125 gr. 30.06
 

Just wondering if a 125 grain 30.06 bullet is too small for whitetails. I used 150 grain super X from Winchester this year. What does everyone think? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you for your time.

RE: 125 gr. 30.06
 

For out to 200yrds. Less recoil all so.They will indeed work fine.I will assume you are talking about factory load and in the 125gr class for 06.That is the reduce recoil shells by remington.

RE: 125 gr. 30.06
 

All of the 125 grain .308 bullets I have usedappear to have beendesigned for varmint hunting. Might not get adequate penetration on a deer.

RE: 125 gr. 30.06
 

There is all kinds of 125 gr factory loaded '06 shells.
Just stay away from the rapid expansions...
The deer will not know where that extra 25 grains went to.

RE: 125 gr. 30.06
 

Yes,Thats when he mentioned for deer I thought he was refering to the reduce recoil 125gr. The varmit loads wouldn't work to good.

RE: 125 gr. 30.06
 

I have read that when you get to under a 150gr bullet in an .06 some rifles tend to loose thier accuracy. I would definately do some serious testing and make sure that you arent getting many flyers with that light of a bullet. Not trying to be negetive here, but just rather pointing out something that I read about that sounded like it would make sense.

RE: 125 gr. 30.06
 

i loaded up some 125gr ballistic tips onetime in hopes of lighter recoil in an '06 before i bought my wife her 243.......accuracy was terrible - now that could just be my paticular rifle and that combo - but this rifle typically shoots everything at the very least pretty well - so i abandoned the project....besides i think those ballistic tips have to thin a jacket in the 125 grn 30 caliber stuff....would probably work if she had shot a deer with it but i wouldnt have let her take a iffy shot with those bullets

RE: 125 gr. 30.06
 

Other than the Barnes bullet, I would not use the 125-130 for deer. The SD of ths weight bullet is really border line low. At reduced velocity like the 30-30 T/C they don't work to bad but a full 30-06-308 velocties, they are pretty fragil , I wouldn't use them on our big mulies.

RE: 125 gr. 30.06
 

I've been loading and shooting whitetails with the Hornady 130gr SP in my 30.06 for about 10yrs now with great results. This bullet is very accurate in my rifle shooting under 1" groups at 100yds all day if i do my part with my best 4 shot group measuring .644. I've lost count of the deer i've killed with this bullet. All but a couple have fallen in the scope when isqueezed the trigger and the few that did run fell within sight.Shots behind the shoulder and through the ribs have been pass throughs butthe ones i've hit in the shoulder were lodged in the skin on the far side and usuallystill together and in a nice mushroom but i have found a couple that came apart. I've always managed to recover my deer so i'd say the bullet did what it was designed to do....it killed. Closest shot was about 50yds and the longest was 286yds.I also load this bullet in my brother's and a friends 30.06 and accuracy is very good and their results on game has been very good as well.I've read some positive and negative reviews on the Nosler 125gr BT on deer from the 30.06 and the 300win but personally i'd be a little shakey about using that combination for deer. IMO the Sierra 125gr pro hunter would probably be a better choice if one wanted to use a 125gr bullet.TheSD with the 130gr is a little better though at 196 compared to188 with the 125gr.

Having said all that,i currently have some Barnes 130gr tsx on order to try out. Not that i'm disappointed in the hornadybecause they've never failed me, i just think the barnes tsx is a better design/constructed bullet.If i can get them to shoot as accurate as the Hornadysi'll probably switch over but if not then i'll continue to shoot the Hornady.Mike

Here's my hornady load.
130gr SP
Rem Brass
CCI200
51.5gr/IMR4064

RE: 125 gr. 30.06
 

I have loaded 125 gr. Sierras in 30-06 for my Dad when he was still hunting years ago. The recoil of the 150 gr. loads started to bother him, so we tried the 125's. I certainly agree that the SD of this bullet is on the low side. It also smoked deer for him. He shot several at 175 and 225 yds. They went about 20 yds. and collapsed. I killed one with it and watched it drop out of the scope.
I am not saying this is a load I would recommend for general deer hunting for the average person. I'm just replying to the post with my experiences with it. As far as accuracy goes, I just went and checked my records on it. The best group I got was 5/8" @ 100 yds., and proof groups ran around +/- 1". The load was 59 gr. 4350. Noyhing that was ever hit with this load got away.