Favorite .30-.06 ammo for whitetails

[Terry1]

What is your favorite .30-.06 ammunition for whitetails? I am hunting thick forest in NY with a Remington 700.

[beemanbeme]

I roll my own: Rem brass, cci primer, 57grs Imr4350, 165gr Rem CoreLokt bullet..  If I didn't, I'd use standard Remington ammo.  You don't need any magic bullet to kill a deer despite some of the tales you'll hear.  There's probably more deer killed with Rem ammo (you know, the cheap stuff from WalMart) than all the rest combined.

[burntmuch]

Hard to beat rem corlokts. Mine likes the 150s. Just starting to reload for my 06. About 35cents a round

[backstrap]

I use rem 150 gr core lok what ever u do dont use ballistic tip unless u use the ballistic silver tip that winchester use in there ammo dont use the green ballistic tip that fedruel use in there ammo they will blow up on impact and the deer will run off i have seen this with my own eyes thats y i went to a lead nose bullet

[buck460XVR]

I too hunt mostly in thick brush and heavy woods. Shots are usually within 100 yards, with most being less than 50. Since I don't need the long range trajectory, I like Winchester Super X 180 gr. as they tend to plow thru the brush better and pack a little more wallop.

[Dave in WV]

For close shots I always liked Remington 165 or 180 gr Core-Lokts. It's less destructive than 150gr ammo in my experience. I load my own ammo now.

[victorcharlie]

220 grain round nose Remington Core-lokt.........has been the standard deep woods brush load around here for many, many years.

[rickt300]

I reload now but when I buy factory ammo for my 30-06 it is always 180 grain power points from Winchester. My favorite brass and the bullet is a good one. I have of late bought some of the Federal blue box stuff for my 7MM Rem. mag. Real accurate but I can't say how well it works on game. I like the 180 grain bullets for hunting close cover. The '06 has plenty of velocity to open the power points on deer at close range and penetration is excellent.  My reloads are topped with 165 grain corelokts, hornady 180 grain Spire points and Speer 180 grain Mag Tips. These all work just fine on deer.

[buck460XVR]

220 grain round nose Remington Core-lokt.........has been the standard deep woods brush load around here for many, many years.

I used to use those and 220 grain silvertips on opening weekend on public land to make sure anything I hit didn't go far.......and they didn't. Quit using em because of too much collateral damage .....would hit a deer in the front shoulders(I like to hit em high and break both sides when I can) and there would be shock damage all the way to the tailbone........

[dw06]

My favorite ammo is mine.I load my own and like beemanbeme,My all time favorite is 57grs IMR 4350 with 165gr Hornady or Speer or Nosler pt.They all work well.Used the 150gr accubond last year and am impressed with performance and how accurate they are.Used 59grs Imr 4350 with those.

[holahead]

Remington Corlokts 180gr.

[Will_C]

I use 150 grain Nosler Accubonds that I load myself with RL-19.The Accubonds cause massive damage but do not break apart (at least not for me.)
Will

[teddy12b]

Terry1,
        I've only taken 2 deer with my 30-06, 1 buck, 1 doe.  I handload my own ammo, but didn't have time to get one together for a hunt in wisconsin.  I ended up using 150gr coreloks out of my encore.  I was completely happy with this round except that I didn't get a good blood trail.  I didn't need a blood trail because the doe dropped right there and the buck dropped within sight.  Had my shot been a little I would have liked some kind of a blood trail.  Either way, they taste great!

[Dillohide]

CCI 200 primer, 57 grains IMR 4350 and 165 grain Hornady BTSP. Accurate and deadly in East Texas woods or West Texas pastures.

[James B]

For factory ammo I like the Federal Blue Box 150 grains. The bullets are Speer Grand Slams. Good ammo.

[vinpar092]

I load my own and for close work I like 180 gr Hornady roundnose with 57.0 grains of H4350, this round mushrooms well and puts them down. For longer range out to 350 yard. 165 gr Hornady softpoint boattail with a max load of 59.0 grains of H4350.

Vince

[wallaby]

For hunting thick timber where shots are likely to be close I like a heavy bullet at moderate velocity.  I hand load 220gr Hornady Interlocks at about 2250fps.  Where I live most shots are less than a hundered yds. Still this load can reach out to 200yds if the need should arise.

I don't hold with the "brush bucking" arguments though.  No bullet can be depended on to hit a limb and continue on its true course.  Whether it be a heavy slow round nose or a super fast ballistic tip.

