30-30 150 grain bullet recommendations needed

[Deerhunter#1]

well my 30-30 s shoot the 125 grainers great but never did try to develop a 150 grain load. they do shoot the factory 160 grain ftx well. That said was thinking of the 150 hornady sts or the nosler bt. Both have a much higher bc and will hold energy and speed at longer ranges if they can be shot well. Both if pushed at say 2300 will hold 1000 lbs of energy and high 17 to 1800 ft se at 300 which if correct is the limit for many manufacturers bullets to reliably expand. I know i will never shoot at 300 but maybee 200. Anyone have success with either in the handi or and other spitzer recommendations. want to optimize the single shot with spitzer bullets not round or flat nose but make sure they will perform as needed on deer.

[demented]

I use a 150 NBT with 36 grains of LVR powder for 2300 fps which does a bang up job at 200 yards.  I believe that 2400 fps or more would be easily doable with my rifle were I to max out on my powder.  Accuracy isn't great, about 2" at 100 but still plenty good for deer at the maximum range I'll shoot at them, about 225 yards. 

[geezer56]

The 30-30 I had liked the Sierra 150 gr flat base spire point over way to much Varget.  If bambi was closer than 200 he was in serious trouble, it would do an inch at a hundred with that combo.  The Sierra seemed to be a bit softer than some of the other 150's out there.  At 30-30 velocities, in my gun anyway, the boat tail isn't necessary.  The flat base shot a lot better groups.  Tested in live media, it leaves a quarter sized exit hole on a broadside shot deer.  Massive leakage and short tracking jobs. 

[petemi]

I use a 150 NBT with 36 grains of LVR powder for 2300 fps which does a bang up job at 200 yards.  I believe that 2400 fps or more would be easily doable with my rifle were I to max out on my powder.  Accuracy isn't great, about 2" at 100 but still plenty good for deer at the maximum range I'll shoot at them, about 225 yards.

I was wondering if that was a book velocity or if you chronyed it.  The reason I ask is I'm getting a very consistent 2402 fps chronyed with the same 36.0 gr LVR, and a 168 gr. BT.  The load is .3 gr. less than Hodgdon's max for that bullet.  It seems to me your lighter 150 gr. bullet should be even faster.

Pete

[demented]

Pete, thats chrono'd from my rifle.  Sure is a big difference between our speeds. 

[BBF]

Nothing wrong with Rem 30-30 CorLokts. They are not all that flat pointed as some but still open up at extended range.

[Deerhunter#1]

I talked to a sierra tech today. I usually get an older gentleman when i call but today it was  a younger guy. I told him that there 125 pro hunter shoots great but was wondering about the 150 pro hunter. He told me the they are hard bullets and that they were more based on the 30-06 case and that the 125 minimum expantion rate is 2300 and the 150 was 2400. I had to ash him again if this was correct and he said yes or go with the flat nose. Has anyone ever shot deer with either of these bullets out of the 30-30 and what was the results. Hornady lists 2000 as minimum and nosler lists 1800. I might have to rethink everything now    

[quickdtoo]

The min impact velocity for reliable expansion of the Nosler BT is 1600fps.

Tim

http://www.noslerreloading.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1347

[44 Man]

I have a boat load of the Sierra 125 Pro Hunters loaded up, but I plan to try the Speer 130 gr hot core (fn) for my 30-30 next.  I really believe the loss of velocity is of little consequince at the velocities our 30-30's operate at.  (my personal opinion only)  But I do think if we could shoot all of these different bullets at a couple hundred yards, we'd see that the slight extra drop of the flat nosed bullets is insignificant.  I wiggle more at that distance than what the bullet drop is!  I'm like everyone else, I get all excitied about the 'paper' advantages of all these various designs and tend to forget in the 'real' ranges of our deer woods, it makes little difference.  As Deerhunter said, we don't expect 300 yd shots with our 30-30, maybe 150;s or a rare 200 yd shot. (most of mine have been well under 100!)  Any ballistic differences these bullets may have will not make much difference at those ranges.  If we plan on a 300 yd shot, we'll bring a different gun.  Much thanks to Deerhunter for getting the real scoop from Sierra.  The proper construction for the velocities we get with our 30-30's is much more important than the ballistic shape.  I'll have to regulate my Pro Hunter 125's to the target range.  44 Man

