Hornady 220 gr Round Nose bullet in the 30-06 actual hunting experience?

Most folks have never witnessed the devastation a 30 cal, 200-220 grain bullet will do when shot from a 30-06 Springfield chambered rifle.

Slow, heavy for caliber, bullets kill very quickly when they're placed well.

Back in the day, hunters understood the value of a heavy bullet when it came to breaking and penetrating big, heavy bones, or just knocking them down.

Folks shooting Black Powder rifles don't need to be convinced, and neither do folks shooting large bore rifles.

Most folks today are velocity fanatics, and especially with monolithic bullets, it also works well.

My stash of 220 grain round nose, .308 diameter is just about depleted. I doubt I will look for or need more.

The thing is, if you have these bullets, don't be shy about using them, they may be old school tech, but they still work very well.

In good strong, rifles, there is no reason they can't be loaded to 60,000 psi and increase velocities by appx 100 fps from a 24 in bbl.

I have a 98 Mauser, with a 24 inch bbl, sighted in for 220 Hornady RN bullets. It shoots them at 2670 fps, with a load you'll likely never find in any load manuals, and its recoil is definitely noticeable, but you just can't ignore the results on a big game animal out to 300yds.

Like the OP, I sight it in 3 inches high at 100 yds, and it's pretty much zeroed at 200 yds, and about 9 inches low at 300yds.
 
bearhunter said:
Most folks have never witnessed the devastation a 30 cal, 200-220 grain bullet will do when shot from a 30-06 Springfield chambered rifle.

Slow, heavy for caliber, bullets kill very quickly when they're placed well.

Back in the day, hunters understood the value of a heavy bullet when it came to breaking and penetrating big, heavy bones, or just knocking them down.

Folks shooting Black Powder rifles don't need to be convinced, and neither do folks shooting large bore rifles.

Most folks today are velocity fanatics, and especially with monolithic bullets, it also works well.

My stash of 220 grain round nose, .308 diameter is just about depleted. I doubt I will look for or need more.

The thing is, if you have these bullets, don't be shy about using them, they may be old school tech, but they still work very well.

In good strong, rifles, there is no reason they can't be loaded to 60,000 psi and increase velocities by appx 100 fps from a 24 in bbl.

I have a 98 Mauser, with a 24 inch bbl, sighted in for 220 Hornady RN bullets. It shoots them at 2670 fps, with a load you'll likely never find in any load manuals, and its recoil is definitely noticeable, but you just can't ignore the results on a big game animal out to 300yds.

Like the OP, I sight it in 3 inches high at 100 yds, and it's pretty much zeroed at 200 yds, and about 9 inches low at 300yds.
Click to expand...
That is the reason the 286gn bullets out of the 9.3x62 does so well on all those points, great penetration, great knockdown ability, very little meat lost.
 
DGY said:
I’ve used them in 8-06 got a small black bear did really well!
Click to expand...
Same here. Have used them in the 8x57 at 2540fps. Good bullet. 70+% weight retention.

Also have used them in a 30-06 M70 alaskan with a 25" barrel. IMR 4350. 2670 fps with 3/4" was the norm. Never did shoot game with that rifle though. I've heard good reports from a couple guys that had first hand experience with them in 300 win's.
 
SuperCub said:
Anyone ever use the Speer 200gr 30cal. Hot Core?

I always thought that might be a good bullet in a 30/06 for larger game.
Click to expand...
I’ve shot them into FIR wood and they didn’t penetrate well and ripped apart -there a Cheaply made bullet
The Gran Slam is MUCH better . JMO
 
SuperCub said:
Anyone ever use the Speer 200gr 30cal. Hot Core?

I always thought that might be a good bullet in a 30/06 for larger game.
Click to expand...
It's an excellent bullet for cartridges such as the 30-06.

I still have a couple of boxes of 50 Speer Hot Core 200 grain, Hot Core, fbspt bullets on the shelf.

They were intended for magnum cartridges, such as the 300 H&H, and developed for African and Alaskan hunting requirements.

They can easily be loaded to 2800fps, safely, for use in a strong action.

They hold together, and even after breaking large shoulder bones will often penetrate all the way through, or if they hit the opposing shoulder joint, break it as well. or get stuck in it.

I shot a Mule Deer buck with one of those bullets at appx 225 yds. It smashed both shoulders and exited the far side.