I would stay away from rapid expansion bullets moving faster than about 2700fps for close shots.  In my opinion they cause more destruction than needed.  They have there place for sure.  A 150gr Nosler Ballistic tip I believe is the ideal clear cut bullet out of an '06.

[rebAL]

Rem. Core loct 150 PSP & up whatever shoots best.  I use 150 in one of my 06's & 180 in another.  I see no need for premium ammo when using 30/06 on deer size game.

[mt3030]

CCI 200 primer, 57 grains IMR 4350 and 165 grain Hornady BTSP.

Almost identical to mine. I just use the 165 Speer Grand Slams, because they are what I started loading so long ago. Before hand loading, I used 150 or 180 Remington  Corloktsl.

[Graybeard]

I've used the Remington Core Loct factory 180 grain round nose bullet to take most of my deer shot with the .30-06 and must admit it's my all time favorite .30-06 deer load.

[Brian T]

Hornady 180 grain SST, bam flop on deer and hogs

[*ROCK-MAN*]

My favorite in fact the only load I use has been the rem coreloct ammo in either 150 or 160 grns.These last few years I've been hunting in places where longer shots were needed and they still performed but something I have noticed is that they haven't been penetrating the off side but would be lodged in the skin with a bulge showing.This was ok since the deer kept dropping and people keep telling me that this is good because the round expended all of it's energy inside the animal.But I want an exit wound so this year I am going to try the Hornady Light Magnums.Already tried them at the range and accuracy actually picked up a little and with the higher speeds they will be a little flatter shooting.All this since you asked what my favorite round was.
For your hunting situation I would suggest the Coreloct in 180 or above.

[GeorgiaTrader]

Hornady 180 grain SST, bam flop on deer and hogs

!50 grain sst in both 06 and 300 wsm.

[PrewarM70]

Hand loaded 165 Nosler Partition @ 2,750 ft/sec muzzle velocity.   Accurate (in my rifles), opens up like it needs to (at least on actual 30 to 175 yard shots on ten "normal" sized whitetails), and I'd like to think that it would still create a substantial exit wound even on a quartering shot on a really big buck.

That being said, standard factory ammo is probably just fine for 95% of all shots taken on whitetails.   in my opinion, shot placement is WAY more important than projectile type with a definitely powerful enough round like the ought-six.

I am also considering the new Federal Fusion ammo, supposedly bonded core bullets that are designed to open up on whitetails.  They shoot reasonably well in my rifles, but I haven't yet seen any field reports on how well they work.

Best of luck to you.

[elmer]

First off, I'm hunting east Texas whitetails (150 lbs would be large) and range runs 50 to 100 yards. I prefer the 165gr Remington Corelokts.

[Cabin4]

Hornady SP 150gr.

Reasonable price, excellent accuracy, excellent killing performance on deer. My Ruger M77 loves these.

[.308 Win.]

  I've shot them with Core-Lokt, Power Points, etc. and the bullet that I used that I was overwhelmingly impressed with was Federal Fusion 150's.  I've never seen a bullet drop a deer as this one did.  I could not drop a sack of concrete any more suddenly than that deer fell.  She was dead before she hit the ground.  Never took another step and didn't even quiver. Fell stone dead right there with what she had been feeding on still in her mouth.   

[Les Staley]

When I lived in Michigan, you didn't dare let a deer get out of your sight after you shot it,  or another hunter would be tagging it.   I started useing a load I'd read about in an article called  "Dynamite on deer" in an old Shooting Times.   worked good!!   46.5 gr IMR 4895 behind a 170 gr flat point 308 thirty-thirty bullet..   grouped very tight in my old Smith&Wesson model B..  Knocked the puddin' out of any whitetail I ever poked with it..DRT..    HTH   Les

[High Brass]

Not sure if you're talking factory or not.  I use 165gr Hornady SPs and 55.5gr of IMR 4350 for 2688fps out of a 22"bbl Remington 760.  If I was using factory, I'd use either 165 or 180gr Remington PSPCLs.

[Lead Poison]

I load 165 gr. Nosler Partition, or 165 gr. Sierra HPBT Gameking (tough bullet designed for deer). Both are great!

Loaded on top of 57.0 grains of IMR-4350, or 50.0 grains of IMR-4064 (start low and work up).

4350 and 4064 are excellent powders for the 30-06 Spfd!