30-06 Bullet weight?

I’ve reloaded 150,165,168,180. With all those weights I’ve been able to tweak this 3006 for all the weights. I have made a perfect reload in my gun for those weights I have not tried the 200,220 grain weights yet. That’s mostly due in part to finding the 168 ttsx is the golden round for anything I hunt bigger than a deer.

My recommendation having a 3006 tikka is get a Barnes bullet and call it a day. 2 years ago I wouldn’t have said that, but I see the benefit now.

If reloading work up a load. Don’t start at max. With that said my tikkas seem to have best results at or near max powder load. But that’s was from experimenting and working up to a higher / max load.

Had some funky results on elk with 165 accubond. All did their job, but very strange. From 3 elk I only got one text book nosler mushroom. The other two recovered had core separation / or mangled. Dead elk is a dead elk though.

I like the 168 Barnes TTSX. I’ve researched and found the 168 is for 3006 and 308 because they are a smidge longer, and more room in the 308/3006 throat. 165 meant for 300 mag and the 300wsm.

Either way, a 165 or 168 ttsx will work on 95% of anything that needs hunted.
 
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I think you're over-thinking the rifling twist and under-testing the ammo. The target will tell you what you want to know. Nothing else is going to.


It wouldn't surprise me if the heavier bullets shot better though; if for no other reason than they tend to
be closer to the lands. There's something better to ponder anyway.
 
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Ganderite said:
It is not so much as matching a bullet weight to the barrel - it will shoot almost anything.

It is more about matching the bullet weight to the target.

If it was my rifle I would find what brand of 180 gr ammo shot well, and then use that single brand of 180 on deer and moose.
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That's exactly what I did and it works great.

I found my Ruger No1 30-06 loves Federal Premium loaded with 180 grain Nosler Partition, it shoots so well I don't even bother to reload for it.
I bought 10 boxes all the same lot and I have a lifetime supply for that rifle.

JJ
 
My son's T3 30-06 is shooting 150gr TSX @ 2950 fps with a stiff dose of IMR 4895 moose didn't like it nor did the deer.Shoots under 1/2" @ 100 yards.
 
I have a 1-12 twist on a .308 NM and it shoots everything from 150-180gr never tried heavier bullets.
 
The only reason I would go for a bullet heavier than the 150 to 165 grain ones would be if I were hunting extremely heavy brush areas in which I use a Round Nose 180 grain.
My 30/06 as well as my 308 both shoot all of these weights into very nice sub MOA groups - the .308 is a 1:12 twist Rem 700 LTR while the 30/06 is a Featherweight Model 70 Winchester with a 1:10 twist.
 
Huntin' Gun said:
Question for you: would you say the same for 150 grain monometal bullets with respect to being explosive? Although I've used the 30-06 to kill a few deer I usually use other cartridges like a 6.5x55, 6.5-06, .270 or .280. The ones I've hit with the 30-06 have been with 150 grain Speer hot-cor or Federal Fusion. There was more damage than what I usually see with a 6.5x55 or a .270. But not way way more. I've never hit one with a .30-06 with 180 grain bullets. I can't imagine a Barnes ttsx giving explosive results (?). And the 150 grain projectile will shoot more flat.
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I have tested monometal bullets into the swimming pool (impressive expansion) but never on game.

My experience with 150s has been too much damage on deer. They are easy to kill, so a 180 does the job just fine. The other advantage is just having one bullet for everything.
 
My approach with Sako LH 85 also in 30-06 ( don't recall twist) was to buy a variety of factory ammo of different makes/bullets/150/165/180 and clean it, shoot a few then do a group of 3 at 100 with a cold barrel and see how well it grouped. I ended up with Hornady 150 grain SST's probably not best choice of a bullet but that's what the gun shot best. Has worked well BUT they discontinued the SST's and substituted SST Superformance which don't even make the top 5 for groupings. Now I've run out of SST's so switched to Federal Fusions also 150 grain which shoot about 2/3" and haven't shot my (mulie) buck yet this fall with that ammunition. The SST bullet DIDN'T break up that I could tell on the buck I shot a couple of years ago and just went through but didn't butcher it myself.
 
In my humble estimation, bullet construction and shot placement are far more important than bullet weight.
The twist rate of your rifle is only one factor in a long list that may affect accuracy in your rifle.
As some have already mentioned, buy several boxes of ammo that you may like to hunt with and let the rifle tell you what it prefers.

I’m currently loading a 165gr Hornady Interbond over a Max load of Rl-22.
This does very close to 3000fps out of a tikka T3x with excellent accuracy.
 
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