My question is aimed at north east hunters or anyone that takes whitetails at 100yds or less. but i wouldn't mind hearing from the hunters out west or anyone else . i am only talking about the .30/06 Springfield and i wanted to know what grain bullet you guys were using for Whitetail Deer. Most of my deer have fallen to the 150 grain bullet but i have recently switched to 180 grain bullets just because it makes me feel more secure in bear country.I have a couple of guys in our club that use 180 grain bullets all the time and i just was curious on what most of you were using.

I have shot deer with th 06 with every thing from 125s to 220s they all work if placed properly. Right now I have 3 06 loads in the house some 150s for my wife until they get shot up some 180s that I loaded for elk that my son is using for deer and some 220s that I loaded because I had them. I guess when the 150s are gone I most likely well site them in with the 180s. But then I have a couple of thousand 165's laying around too.

Guess it doesn't matter they all kill deer if you are looking for a tougher bullet use the 180s.

I agree with P dog, I shot 220 gr. for many years and killed em dead might run a few yards, have taken several with 165 just to try something different basic same results, I would probably lean toward the heavier 180-220 gr. round nose in thick brushy areas.

John TN.

Hunt Hard, Shoot Straight, Enjoy The Meal

I use 150's for everything--to include the moose hunting I was once upon a time lucky enough to do. I know some guy using 130's in a .270 is going to tell me the 150 is too light for moose.

Most of our shots around here on whitetail are 100yds or less. Between my sons and I we have 5 deer over the two seasons with a 06 shooting 150 gr Nosler BT. ALL were one shot kills and either fell over or ran 30 yds max. I think 150 is a plenty and save a little recoil too.

The difference between a 180gr and a 150gr is 30grs or 4/1000ths of a pound!

Worry about what grain bullets the rifle shoots best, both will kill very effectively.

The 150 will take any whitetail on the planet, from any angle w/ quality bullets. With an unusually large black bear, I'd prefer 165, but I'm talking bears of 500 lbs.

Having taken several moose, I wouldn't hunt them w/ anything lighter than a 165 and prefer the 180s, but not because a quality 150 (Barnes, Partition, A-frame, etc.) won't do the job. It is just that the lack of sectional density makes for poor penetration on thick hide big animals (over 600 lbs)when angles are less than opitimum. Yet,I have litterally shot through a moose lengthwise w/ a barnes 180.

I took a large deer in Wisconsin one season at 225 yds with a 220 grain round nose zeroed 3.5 inches high at 100 yds.

When I located the buck, there was only a dime size hole behind his right shoulder and I rolled him over and there was a dime size hole on the left side. ON the ground was only a few drops of blood, like you had cut your finger or something. Laying in the little bit of blood was three or four grains of corn.

That 220 grain round nose went right thru the buck. However when I opened him up to field clean him, the lungs, the liver and the esophagus looked like they had been stirred with a chain saw. The deer hung at the check in station at 190 lbs.

He dropped on the spot.

Cheers and Happy Holidays
seafire

I find the 150gr Balistic tip has worked well in my 30-06, from 35-350yd, on MI deer.

I shoot the very soft Sierra 180 grain Gameking. I place the shot on the shoulder, generally the deer drops instantly. Be advised that the exit wound is about tennis ball size, so if you are worried about meat damage, this is not the bullet to use. I have taken 57 deer this way with ranges from 10 feet to 125 yards.

quote:

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Originally posted by carpetman:
.....I know some guy using 130's in a .270 is going to tell me the 150 is too light for moose.

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Tell my first elk the 150 gr .30 cal bullet is not heavy enough. One shot through the lungs at about 75 yards or so and I was eating steak. A 150 gr in the '06 is plenty good enough for moose & elk. You just have to know it's limitations. A lot of natives in Alaska use the tried & true .30/30 for feeding their families.

I've used the 168 triple shock this past season with excellent success. I wouldn't hesitate to pop a bear with the same load.

I'd also use it on an elk out to 300 yards.

I've shot several elk with 150 gr bullets out of the '06. They worked just fine. I did come to prefer the 180's though, for elk. IMO, the '06 is a solid 300 yd elk rifle with 180's.

My hunting buddies 06 pet load is a... 165 gr. Hornady Interlock. He slays Moose with that load no prob, from 30 yds to 300 yds it just takes em down. But he knows its limits and he won't stern shoot/hail mary at long range etc.
The same load is also death on Muledeer, go figur!
But havin said that if takin a animal with 180 gr. gives you peace of mind go to it!

