PLEASE...this is not another 270 Win vs 30-06 thread. That is the last thing I want.

I've shot big game with the 270 Win using 130's and as we all know, they work great!

How does the 30/125 Accubond or BT compare?

Can't be any worse than another tinfoil hat thread.

And your point is?


What I am asking for his someones experience with the Nosler 30/125's.

It works just fine on deer and pigs from a 300 Blackout.

Not sure why you would want a light bullet in the grand daddy .30-06. But, I would imagine that they will help critters to expire just as quickly with a well place shot.

Why not a 150 gr NBT otr a 165 gr NBT ?

My kids have killed deer with 125 grain bullets in a 30-06. We used the reduced recoil loads from Remington at first. When we couldn't find them,we switched to Hornady 125 grain SST load. Muzzle velocities were around 2700 fps and they killed everything as well as my 257 Roberts with 120 grain bullets. Which is to say well indeed.

If you are going to be loading to top velocity,which will be in excess of 3000 fps,I would go with the Nosler Accubond. I can't imagine that it wouldn't be perfect for deer or antelope. I have killed a lot of stuff with 270 bullets in the 130 grain flavor,and can't imagine the critter would know the difference in a well placed shot.

On big critters like elk,I would prefer the superior sectional density of the 270/130,but on deer it won't matter.

Use the 130 TTSX, they work great!

I was thinking of using the 06 as a flat shooter like the 270W is....If the 270W/130 is such a great combo why can't the 06/125? Any reason why not? The 125 Accubond should hold together just fine. OR 130 TTSX.

One of the high speed types on here might have to get their ballistics tables out, but a 125 accubond may not be a "flatter" shooter than 150-165 gr bullets of the same type in a 30-06.
The longer-for-weight mono metal stuff might be a better choice.

I don't have the data handy (or inclination to find it right now) to work out what would be the flattest shooting medium game loads, but light for caliber bullets can have lower ballistic coefficients and lose velocity faster. For example, nosler's data shows the 130 gr 270 accubond has a BC or 0.435, while the 125 gr 30 caliber accubond's BC is 0.336.

So, initial velocity, BC, ranges you're thinking about shooting at come into play to see whether there's enough difference to matter.

Should work just fine, depending on the game. A 125g AB @ 3300fps M.V will shoot 8" flatter than a 150g AB @ 3050fps M.V. at 1,000 yards and about 4" flatter at 500. Beyond 200 yards the 150g will drift less and the 150g will have more energy at all ranges.

Daughter #1 is recoil sensitive so we settled on a 130g TTSX @ 3045fps from a .308 Win for her to use for antelope/deer/elk. It has worked fine for antelope, no deer or elk taken with that load yet. (Something I hope to correct this fall.)

I used factory 125s and they were obviously designed for varmints. I would check on the 125 BT to make sure they are of the heavier jacket design as the original BT were not. The Accubond no problem and should be suitable for even larger game. Although for shorter ranges they do shoot flatter the main reason I see to use them is for reduced recoil. Also when comparing two bullets for longer ranges I think the wind drift and drop should be added together and then compared as wind is always harder to judge, for me at least, than range.

A friend of mine was using the 125 BT out of a long barreled 308 Win handgun, and if I remember right he was starting them around 2850 fps. He was very happy with his results on deer. Up close out of a 30-06 rifle I don't know.

On deer and other light game I don't see any issue.

I guess I would ask... Why?

What you gain in "flatter shooting" you'll likely lose in wind drift and you'll definitely lose in energy.

then again, I've played with all sorts of stuff that most people wouldn't mess with, so have at it!

-Jake

A friend and I each had a Savage 340 in 30-30. We loaded them with Speer 130's and easily killed whitetails with them. Worked as well as the 30-30 170 grain factory fodder.

I have a friend who seems to use an unusual load for everything. He uses that 130 gr. Speer in his .30-'06 for deer hunting, but he has never shot a deer more than 70 yds. away.

