30-06 Whitetail and Mulie Bullet Selection?

[aulrich]

Just to add to the confusion my vote is all of the above unless I missed something all of the loads mentioned will reliably kill a deer at the ranges your talking about.  Probably your biggest challenge coming out of the bush will be range estimation and getting a good enough rest in the field to shoot at extended ranges(I am a prude extended range means 100+).

Next time you are at the range don't shoot off the bench at all try to see what ranges you can always hit a paper plate using field positions,  that will show you actual max range.

If you can burn a few thousand 22 rounds. I use a five target steel  flipper target. it was the best 50$ I have spent. It is great practice, cheap and a hoot to boot.

As for range estimation, for what ever load you chose figure out the the point blank range.  I use + - 3 in (in theory you could go +-5 but I like to have a cushion)

[BowhunterNJ]

Probably your biggest challenge coming out of the bush will be range estimation and getting a good enough rest in the field to shoot at extended ranges(I am a prude extended range means 100+).

Fortuantely I will have a range finder, and finding a solid rest shouldn't be problematic.  I have Steady Stix and if need be can shoot off my backpack.

Next time you are at the range don't shoot off the bench at all try to see what ranges you can always hit a paper plate using field positions,  that will show you actual max range.

Definitely.  Once I get my bench accuracy down and bullet selected, I wil start shooting off the bench to determine my own personal limitations.  Right now I'm still learning about the gun and don't want to add too much of my human error to the equation!

If you can burn a few thousand 22 rounds. I use a five target steel  flipper target. it was the best 50$ I have spent. It is great practice, cheap and a hoot to boot.

Yes, I may indeed get a .22 eventually...my father has one but I will probably buy my own sometime soon.  Shooting is alot of fun, I enjoy it.  I always practiced starting at an early age (before I got into archery, that's where alot of my time went).  I would shoot my air gun at various ranges, even indoors and strive for placing those bellets in the same hole.  I think that helped me tremendously when it came to shooting in later years...but I am new to extended ranges.

Things are going well, I just need to give a few different bullets a try and see what the gun likes best.

Interestingly, most of the "helper charts/programs" on the manufacturer sights select 140-165 grain bullets for small/medium sized game (including whitetails, mule deer, etc).  Not sure if I need to go 180, but I will try them out to see how they group.

I'll be heading out to the range this Sunday and picking up a medley of bullets on Saturday.  I'll post my results when I return, either Sunday or Monday.

As for range estimation, for what ever load you chose figure out the the point blank range.  I use + - 3 in (in theory you could go +-5 but I like to have a cushion)

Can you elaborate here?  What is the point blank range relativity here?

[jackfish]

http://www.loadammo.com/Topics/February02.htm

http://www.eskimo.com/~jbm/ballistics/pbrange/pbrange.html

[BowhunterNJ]

Ahhh very nice, makes perfect sense.
Thanks very much!

[goose7856]

on the ballistics part that tells you the maxium point blank range, what does the Drag Function mean (G1, G2, G3, etc)  This seems to take out all the guess work!!

[jackfish]

I believe 'G' is the drag function.  Here is something from the same website.

" The Drag Function specifies the "standard bullet" that the BC is comparing too. You must enter the correct Drag Function of that BC. Typically, this is the G1. There are however some manufacturers that specify different BCs using different drag functions because the force on the bullet is modeled better with the different drag function. (For instance, Berger uses the G7 for some of it's VLD bullets.) "