Top 3 Bullets for 30-06

hello and welcome back to Frontline rejects today on the channel we are discussing my top three hunting bullet choices for the 30 ought 6 which has served us well for over a century both as a military cartridge and as one of the most prolific big game rounds of all time with it being as old as it is it's easy to think of the dirty 30 as not being able to hang with some of the New Kids on the Block but with the right bullet selection this cartridge truly has the potential to be a very fine choice for the modern Hunter the three bullets we'll be going over are some of my favorite general purpose options which could be effectively used on almost any large game in the lower 48 we'll be covering three projectile categories one cup and core one bonded and one monolithic the first bullet we'll be talking about is my choice for a cup and core non-bonded bullet which is the 165 grain spear hot core now this bullet isn't manufactured like most cup and core projectiles in which a Lead Core is swaged into a copper jacket but it isn't a true bonded design either so in my mind it counts as a cupping core bullet we tested this bullet in 308 and got very good results from it there was excellent jacket and core retention which is something I look for When selecting a non-bonded bullet in 30 caliber we tend to see a lot of fragmenting and weight loss from ejectiles like the Sierra Game King Nosler ballistic tip or Hornady interlock but the hardcore does a fantastic job of staying in one piece which is what you need when driving deep on large game this is a lead soft point and it has a G1 BC at 0.433 which is decent for its profile load data from Nosler projects that with a 24 inch barrel hand loader using reloader 22 could gas this bullet up to just over 3000 feet per second but for our drop calculations we'll be using a more reasonable figure of 2909 using reloader 17 which we feel is more in line with box posted velocities and doesn't require a compressed charge and is what most users will more likely see so with that velocity at sea level in 50 degree weather we get a Max Point Blank Range for an 8 inch diameter Target of 318 yards which is not bad at all for those unfamiliar with the concept of zeroing for Max Point Blank Range what we are effectively doing is zeroing the rifle for the maximum distance that a bullet stays inside a given diameter meaning that with an 8 inch diameter the bullet will not rise higher than four inches above our line of sight during its flight and our Max is the point at which the bullet drops 4 inches below our line of sight for this 165 grain spear hot core on Max's 318 yards so that is the distance at which the bullet will drop four inches below our line of sight and to achieve this we have effectively zero the rifle for 271 yards which can be done by shooting at 100 yards and adjusting our impact point to about 3.3 inches above the bullseye we'll have a separate presentation on zeroing for mpbr but simply put the reason for doing it is that a diameter of 8 inches is roughly slightly smaller than the size of a deer's vital Zone radius so effectively out to our mpbr range which with this loading is 318 yards we can hold dead on a deer and expect the round to land within an area which will produce a clean kill of course the mpbr could be pushed out to a further distance if we adjusted the size of our expected vital Zone diameter for a larger game like elk and the mpbr will be different depending on several factors like velocity ballistic coefficient and environmental factors with the 165 hot core using our mpbr0 we have drop of almost 35 inches or about six and a half MOA at 500 yards which isn't bad but I think this bullet really shines at the closer ranges because as we've seen in testing the hot core likes velocity for the average Hunter taking shots at 300 in this is a great option and when loaded to a reasonable velocity and zeroed for mpbr on deer-sized game and larger allows the shooter to hold Center and squeeze another strong point for this round is its price Spears hot cores are very economically priced which is very attractive for the budget-minded shooter or someone who just likes to practice a lot the runner-up which does deserve honorable mention from my favorite cup and core bullet in 30 Oz 6 is the 178 grain eldx the only detractor in my mind is that in Prior testing with 30 count eldxs we have seen some pretty heavy fragmenting which I don't like when considering bullets for heavier gain 178 eldx does have a fantastic BC and would do a great job of imparting hydrostatic shock on most games my favorite pick for a true bonded bullet in 30.6 is the 168 grain Nosler accubond long range I've been a huge fan of bonded bullets like the accubond terminal ascent and bond strike for a long time all of which are fantastic choices but in my opinion the ablr allows the old R6 to really stretch its legs a bit it's got a BC of 0.525 which is outstanding in its weight class before we dig into it any further I'll mention that the runner-up was the 175 grain Federal terminal Ascent ablr wins out in my mind because it has a higher BC of 0.525 versus 0.520 and it does it with 7 grains less weight all of which allows it a slight deflection and velocity Advantage now 90 of those advantages are extremely significant but they do help a little bit and in Prior testing we found that the ablr tends to open up a bit better at lower velocities than the TA so using the same load data for 165 or 168 grain bullet from Nosler will stick with 2909 as our estimated muzzle velocity and on our drop charts from jbm ballistics we see that our Max PBR is 325 yards drop at 500 is about 31 inches or 6 MOA which is a modest improvement over our 165 hot core when using the same starting velocity this Improvement becomes more pronounced the further out we move and has also seen more significantly in our wind deflection with a 10 mile per hour wind the ablr has 3.2 MOA of adjustment required versus 4.1 for the hot core 168 grains is a real solid weight and ablr will retain a very good amount of that whether you're taking a short or long shot on game and you can rely on it to open up very well at longer ranges with lower impact velocities moving on to our monolithic category my fav favorite copper bullet for the 30.6 is the 130 grain Barnes ttsx this light for caliber option is a real speed demon in this old war horse cartridge looking at Barnes load data we have a projected 32 98 feet per second with a 24 inch barrel when using h414 powder we will use this velocity figure for our drop calculations as this isn't an outlier Barnes projects that you could get 3308 using win 748 or darn close to rh414 Velocity by using either IMR 4064 or reloader 15. I do run this bullet as my go-to hunting round when I hunt with my 30.6 and in my Tikka a maximum recommended charge of IMR 4064 produces just over 3240. getting into our drop charts we have our furthest Max PBR yet at 347 yards which is a direct result of that real high Stomp and muzzle velocity and it has a lower drop at 500 yards than either of our earlier projectiles where it loses out is in Wind deflection it has significantly higher wind deflection than either of our earlier options which makes sense with a BC of 0.350 it's also important to take note that this bullet drops below an estimated impact velocity of 2000 feet per second at 500 yards when added up in my opinion the relatively low weight combined with the lower velocity at range and the high deflection keeps this bullet from being very effective at longer distances I think where it really shines is it ranges of 400 yards and in where a shooter would be safely within the minimum velocity threshold needed for Effective expansion when used properly this is a very well performing bullet and inside of 400 yards I would feel confident using it on game as heavy as elk with proper shot placement the runner-up for my choice monolithic and 30 on 6 is the 165 grain Hornady CX we've tested cxs in several chamberings since it was released by Hornady and I really liked the 165's performance in the out six the 130 ttsx wins out in my mind though because of the Velocity gain and how tough the ttsx is at those monster speeds copper as we know is less dense than Lead Core bullets so a 165 CX will be longer than a 165 grain lead bullet which could eek into powder capacity causing you to sacrifice velocity which is the last thing you want to do with monolithic rounds that being said in testing the 165 CX opened up effectively from 100 to 500 yards out of r30.6 so it's definitely not a bad choice so to recap my top three bullets for the 30.6 are in no particular order the 165 grain spear hot core the 168 grain nozzer accubond long range and the 130 grain barns ttsx thanks for watching today and let us know in the comments what your favorite bullets are in the 30.6 and what kind of experiences you've had with them also go ahead and comment on what car should you like us to talk about our favorite bullets for next and if you got something out of today's content consider liking and subscribing thanks for watching and we'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Frontline Rejects

Views: 53,362

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Id: VSYQCkotSF0

Length: 9min 25sec (565 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 10 2023