We know the 270 is a killing machine with a 130 gr bullet.
We know the 280/AI is a killing machine with a 120 gr bullet.
It stands to reason the 30-06 with a 125 gr bullet should be equally effective.


There are those who have no qualms hunting with a 120 gr bullet. I am not one of them. I prefer 140-150's. But, I cannot deny the efficiency ot the 120's to dispatch game. DogZapper & I have talked extensively of his successes with 120's in his 280 AI.

I am so intrigued that I will soon be thoroughly testing 125's & 130's in my 308's. We are in a time when bullets have never been better.

Never shot a 270 but I've some experience with the 125s out of my 308

It has an 18" barrel and doesn't like to go near max loads. I started with standard cup and core 150s and noticed that deer were taking quite a long time to go down. I moved to 150gr ballistic tips at 2,600fps and that cured that. After a while I wanted it to shoot a bit flatter so tried the 125s.

At 2,850fps they work well on deer but I do notice that they don't quite have the authority that the 150s have. They stay on their feet a little longer.

I bought some 125gr accubonds to use in my 30-06 as fast as I can drive them. I looked up the trajectory and wind drift and can't be bothered to move away from my 150gr interbond load which I know I don't have to thing about avoiding shoulders etc which I might think about with the lighter bullet at such speeds.

I have heard of guys using 125s in bolt action 30-30s. In a Remington 788 its scary accurate.

Just use the 130 TTSX. It's a superb killer in 30-06 3300 FPS is about right and it puts Bambi down every bit as well as anything. I have never seen a deer that needed a second dose and I only know of one that did not make two holes.

Or, you might try a Hornady 125 grain GMX.

SU, my pals young girls have killed several very large bull elk with the 125 gr. Accubond out of a 308.. He is a 7mag. fan, and needless to say he was impressed!!

Yep, good to know and I am not surprised. I was talking to Dober about this and he has killed a truck load of big game with the 125 BT.


Thanks for the reply.

I have followed these 120-130 bullet weight discussions of .284 & .308 with great interest. I have talked to DogZapper extensively concerning his use of the 120 BT in his 280 AI. Even though I always say bullet weight matters not if it makes two holes, I still am having a hard time wrapping my head around using any bullet weight under 140 (.284) or 150 (.308).

Must say that I have been considering lesser bullet weight for hunting after my first-ever Antelope hunt last year. Especially after the 110-120 gr threads on the .257 Weatherby. My 7 Wby will drive the 120's @ 3650 fps. I have yet to hunt with that load, but I reckon it would be a laser beam of death on anything in its path.

I like having the option of using them, and will.

Friends are loading them at 3,200 mv from their 06's.

As a flat line shooter, and using the right bullet construction, it should match anything the 270/130 will do.

Like many, I generally prefer a heavier bullet in my .30-06, but the 130 gr TTSX works great. I have used 125 gr Sierras and 130 gr Hornady or Speer bullets out of a Savage 340 .30-30, and they worked fine at the lower velocity. The monometal bullets perform out of their weight class IMHO, especially when driven fast.

I have had good luck on hogs and deer with the 125 gr AB. Over 48 grains of Varget out of a 16" AR-10

Shoot 125 Btips in TC contender 30-30 and never a problem on deer

That speaks volumes.

My oldest son has shot all of his deer with a 125 Corelokt from a 30-06. They work absolutely wonderful.

I've shot a whole bunch of deer with the 130TTSX at about 3000fps--again absolutely wonderful.

We haven't shot a bullet heavier than 130 in years from a 30 caliber rifle on game.

Next up is to run the 110TTSX at warp speeds to see what they do.
And 110TTSX Black Tips at slower speeds to mimic the Blackout performance.

