Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 30-06 150 or 165 grain?

I am looking for real life input. Yes, sometimes I can be anal.
I have worked up loads with NAB that shoot at or under .5 inch at 100 yards in both 150 grain and 165 grain using IMR4350, Ramshot Hunter and Big Game. In my mountain rifle the recoil is noticeably lighter with the 150's. Will the 165 really perform better on a mule deer or sheep if a marginal shot is taken? Is that 165 enough for elk? Thanks in advance everyone.

Before the board lights up with all sorts of opinions, I will give you mine. Mind you, this is for more than a 40 year span with over 35 elk, countless deer and antelope, all with a single load in a 30-06. I used a Hornady 165 grain spire pointed bullet and 57 grains of IMR4350. This will work perfectly in all of the above game species, with little room for improvement.

After hearing all the opinions of what is best and why, I tried a few and settled with the 165 grain being the best overall bullet for the 30-06. You don't need premium bullets, high BC, boat tail, plastic tips,solid copper or anything else they throw at you. I guarantee great success with this simple combination.

Shrap is completely right, 57/I4350 and 165 Horn bt is a load I could use the rest of my life and never once look back.

If one wishes to decomplicate their life they'd buy an 06 and rock on with this load.

Dober

Shot a bull w/ a .308 and 165 NPT - your 165AB in 06' will do just fine on wapiti.

Mark, 57.0 gr's of I4350/165 is a pretty mild load... it can be bumped easily to 58.0. With H4350 59.0 is a standard book load and one that's worked well for me.

OTOH, 60 fps extra with that load means little one way or the other.

i'm partial to 150 gr ballistic tips.

165 Barnes TSX.....Lights out. Boring yes. Like a 68 Chevelle with a big block, just works.

I use 165s or 168s only in my 06s. Nosler Partitions, Berger VLDs or Sierra HPBT Gamekings. 150s go in my 308.Rick.

For deer, the 150g Hornady Flat base is what I have shot in a 30/06...gosh what a great bullet. Never tried the 165's.

Regardless of the game I pointed it at, 165's is what I have used with an occasional 180 RN. The 165's (Horn or Nosler) have never failed me in the field or at the range.

CLB

I load 165gr Hornady SP Interlocks over 57.5gr of H-4350 for two rifles in 30-06. I get great accuracy in both and I'm dumb enough to use this load on pretty much anything that wouldn't want to stomp or bite me to death. I've never even seen an elk before, much less hunted one but I have a hard time believing that if I slapped said load in one's lungs it wouldn't die. Just guessing though.

And I'd bet on your guess being a good one.

My 06 groups 165gr a little better than 150s.

I like the 165's, but for a 30-06 that was gonna regularly see elk duty I would run 180's.

I started my rifle shooting habits with a .308 win, and then settled on the 165/168 gr. as the best all around bullet wt. for that cartridge. Much later in life I finally got a 30-06, and chose 180's since it gives me the exact same velocity/trajectory with a just a little more energy and penetration. Works for me. Jack O'Connor also mentioned many times that a hunter needs no other bullet but the 180 in the 30-06, but of course he was very "old school".

I need to get my 30-06 up and shooting.. (Rem 700Ti)

How fast are you guys shooting the 165tsx's?

Been shooting mostly 150's from a '06 for deer, elk etc. several decades now. Seems to be enough.
What few I have shot with 180's didn't seem to know the difference, or die any faster or deader.

Ya, I hunted elk with my '06 as my "primary" for a couple seasons. I handloaded 180-gn Partitions over H4350 and never worried about my rifle.

With that said, I've got a couple "even better" elk rifles now, so I've been running 165's in the '06 because they seem to me to be a nice balance of... stuff.

I run 165 Ballistic Tips for practice and the 165-gn Accubond drops right into the load and holds the same POI out to 600 yards... pretty cool!

I guess I would add, since the OP was asking 150 vs. 165, that personally I'd not run a 150 for elk. MAYBE a monometal like a TSX but... even then I'd much rather run at least a 165.

Big animals any heavier bullets just seem to go together, at least to me.

Jeff, go get about twenty more elk under your belt and you might be less dogmatic.

You are on a roll...