Do it all Bullet for 30-06?

[Wilderness Blacktail]

Im looking for a 1 load bullet to do all my hunting and practicing with for my 30-06 a light Browning XBolt, 22". I can hunt certain things year around and like to practice so I prefer not having to rezero. I hunt Blacktail deer, Roosevelt elk and wild hogs, some hunts will combine two of the three. Max range is around 400 yards on deer n hogs, 3-350 on elk just because theyre tougher. However most of my shots are within 150 yards, some as close as 20. I have a lot of experience and success using light for game calibers as well as enough past failures and long tracking jobs to know when to pass on a shot.

Im considering many different 150 and 165 gr bullets but no mono bullets and any premium bullet has to have an affordable counterpart that takes same load data with very close POI to practice with.
Im currently loading:
150gr Speer Grand Slam, no kills yet.
150 Hornady SST, 3 deer, too explosive under 100 yards with jacket separation
165 Hornady SP, no kills yet.
Factory load I hunted: 165 Federal Fusion, 4 deer, great penetration but too tough for these deer, slow kills albeit great blood trails.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Im looking for a 1 load bullet to do all my hunting and practicing with for my 30-06 a light Browning XBolt, 22". I can hunt certain things year around and like to practice so I prefer not having to rezero. I hunt Blacktail deer, Roosevelt elk and wild hogs, some hunts will combine two of the three. Max range is around 400 yards on deer n hogs, 3-350 on elk just because theyre tougher. However most of my shots are within 150 yards, some as close as 20. I have a lot of experience and success using light for game calibers as well as enough past failures and long tracking jobs to know when to pass on a shot.

Im considering many different 150 and 165 gr bullets but no mono bullets and any premium bullet has to have an affordable counterpart that takes same load data with very close POI to practice with.
Im currently loading:
150gr Speer Grand Slam, no kills yet.
150 Hornady SST, 3 deer, too explosive under 100 yards with jacket separation
165 Hornady SP, no kills yet.
Factory load I hunted: 165 Federal Fusion, 4 deer, great penetration but too tough for these deer, slow kills albeit great blood trails.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I believe the Brownings have too slow of a twist to push the heavies... That being the case, I think you would enjoy the way the Berger 185 VLD's perform. They'll also work good in a slow twist barrel, like your X-Bolt.

 

[JOHNNIE WALKER]

The nice thing about the 30/06 is how versitle it is. I'm a fan of the SST but not for elk. It's a little to soft. Some are going to recomend the heaviest bullet possible, but for a good "do all" bullet for the 30/06 I would think you would be more than fine with a good bonded bullet in the 165gr range. Bullet technoledgy has come so far I really don't think you need 180gr in a .30 to take elk at moderate ranges. I think Hornadys Interbond or Noslers Accubond would be fine for what your doing. I always laugh when I hear about people that think they need a cannon to kill an elk. Keep this in mind- Bow hunters kill them all the time. It only takes one arrow to kill an elk but some people honestly think they need artillery to put one down. I've killed more elk with a bow than a rifle. It's not rocket science.

 

[Wilderness Blacktail]

Thanks Mudrunner, can you tell me about how that bullets performs for you? I know theyre used a lot for long range but just have no experience with them yet.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

165-180 grain Nosler Accubond

 

[Wilderness Blacktail]

Thanks Ridgrunner and Johnnie Walker, those have both been high on my list to cover elk. Im hoping to try some IBs soon and see if I can get the same POI as my 165 Hornady SP loads. IBs are really expensive here locally so I definitly want to have that more affordable practice load.

 

[pods8]

If you really are only going to shoot one bullet and one bullet only I don't think you should dwell too hard on the cost. You owe it to what you're hunting to pick an accurate bullet that performs to the task you need. With the gas it takes me to go to the range the bullet cost is a small factor in target shooting in my world. Though its really not that hard to know the scope settings for two different loads either and a reliable scope should dial between them fine.