Back in the mid 90's I loaded the original Barnes 120X out of a 7mm Rem Mag at Barnes #1 book max ( I had no chrono then) but it had to be at least 3400fps because that sucker was fast and flat! I gave that rifle/load to my Pastor in Texas and we went to Uvalde and shot some exotics. he plastered ( no cape damage or excess meat damage)a Blackbuck around 150yds, no biggy. But he then shot a big mixed Ibex/Spanish goat at what had to be 400yds, maybe further. One and done, while it was uphill, he just aimed right spot on. Rifle was zeroed at 300yds. Very flat shooters ( like the 257 Weatherby/115PT I used on that hunt) allow that "point and shoot" for even average shooters to take advantage of. Its a nice concept I think.

I have used the 125 grain NBT in the .30/06 on deer with good success. Gun cracks and deer are either DRT or make about 10-15 yard run and keel over. My load was a near max load of IMR 4350 and WLR primers. MV in the 3000 fps range and < 1 MOA accuracy.

Surely that wasn’t top velocity?

I don't think you can get enough 4350 under a 125 to give top velocity. 3000 fps with a 125 is no biggie in a 308, let alone an '06.

I use 125s in 30/30 and 308. No complaints at all. Our deer here are rather small and it does the deed same as any other bullet in the vitals.

Drops antelope and deer in their tracks! I load NBT and NAB for my son's 308 with a full case of Varget. Crazy accurate as well. I think the last NBT i recovered from an antelope retained around 75-grains so would lean towards the NAB, but never recovered them.

I went on a run with the 120 X bullet in the 7RM. I used up two boxes with only minimal load work up the rest were all used for hunting. I went 38 straight one shot kills on mostly hogs and deer before I needed a second shot. I only recovered one bullet that went length wise from snout to hips along the spine of about a 350 lb sow. They were fast killers especially if bone was hit. Surprisingly they did not destroy too much meat on broadside shots. Most of my shots are under 350 yards so no hold over was needed just hold about half way up and you were good for the 300+ shots.

Check out the bullet reviews on midway usa there's a lot of good info there. I also like the 130tsx and ttsx in 308. Similar velocities to your 270 win.

Good luck and shoot straight

yup.....In my .308 Win they fly at 3,100 fps....have about the same trajectory as a 150 grain boattail and still have 1,000 ft-lb energy at 400 yards.....and the recoil is reduced to slightly more than a .243.

I must admit that I haven't used them on deer yet, but have no qualms about their probable results....the monometals seem to be about as good as it gets for performance.

I've only seen the 125g BT used in a 300 WBY on 2 antelope. I don't know the velocity. The antelope died, but not quickly and the wounds were shallow and very wide.

I have been using the heavier weight cup & core bullets for most of my hunting. However, there seems to be considerable interest in the Barnes 130gr TTSX for use in .308/30-06 cartridges. Enough so that I decided to give it a try in my 22" semi-custom .308 rifle.

Initially, I couldn't get an accurate load despite using several different powders and load combos. However, I eventually found a charge of Benchmark could launch the 130 TTSX at 3,125 ft/sec and shoot into 1.5" at 400 yds! The results were easily repeatable.

I shot a beautiful 8 point buck at just under 200yds (IIRC) as it walked directly towards me. At the shot, the deer looked like it was slammed to the ground. It didn't just drop but appeared to get pummeled. Never saw anything quite like it before.

That is my only experience with the 130 TTSX but it certainly can shoot and can get the job done on whitetails.

Bullets that have a design velocity window need to be shot within the recommended velocity range for best results.

In hypervelocity rounds I tend to go with monos.

DF

Just saw that 125gr. 308 Accubond blems are available at the Shooters Pro Shop. It was tempting but I just worked up 150 BT loads for my 300 WM and bought a couple years worth of those. If the 125 is designed similar to the other Accubonds and not geared to cartridges like the 300 Blackout it should hold up to higher velocities. Could still be destructive at 300 Weatherby velocities but pass throughs should be the norm on medium game.

That's my thinking.

“Ballistic Tips should never leave the muzzle above 3100 fps.”
John Nosler, Sr.

