30-06 whitetail recommendations

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Originally Posted by maintenanceMan
Lead contamination is a real concern. Have you seen slow motion terminal ballistics videos? Lead fragments everywhere.


You know I'm 75 years young I've been eat game meat since my mid twenties. Kill and eaten more game animals and birds with lead based bullets than most people on the forum. I have zero concern using cup and core bullets. Most of the scare about lead in game bullets is from people who just done know.

The battery in all these millions of cars on the road scares me more.
 
I grew up on a farm in South Alabama where I have consumed lots of venison, dove, turkey and you name it. That doesn't negate the fact that I now know better than to consume things that can cause me harm. We have learned things is the last 75 years, some of it useful.
It doesn't take much lead to give you problems. Many of the symptoms you could easily attribute to old age or forgetfulness or any number of things. I'm not going to post the links for you, it's easily looked up but I care enough to give the warning.
 
Originally Posted by maintenanceMan
I grew up on a farm in South Alabama where I have consumed lots of venison, dove, turkey and you name it. That doesn't negate the fact that I now know better than to consume things that can cause me harm. We have learned things is the last 75 years, some of it useful.
It doesn't take much lead to give you problems. Many of the symptoms you could easily attribute to old age or forgetfulness or any number of things. I'm not going to post the links for you, it's easily looked up but I care enough to give the warning.


Apparently your not old enough to not know what you don't know.
 
I bench shoot several brands and bullet weights in new rifles to find the one that prints well consistently. In my 30-06 I used hand loads. 57gr of 4831 powder, and Sierra 180gr SP BT bullets.

The neck shot makes for one shot instant, knockdown kills plus very little waste, easy field dressing, and zero lead poisoning............
 
180 gr outta 30-06 will kick like a muley, ask how I know.

Maybe some practice shots with a ligther softcore bullet could work for you, any hunting softcore bullet from wallys will take bambi down.

I use a bonded core in a 30-06 for Elk in a browning gas rilfe. I was able to put 10 rounds on a 4x6 card off hand or supported at 100 yards without crying like a 2 year old.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by JohnnyJohnson
Originally Posted by maintenanceMan
Lead contamination is a real concern. Have you seen slow motion terminal ballistics videos? Lead fragments everywhere.


You know I'm 75 years young I've been eat game meat since my mid twenties. Kill and eaten more game animals and birds with lead based bullets than most people on the forum. I have zero concern using cup and core bullets. Most of the scare about lead in game bullets is from people who just done know.

The battery in all these millions of cars on the road scares me more.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I get so sick and tired hearing about "lead contamination" from shooting. It's all pure nonsense. Upland game loads and .22's fire thousands of pounds of lead shot and bullets all over God's creation every year. Many end up in farmers fields, and get tilled into the soil. You don't hear about anyone suffering from, "lead contamination" from eating the crops those fields provide. And this has been going on for well over a century.

They're still arguing if going to non toxic shot, (steel), for taking waterfowl has really accomplished anything. Hunters cripple far more birds, than die from "lead poisoning" from bottom feeding. This is one of those things that the greenies pick up on, and run with. Mostly because they hate hunting and hunters to begin with. So they're not going to look at any of this objectively.
 
Originally Posted by HyundaiAbuser
One of my friends and I last year got serious about hunting whitetail in Kansas. For hardware I have a 1917 Gewher 98 that was sporterized along the way to be a 30-06 and i recommended he get a Thompson Center Compass in 30-06 due to the rebates and reviews I have seen. For the ammunition in the previous year we picked up two boxes of Winchester power point 150 gr loads and I shot a 6 point buck in the neck to great effect. However since then I have found they dont shoot for **** in either of our rifles. This year i am leaning towards using hornady american whitetail 150 gr due to them working great in my .270 and other reviews I've seen on them. Along with a general faith in hornady ammunitions and the ballistic coefficient of their cup and core interlock bullets.
Do you guys have any recommendations on 30-06 ammunition for whitetail? The farthest shot that I would have to/am willing to take is around 250 yards.

I'd go with pretty much anything. It's a deer. I kill the mess out of them with my 5.56 m4 type rifle just fine. Anything within reason out of that .30-06 will easily do it.