I've previously hunted the 165gr sierra spbt $.28/bullet and still use it for plinking. It put down deer and elk but I wasn't a fan of the shrapnel trails in the meat I wanted to see if I could find something accurate that would eliminate that since I couldn't know if the shrapnel was lead or not. (personal choice make your own decisions on it)

I'm giving the 168gr TTSX a go in mine this year, yes they are about $.66/bullet but you've listed the grand slam for instance that costs $.50/bullet and I'm getting cloverleafs with it where as I was shooting ~1" with the sierras. I haven't hunted it yet but did just use the 7mm 145gr LRX on antelope just fine in my 7mm-08. If I get reliable expansion on antelope at 350yds from that gun I'm not worried about the 168gr from the 30-06 sub 400yds on deer/elk.

If I get good accuracy/performance I'll stick with that one otherwise I'll go looking for something else. A bonded bullet would be my next inquiry.

Lots like bergers $.45/bullet too. I'm ideally trying to avoid massive shrapnel in my meat (again personal choice) but they obviously work for guys on here too.

 

[stanley52]

Im looking for a 1 load bullet to do all my hunting and practicing with for my 30-06 a light Browning XBolt, 22". I can hunt certain things year around and like to practice so I prefer not having to rezero. I hunt Blacktail deer, Roosevelt elk and wild hogs, some hunts will combine two of the three. Max range is around 400 yards on deer n hogs, 3-350 on elk just because theyre tougher. However most of my shots are within 150 yards, some as close as 20. I have a lot of experience and success using light for game calibers as well as enough past failures and long tracking jobs to know when to pass on a shot.

Im considering many different 150 and 165 gr bullets but no mono bullets and any premium bullet has to have an affordable counterpart that takes same load data with very close POI to practice with.
Im currently loading:
150gr Speer Grand Slam, no kills yet.
150 Hornady SST, 3 deer, too explosive under 100 yards with jacket separation
165 Hornady SP, no kills yet.
Factory load I hunted: 165 Federal Fusion, 4 deer, great penetration but too tough for these deer, slow kills albeit great blood trails.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Nosler partitions or Ballistic Tip Hunting

 

[punxsutawn]

I've taken all sorts of game including elk with a plain old Hornady 165BTSP. That said, I have recently switched over to the 168 grain Barnes TTSX. That is an awesome bullet. I use it in all my .308 caliber rifles and have never had an animal take one step after the shot. Load development was quite easy with standard max loads in all my rifles. It definitely is my go to bullet.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Thanks Mudrunner, can you tell me about how that bullets performs for you? I know theyre used a lot for long range but just have no experience with them yet.

Have not shot a deer with the .30 cal Bergers yet, but I can tell you that the 7mm 168 VLD's perform flawlessly for me, even at shots as close as 150-175 yards on deer, traveling 3,115 fps MV.

So, I can imagine slowing it down 300 fps or so it would hit pretty hard even as short as 50-100. I wouldn't hesitate to shoot one that close.

 

[Tikkamike]

the 180 TSX if you plan to hunt elk... you can have not enough bullet but you can never have too much. and elk are not forgiving. 180's will perform well. If you go lead core then 200gr partition or accubond

 

[pods8]

the 180 TSX if you plan to hunt elk... you can have not enough bullet but you can never have too much. and elk are not forgiving. 180's will perform well. If you go lead core then 200gr partition or accubond

Only concern I may have there since the 30-06 is going to have a slower launch than one of the magnums you may run into issues at distance with expansion. Off memory I think the TSX recommends 2200fps? The TTSX is 1800fps and the LRX is 1600fps, that said when at those minimums the photo's I've seen aren't ideal (limited petal expansion). I'd personally really like to keep velocity on impact at 2200+ for the TTSX and LRX as photos of that have almost full expansion in terms of width.

 

[gohring3006]

For the ranges specified I personally would shoot my 200gr. Sierra game king load in front of some imr 4350.

 

[Demon061]

I'm a big fan of the 165 grain sst's.