Mr. Nosler told me that after I had a 180 .308 disintegrate on my first Axis. It was a 300 Wby. The bullet exited @ 3250 fps & impacted at 200 yards.

I'm not positive about the time line, but if Senior told you that then it may have been before they considerably stiffened the 30/180 because hunters kept shooting them out of 300 mags into elk.

I'm a firm believer in going with the manufacturer's velocity design window for any bullet. A great bullet at one speed can be a terrible bullet at another.

I think the 125/130 gr. choices for the '06/308 are very underutilized and unappreciated. For WT's and similar, a properly constructed 125/130 gr bullet will blow thru a WT and at faster speeds than 150, 165 or 180 gr. Now, for bigger, tougher, heavier animals those bullets may be better choices.

Speed kills and a bullet moving at over 3K fps can have pretty impressive terminal performance.

DF

Reloder 28,

Big John passed away in 2010. Dunno how long before that you talked to him, but MANY Ballistic Tips have been changed considerably since they were introduced in the mid-1980's.

The first was the 200-grain .338, which appeared in 1992. The jacket's about 2/3 of the bullet's weight, so even if the core and jacket separate, the jacket alone ends up weighing around 60% of the original bullet's weight.

I know this not because of hearing or reading it somewhere, but because of testing plenty of 200-grain .338 BT's in both media and game. In fact, the first thing I did with the sample received in 1992 was shoot some into the same stack of DRY (not wet) newspaper alongside some 210 Partitions. Muzzle velocity was around 3000 fps, and the newspaper only 35 yards away. The 200 BT's penetrated 90% as deeply as the 210's.

Since then have only recovered ONE of the 200 BT's from any sort of game, a 450-pound gemsbok bull shot in the "front shoulder" at around 150-175 yards. The bullet ended up under the hide of the ham on the opposite side.

Many Ballistic Tips have been beefed up in the same way since then, the 165/168/180 .30's among them. A good friend here in Montana used one from a .300 Weatherby on a cow elk, with basically the same results as the 200 from my .338.

MD. is it safe to say that any of the currrent production BTips labeled as “Hunting” have jackets that have been beefed up ? I’m specifically interested in the 100gr 257. Thanks in advance.

With a few exceptions (which always worked well) all Hunting Ballistic Tips are tougher than they were when introduced, and some have gone through several generations of refinement.

In calibers under .30 the jacket is generally about half the bullet's weight, and when recovered they tend to retain 40-60% of their original weight. In calibers from .30 up the jacket's around 2/3 of the bullet's weight, and they generally retain at least 60% of their weight. That includes the 165, 168 and 180-grain .30's, 8mm 180 and 200-grain .338.

Thank you. So I will assume that the 257 100gr either has been beefed up or it was one that always worked well.

I never started using the .25 100-grain until a few years ago, but the first one broke the shoulder joint of a good-sized whitetail doe quartering toward me at around 50 yards, using a .257 Roberts handload getting about 3050 at the muzzle. The deer staggered maybe 25 yards and keeled over. When I skinned it, found the bullet at the rear edge of the ribs on the opposite side, retaining 42% of its original weight.

Thanks for the info.

I've been impressed with the toughness of the 150 BT over the years on a lot of close up, tough angled, shots on deer. I'd heard horror stories about BT's blowing up so I was hesitant to use them. Some how ended up with a bunch of them on a trade and used them with a generic Varget load to get a scope on paper.....they shot so well I had to give them a try. Dig way deeper than I ever expected.

I'd like to try the 30/125 in Ruger/Lipsey's stainless #1 30-30 for my left eyed kids. I'm sure Lipsey's will donate one since it's for the kids.

https://ruger.com/products/no1/specSheets/21317.html

That #1 is way classier than my my left eyed kids have! I like it!

JCMCUBIC,

In 2005 I shot lengthwise through a pronghorn buck with a .30 caliber 150-grain Ballistic Tip. The buck stood facing me at 250 yards, and the bullet entered just left of center on the chest, exiting between the hams. The cartridge was the .308 Winchester.

