At the advice of some here I loaded some light rounds for the 30-06 using Unique powder. I planned on trying 150gr bullets but only had partitions on hand so loaded some 180gr Hornadys. I loaded 4 rounds with 12gr of Unique and walked back to the woods to try them informally. From a kneeling rest at somewhat close range they grouped close enough to get my attention, but with recoil light enough not to notice. It felt about like a .223 with out the noise. This perked me up so I loaded up 10 and took to the range today with other plinking loads. It was gusty winds today so I didn't try any 100 yard groups. This load will however smoke charcole briquetes at just over 50 yards every shot from bench and standing too if I can hold still. I'm going to load more and chronograph them and try to get back with the results. I may even try them in wet paper just because I "need" to know.

NBHunter, This sounds quite interesting and a bit of fun as well. Good luck with this pursuit.

Holy cow, NBHunter,
Don't waste them expensive jacketed things, use cast boolits!

Same performance and one heck of a lot less $$ going down range!

You could even move up to "the load" of 16 gr Red Dot with similar results!

The cast bullets were part of my original goal but my rifle just doesn't like 'em. I wanted an -06 load so lite that my son (6) could shoot some, then as his age and size increased I could increase the power until he was able to shoot a load heavy enough for a deer or bear. Working him up to a 2200-2300 fps load is the goal.

Another way to go is with the Hodgdons reduced loads, specifically tailored for youth game hunting, based on H4895 powder. My son is shooting reduced .284 Win loads with H4895 and Speer 130 grain bullets. Cheap way to go and he loves shooting it.

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:
Another way to go is with the Hodgdons reduced loads, specifically tailored for youth game hunting, based on H4895 powder. My son is shooting reduced .284 Win loads with H4895 and Speer 130 grain bullets. Cheap way to go and he loves shooting it.

Hodgdon's reduced loads are not that hard to beat in the accuracy dept.. H 4895 sucks for consistency in my book....

NB:

I have been playing with Unique a little also... While I am finding Blue Dot more accurate across the board... Unique is still yielding some fun alternatives....

As I always say, especially to those Magnum Lovers... why does everyone think they need a 500 yd load, with 3500 ft lbs at the muzzle to take the average sized deer at 50 to 100 yds?????

For what its worth... ballistic tips and speer mag tips are two great bullets that open up at low speeds.... not trendy, but works great is the plain old 150 grain and 170 grain bullets normally used in 30.30s....for the lower velocities....

Good show, eh?

cheers
seafire

Seafire,
I think when it comes to taking game I will use the 30-30 bullets seeing how my target velocity is what the 30-30 bullets are designed for. They're pretty cheap too, eh.

NBHunter. You say your 30-06 doesn't like cast bullets. I find that passing strange as I've always gotten decent results with cast bullets in the 06, and .308 Win. as well.
If you don't mind, I'd like to ask a few questions about how you worked with the cast bullets.
First, were the bullets cast by you, a friend or store bought?
At what diameter were they sized?
Did the bullet have a bore riding nose that was snug or loose?
Were you able to seat the bullet so that the nose slightly engaged the rifling?
What was the bullet style, flat nosed, round nosed or horrors, a spitzer type. (That last style can give fits most of the time.)
Three cast bullet loads that have proven to be decently accurate in my 30-06 were either a Lyman #311291 (180 gr. in my alloy)or the RCBS #30-180-FM (190 gr. in my alloy) sized to .310" with either 16.0 gr. of Alliant #2400, 17.0 gr. of H-4227, or 25.0 gr. of either H-4895 or IMR-4895 with a slight edge going to the IMR version. I use a one grain tuft of dacron batting to hold the powder next to the primer, but that's optional. Try both ways and see which does better.
On a good day with decent weather conditions (no wind) 1.5 MOA groups at 200 yards are fairly common when I do my part. They will even knock down the 300 meter rams if you hit them on the high center. Recoil is very mild, probably a hair more than a .223 Rem. from a light rifle.
That's the thing about cast bullets. You just cannot load them up like a jacketed bullet and get good groups. There is a bit more to it.
I guess I'm just trying to say, don't give up on using them. Once you start seeing some success, they become addictive. That last statement has to be true. I 've been doing it since about 1954.
Paul B.

Paul,
I believe the problem is in my bore. The rifle is and old P17 with original -06 barrel. I think our New Brunswick highways are smoother with less potholes. The bullets I tried were cast and by myself and sized .309 and the nose length does ride the rifleing but loading a round and removing it does not show rifling marks. The couple I've tried were all a roundnose +/-180gr. and worked well in a friends .308win.

One of my favorite loads for my .340 Jaden is a cast boolit and Unique or 4227 powder. It shoots very well, but meets a lot of the criteria you stated above. I have not given up on cast, in fact of all the bullets shot in my 45-70 only 20 have had jackets.

NB:

I dug out some load data that I had done in the fall with the 30.06 and Unique powder....

I never got around to posting them, which I will do tonight....

With a 180 grain bullet and 12 grains of Unique, your MV should have been about 1200 fps....my chronographing load registered 1191 fps...

I may add load testing with the 170 grain Round Nose or Flat Nose... along with the 125 grain bullets....

A 168 grain match bullet interests me to see what it would do also....but it would be handy to have someone with you for a fast follow up shot if the match bullet failed to drop the animal... my jury is still out on the use of match bullets for hunting.... not all of the Sierra techs discourage use of them, although Sierra itself does...supposedly...

check out the post on Unique and the 30.06 for all of the data tested so far....

cheers
seafire