle of the ship.