[Deerhunter#1]

44 man is rite we really only need flat base or round nose bullets for the shots at deer that many of us will need.Includeing myself. That said we all like to play with these guns and get the best out of them. I was thinking I was going to try the 150 hornady sp with a .338 bc which is pretty good. It is hard to pass by the nosler ballist tip 150 with a .435 bc. At 2200 ft second (Mild load) it still is a 300 yard deer combo if we can get them to shoot well in our handis. I didnt have the greatest luck or lets say better performance with the 125 nbt as I did with the pro hunter 125. I am going to try the 150nbt as maybee the larger surface area will help. graf bellow for the 150 nbt at 2200 ft second. timeto spend some money on some new.

Range Velocity Impact Drop ToF Energy Drift 0 2200 -0.5 0 0 1612 0 50 2105 0.73 1.07 0.07 1476 0.69 100 2016 0 4.1 0.15 1354 1.48 150 1929 -2.89 9.29 0.22 1239 2.82 200 1845 -8.12 16.82 0.3 1134 4.75 250 1763 -15.9 26.91 0.38 1035 7.3 300 1684 -26.49 39.8 0.47 945 10.51 [/t]

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[Deerhunter#1]

And the more I think about it I still just cant believe that a 130 sp needs 2300 ft se to open.

[demented]

Probably not at muzzle velocity but you gotta allow for velocity loss at any given range you engage the target.  I've had bullets that would blow up inside 200 yards act like fmj at longer ranges.  I'm no big fan of the Ballistic Tip launched much over 2800 fps but really like using them in the 2200-2400 fps range, this provided I don't
 try stretching the range too far.

[Deerhunter#1]

Well I looked at the hodgan powder reduced loads and they have listed in the .270 the sierra 110 pro hunter listed at 2700 ft second in the youth reduced recoil loads. That puts the bullet at 2400 ft a second at only 100 yards which is what sierra is saying is the minimum velocity for expantion. I am almost wandering if 2400 isnt what they consider the optimum speed for expansion and deminishes from there down to say 18,19 or 2000. I cut open as shown in the picture bellow from left to rite a sierra 110 .277 pro hunter bullet, middle hornady 130 grain .277 bullet and sierra .308 125 pro hunter. They look pretty dam close in wall thickness to the lead core. of course I have no way of knowing the hardness of the lead. I am going to call hodgan and see if they did any testing with the reduced loads and see what they say.

[quickdtoo]

As has been mentioned before on terminal performance standards, the confusion comes from mfrs criteria, Nosler states specifically impact velocity for reliable expansion, the other mfrs are more vague on the acceptable performance window, ya don't know if they mean muzzle velocity or terminal velocity. 

Tim

[Deerhunter#1]

Yeah Tim i am really thinking that these bullets are based on the same expansion as noted by nosler or hornady and will perform just as well d.own to 1600. Going to test them into some wet newspaper at 100the yards and see how they perform. I know its not a game test but will allow me to see results in the same test.will keep all posted

[catatonic]

Has anybody tried the Barnes triple shock TSX FN for the 30-30? 
been using for reduced loads in a 308 -  but never actually tried in a 30-30

[chrome]

The 150 grain Nosler RN Ballistic Tip is an awsome bullet.

[demented]

 I'd like to see the actual velocity of that load.   I doubt its making over 2400.

[chrome]

The Barnes X Flatnose appeared a little hard during testing. I never shot a deer with one, but compaired to other 30-30 bullets it would open the least. Of course this is with the original X bullet and not the newer TSX.
These bullets were tested at 100 yards fired into water filled milk jugs. The .338 Hornady was taken from a small buck shot in the rear (Texs Heart Shot) at 110 yards for comprision.


 
The Winchester Power-Max is pretty cool. It would be nice if they offered it as a component bullet.....


The Hodgdon LVR is sort of a wonder powder in the 30-30. All velocity was checked at 12 feet with my chronograph, average factory 150 grain 30-30 shells would average 2,200 to 2,250 fps.