I remember that kill because of the damage to the meat on the far shoulder. There was hardly any damage, other than bits of bone and some bits of the bullet. The buck was expired by the time I got to it.

It fell down instantly, but thrashed around for a bit, and lodged itself under a dead tree, which it blended with almost perfectly.

I thought I had lost it, but there was blood splattered all over the ground in a line, leading to the deadfall.
 
SuperCub said:
Anyone ever use the Speer 200gr 30cal. Hot Core?

I always thought that might be a good bullet in a 30/06 for larger game.
Click to expand...
I've used them and seen them used on game, many times, deer and bears, for moose I tend to use a bonded bullets, traditionally Partitions. They work perfectly on game. For baited bears with a .308 or .30-06, I still prefer the 220 RN... add distances over 100 yards and I would switch that up to the 200 HC. In almost every caliber and every weight, the HC has an "almost" identical POI as the Partition, which helps with budget friendly load development and scope zeroing... at least it works for all of the combos I have tried. Just be sure to confirm POI with the Partitions before hunting.
 
hoytcanon said:
I've used them and seen them used on game, many times, deer and bears, for moose I tend to use a bonded bullets, traditionally Partitions. They work perfectly on game. For baited bears with a .308 or .30-06, I still prefer the 220 RN... add distances over 100 yards and I would switch that up to the 200 HC. In almost every caliber and every weight, the HC has an "almost" identical POI as the Partition, which helps with budget friendly load development and scope zeroing... at least it works for all of the combos I have tried. Just be sure to confirm POI with the Partitions before hunting.
Click to expand...
P.S - I have used the 180 HC's in my 7.62X57 rifles for a few years now and they have cleanly killed everything I put them through, a couple whitetail bucks, several big bears and then a couple moose with the 180 Partitions, one of the moose at 350 yards. This is the rifle and bullet combo I carry most when just perambulating with a couple tags in my pocket.
 
remington jim said:
remington jim said:
I’ve shot them into FIR wood and they didn’t penetrate well and ripped apart -there a Cheaply made bullet
The Gran Slam is MUCH better . JMO
Click to expand...
They're old tech RJ, what you witnessed is what they were designed to do. I replied with my field experience with those bullets, but you can't compare them to Nosler partitions for penetration. I know you didn't do that.
Click to expand...

I've never been able to recover one from an animal I've shot with one. So they hold together well enough.

They were designed long before "H" mantle style bullets came out. They aren't as tough, but there aren't a lot of circumstances where it won't do the job well.
 
Nosler has a good sale on their 220 gr .308" Partition factory seconds right now. Somehow, I have a lifetime supply on the way.
 
Just loaded a small sample of 220gn nosler partitions over some H4831sc for a 300 win mag to see if she likes any of them loads. Will go up to the range this pm to try out and also see if the work I’ve done on the rifle is making it better…
IMG_0733.jpegIMG_0734.jpeg
 
TXTad said:
Nosler has a good sale on their 220 gr .308" Partition factory seconds right now. Somehow, I have a lifetime supply on the way.
Click to expand...

The 220 grain partition is one heck of a bullet. But I save it for my 300RUM, because it can actually drive the bullet fast enough to make the best use of it. It performs very well in the 30-06, but I wouldn't say it performs better than a regular 220 grain hornady interlock. Just because it doesn't have the oomph to be really needed. Unless you are hitting very heavy bone, then it could be beneficial, but the round nose interlock also excells at that, so really no drawbacks, other than they are expensive.

I love shooting heavy for caliber bullets, my aught six gets the 190 grain accubond long range, 180 and 200 grain accubond, and the 220 grain interlock. It likes all of them.

Do you order your bullets in Canada right from nosler out of the USA?
 
  • Like
Reactions: DGY
Today I went back to the range after figuring out a few things with the 1976 mod70 in 300win mag and I did pretty good with the load too, 220gn nosler partition on top of 72gn of H4831sc CCI 250 federal brass making the bullet go 2730fps on average and giving me a 1” 3 shot group and a fourth shot making it a 1 3/8” group. I’m pretty happy with that with only a 6x scope… so nothing fancy. Oh and it gives over 3600ftlbs of energy at the mussel. Rifle was zeroed at a 100m at the moment and didn’t need much effort to hit the 200m clanger(8” I think)
IMG_0749.jpeg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom