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

Four pages and your best info was from the first responder: Scrapnel.

What Shrapnel recommends is completely in line with my experience. I am loading 165 Hornadys or 165 Sierra HPGKs on top of 4350 or H414 and have had consistently excellent results.

Either the Hornady or TSX 165 gr with H414 gives me fine results in my Tikka at about 2900ft/sec

Randy

I personaly like 165's in both my 3006 and .308 rifles.

Well, you'd have an awful time convincing either my wife or I that you need more than 150 grains of Barnes TSX to quickly dispatch a moose. Her load was 48 gr of H4895 and the above bullet. I have killed moose and deer with a Hornady 165 interlock and IMR4350 powder -- from 57-58.5 grains. Buddy of mine party hunts for moose and has killed an ark full of moose with the load that shrapnel put up in the second post on this thread -- 57 gr of IMR4350 and a Hornady 165 BTSP Interlock. He told me to NEVER change the loads I give him -- he thinks they are magical.

I use a 168 TSX and H414 because it shoots so well in my old Tikka. If I couldn't afford the TSX bullets, I'd shoot Hornady or Nosler Partitions and IMR4350.

Same here.

Me too..

I started shooting the 165 Hornady BTSP in both 30-06 and .308 about a year ago.

When I was choosing a bullet weight for my first .30-06 I ran the ballistics on a 150g, 165g and 180g AccuBond. Using data from Nosler 6th and figuring Maximum Point Blank zero for a 6� diameter target, here�s the ballistic info:

150g AB, 3056fps, BC .435, 302yd MPBR, 257yd zero
165g AB, 3002fps, BC .475, 299yd MPBR, 254yd zero
180g AB, 2872fps, BC .507, 289yd MPBR, 246yd zero

Not much difference there...

At 500 yards....

150g = -31.9�, 2084fps, 1446fpe
165g = -32.3�, 2114fps, 1637fpe
180g = -35.8�, 2058fps, 1692fpe

These kinds of numbers were a little more interesting. The 165g shot nearly as flat as the 150g and delivered nearly as much energy as the 180g.

In an 8.3 pound rifle scope combo, recoil stacks up like this:

150g = 20.4 ft-lb @ 12.6fps
165g = 23.9 ft-lb @ 13.6fps
180g = 24.7 ft-lb @ 13.8fps

While the 150g has noticeably less recoil, all are pretty tolerable. Twenty years experience hunting elk with 7mm 160g bullets convinced me the .308� 165�s would be adequate for elk in a .30-06 and that�s what I ended up choosing. So far they have worked just fine. They are also the bullet of choice for my .308 Win. In the .300 Win Mag I lean toward 180g bullets although the 165�s would work there, too.

Another guy talking moose here, but I have carried my old 22" M70 fwt for a long time, in betweenst other gun nut forays. Whether it was a 165 Hornady SP at 2850 fps over 58.5 grains of IMR4350, a 165 X BT at 2880 with the same load, or a 150TSX at a very easy 2950 fps over 59 grains of H4350, the moose simply keel over. The Barnes penetrate through and the Hornady's ball up under the hide on the far side. But in either case the moose dies, and I see no need for a heavier bullet. These days I run just the 150TSX at 2950 as it averages just over 1/2 MOA out to 400 yards; it does anything any 165 I have tried does.

That's all well and good but where's the lead! The 30/06 is an old cartridge and thrives on old bullets with lead cores. The more lead the better!
If I was going to use an unleaded bullet (and I suppose I have to at some point since I have a box on the shelf) I'd go with a 150. Add lead and I'd go with a 165. Usually, I go out with five rounds and return to the truck with all five intact so it's really a moot point. GD

It grieves me to admit that I have not stuck anything in a 30/06 case other than a 165 Sierra or Partition with IMR4350 or H4350 since the early 90's.

I have messed with one box of 150 AB's,and danced around with a bit of RL19 here and there;but the other stuff works so well I have seen no reason to change....

I'd call you a Luddite but you, Bob and I all consider that a compliment!

Besides, after you were done restocking and recrowning the old fwt it's obscenely accurate with the 150TSX, so what's a guy to do? It's your fault Greydog!