I think it's all about bullet construction.

I suppose it depends on the definition of “big game”. Deer aren’t big game in most circles nor are hogs and antelope. Elk, moose, and black bears are at the bottom end of big game in my view. Surely most of the African critters are big game along with the big cats and bigger bears. Lighter bullets are fine for deer and hogs but I prefer the lighter bullets in a .257 or 7x57 not in a .30 cal. BC tends to be low for lighter .30’s. Happy Trails

20 yrs or so ago, they were so bad, our deer camp banned them. Even 150's out of .308’s were blasting chunks out of the sides of WT's without dropping them. Today's NBT are both accurate and have good terminal performance. Well, the old ones were accurate.

Even 180's at 300 WM speeds were blasting big, gaping entrance wounds in head shot hogs. Dead hogs, but entrance wounds 6" wide with internal parts showing. And it was consistent, not a fluke here and there.

I'm glad they fixed that problem.

DF

I have killed a lot of deer with a 125g Nosler BT and a 125g Sierra Pro Hunter, load is somewhere between 49-52g of Win 748. This 748 load is magic in terms of deer killing with DRT kills. Accuracy out of Remington factory sporters is amazing to say the least in a tuned rifle.

I never fetl the need in using an accubond or a Barnes bullet in this bullet weight in a 308 at MV over 3000 fps. I killed some large bucks over 200lbs with the 748 load.

That Sierra 125 Pro Hunter is a hard bullet. They designed it for hunting deer-sized animals. It isn't a varmint bullet. It punches what seems to be above its weight, though I have little experience with other 125gr 30 cal bullets. I'd not hesitate to use the Sierra on deer, or the Nosler 125's, or the Hornady 125's either, at 30-30 to 30-06 speeds. I have no doubt that they all would work well with proper shots.

Keith, what is interesting is that 30/125's have been the most accurate weight I have shot in all my 30 cals.

300 WSM punches small bug holes.

one a 30/30.. one in the chamber and one in the mag.. works pretty darn good...

even tho you only get 2 shots before having to single feed it...

I didn't find them good enough to hold up to 06 full velocity...

Downloaded in an 06 for kids ( say 30 grains of 4198), then they work real good...

even had a couple of boys who I loaded for, take cow elk with them... while out hunting with Dad...

I've got some while perhaps not unique, definitely different sort of experience with 125 NBTs. We've been using them as a dispatch load on snared bears. Range is whatever we want it to be (but usually measured in feet), placement is whatever we want it to be, but never a head-shot because that's a skinning nightmare and necks aren't much better. Impact velocites are right at 3500 fps. Targets are abundant.

Results are consistent. There is seldom an exit; and not a single bear asked to be shot again. Its pretty much just over so fast that many don't even give a death bawl.

Sounds good to me.

We're winding them up to 3500 fps and using them on pest/bounty/bait beavers. Since that's what my partner typically has in his pocket they get used for dispatching the bears too.

Bud, if I had a bullet question I'd be asking you.

a 3500 fps 125 would be upsetting!

Interesting thread, caused me to think about loading up some 125 Hornady SST bullets I have laying around for my 30-06s which was one of the only kind I could find during the Obama ammo panic about the time I decided to start reloading. Never even opened the box so far.

I'm thinking I could use a starting load of 48 grains of H4895 that should give me somewhere around 2900 fps in a 22 inch barrel. Playing around with online recoil calculators, this should give you something like a 25 to 30% reduction in recoil instead of the 40 or 50% reduction in an all out youth load when compared to a normal 150 grain factory round. Should be enough powder to cycle my BAR autoloader and be very sweet shooting. I'm thinking it should exit behind the shoulder shots on little Carolina deer at 50 to 100 yards but will have to shoot one to see.

Mathman & Mule Deer,
Appreciate the input. I had not considered the time frame difference. The incident happened in 1998. However, I may have purchased those 180 BT’s many years prior.

That would be a great pig bullet in a 308.