I use the 150 grain Nosler Partition.

Great Post!I agree with big guy,shoot what your rifle like the best.For big bear and hog I like the 180 nosler or trophy bond bear claw or woodleigh.They work on big deer too.In 308 my current kimber rifle like 165Gr. Hornady the best so that is what she gets.I feel i have a good round in either when i take to the hills..I shot a rutting crazy spike one time that charged me at around 10 feet when i pulled the trigger on my at the time 3o8Winchester compact with 180gr.nosler federal premiums.I hit him square in the chest and the bullet penetrated the whole length of the deer and lodged in his ham.The bullet was perfectly mushroomed and had trveled aprox.4-5 feet.That buck reared like a mule and took 2 jumps/opposite direction to try and get away and piled up stone dead.I kept the bullet for a souvaneer.I have always thought highly of nosler after that and feel they are what all other bullets are judged by......I mentioned the 308 because they are so close..

Thanks for all your replies i was curious as to what most were using, like i said i recently switched to 180 grain bullets as we have very large black bears on our property. We have three adults two around 300 pounds and one is well over 500 . two years ago they shot a 515 pounder in the corn field which is 1.25 miles from our cabin and two years before that they took a 535 pounder on the other side of our mountain. It just makes me feel more secure switching to the 180.Also a friend of mine called last week to ask me if i thought the 150 grain bullets would work on 200pound boar , i told him it would , he called me last night to tell me he took one with 1 shot at about 40 yards. Thanks again guys Tanoose

Tanoose:

I've only taken one whitetail, a large doe, with .30-06 using the 180-grain Winchester Silvertip factory ammo, at about 25 yards. I always shoot for the heart, and this one was quartered to me, angled off to my left a bit. It stumbled forward a few steps after being hit and went down hard. I only used the Silvertip because I didn't have time for load development. Otherwise I would've defaulted to what I use in my .308s, namely, the 180-grain Nosler Partition.

I like 150 hot cores for deer and 180 gn interlocts for Elk. Thinking about trying the interbonds for Elk. But for deer I agree with the majority, 150's are excellent.

I have had great success with a 165 gr. SGK BTSP. Haven't lost a deer yet.

I have a freind that has been hunting bears for many years(over 30) with hounds. Last year he killed his bear on the ground with a model 7 rem in 308 win 150 gr. It the bear weighed 416lbs dress. He and his hounds are in on 15 to 20 bear kills a year from little 100lbers to 600 lb bears.

When asked what to bring bear hunting is andswer is anything you shoot well. The 416lber he shot cleared from the hounds he fired one shot the bear went 30 yards and dropped. I figure that any caliber pushing A good medium to heavy for cal bullet in any thing will work just fine.

I used the 150 gr Federal for years but have recently switched to 165 Hornady Interlock boattails. i have loaded 180 gr Hornady Interbonds for elk but have not yet had a shot. In the past I have used Nosler partitions for elk and Rem Corelokts for moose. So far i have not had a complaint with any of these. i am going to the 165 boattails for extended range as often shots here are 300 yds and out to 440 on occassion.

I've settled on 165s as the optimal weight for most medium game.

My standard go-to deer bullet is a 165 Partition. To me it's a perfect balance between expansion and penetration. I'm not a big fan of too strongly constructed bullets for deer because they can lack good expansion. I'm perfectly comfotable with this load for black bears as well.

Jeff

I HAVE about 30-40 deer with a 30-06. A handfull of them were taken with 180s, the rest were all taken with 220 Remmytin corelock. (not a lot of choice in high tech bullets in the 60s)
I am a firm believer in heavy for caliber bullets.
Never had a failure and never had one go more then 20 yds except one in Canada hunting with dogs.
It had been running for a while and I blew the heart out of it at about 100yds with a shot that left pieces of the heart on the ground. It still got up and ran another 60-70 yds UPHILL before collapsing and dying.

Tanoose: One can make a good argument that the 165gr 30 cal is the optimum weight for the 06, given BC and Sectional density. Deer and black bear aren't particularly tough animals, so in my view, the Super Premium bullets are not needed. I've always had great luck with 180gr Winchester Power Points for factory fodder, but for hogs, and bigger game, the Nosler Partition is excellent as is the 180gr Barnes Triple Shock. jorge

I've shot a lot of deer with the 165gr. Hornady Interlock and 165gr. Sierra BoatTail Spirepoint with good results.

If I were going to pick a single bullet to use today, I'd probably pick the 165gr. Nosler Partition.

George