That said, I prefer lead free ammunition for things I'll eat, and some things I wont. The Barnes TSX bullets are just deadly as all get out. The GMX have not impressed me. So my recommendations, since you asked, in order:

Barnes TSX/TTSX
Speer Gold Dot/Fusion
Anything else bonded
Anything at all except a light for caliber fragmenting design.

I've seen enough XRAY images of people shot up to firmly understand that lead contamination of meat further from the bullet tract is a real thing. Whether or not it will actually harm you to get a few grains of lead in you is a source of endless debate, but I have yet to meet many people dumb enough to choose eating lead powder over not eating lead powder, when you pour some on a napkin and hold it out, so why eat it wrapped in game animal? Makes no sense. I have personal experience killing things with copper bullets and with bonded lead bullets (which still leave lead fragments and powder, just less) before that. They all more or less kill similarly, if well designed, but the copper bullets tend to leave heavier blood trails due to the way they are shaped.
 
I agree about the blood trail of copper bullets. You might be right about the Barnes, I've just always used Hornady and I think it was available in quantity last time I bought ammo. I always like to shoot from the same batches that I sight in with.
 
Originally Posted by maintenanceMan
I always like to shoot from the same batches that I sight in with.


Because if you don't do this those 4 and 5 hundred yard shots are almost a guaranteed missed shot or only a wounding shot.
 
I guess if you are shooting benchrest competition, but I can't imagine spending that much on a hunting rifle. A Thomas Contender Compass can be had with Vortex glass that should be easily good to 400 yards in 30-06 for around $360 U.S. With a little trigger refinement the TC should be good to even longer ranges. The Remmington 770 is around $250 with a mounted scope, but I've seen mixed reviews on it and would want to shoot it before I vouched for the range.
Key at shooting the longer ranges, if you have the equipment capable of it, is knowing the actual range and ballistics of the round you are shooting to compensate for bullet drop.
 
I realize on the net everyone is a former sniper, 400 yards is a starting point.

From observing at the range & being around hunting for decades, most have little business shooting at game past 250 yards. I've seen guys wound deer at 30 yards. Bears are the worst, guys shaking so bad they miss completely at 30 yards.

On the others hand, some have equipment & practice to make those 500 yard shots. Even them, if they wound or miss, hardly a mention.

At times I've hunted with a handful of anterless tags in my pocket. After stacking up a few my buddy asked, ‘don't you ever miss'? I have a secret I may or may not of told him. Especially for anterless deer, why take that 200 yard shot, when if you wait a bit, it will be a 50 yard chip-shot.

O.K., back to oil.
 
A box of ammo is around $18, at some point it might be cost effective to buy a new gun,

If I wanted to figure out what is up the barrel, then I would buy a 6 mm usb camera off amazon, and check out the barrel condition.
Throat, how worn is it?

You could take an already fired round and expand the neck a bit with a bullet upside down and then seat the bullet long and then chamber the dummy round gently to get an idea of OAL.

Take a measurement and post here. Our inhouse snipers and reloaders and chime in ;-)
 
Originally Posted by Mr_Joe
I realize on the net everyone is a former sniper, 400 yards is a starting point.

From observing at the range & being around hunting for decades, most have little business shooting at game past 250 yards. I've seen guys wound deer at 30 yards. Bears are the worst, guys shaking so bad they miss completely at 30 yards.

On the others hand, some have equipment & practice to make those 500 yard shots. Even them, if they wound or miss, hardly a mention.

At times I've hunted with a handful of anterless tags in my pocket. After stacking up a few my buddy asked, ‘don't you ever miss'? I have a secret I may or may not of told him. Especially for anterless deer, why take that 200 yard shot, when if you wait a bit, it will be a 50 yard chip-shot.

O.K., back to oil.


Good post.

I used to hunt whitetails with a 25/06 that had a 4x12 scope. It killed deer like they had been struck by lightning, but it was a silly set up for the application. After quite a few years it dawned on me that almost all the deer that actually got loaded up were shot at less than 125 yards, most far less than that. I went back to where I started, a Marlin 30/30, and couldn't be happier. I can't even remember how many deer have now been killed by that 30/30, but I have never once felt handicapped by it.

I know of one or two guys that can actually cleanly kill deer at extended ranges, but they are a rare breed. Have seen way too many blasting away at running long range deer and not even go to look afterwards. Have stumbled upon a lot of the rotting results of such practice as well.
 
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