125gr. or 130gr for the 30-06

trailer · 08-19-2005, 03:45 PM

Has anyone loaded 125 gr. or 130 gr. for the 30-06. My cousins looking for a bullet with less recoil then the 150 gr bullet. I told him about the 125 gr and 130gr but I have no experience in the performance of these weights. He has problems with his shoulders and I recommended reloading some shells. Any help would be appreciated. This would be for deer hunting.

PA Bow/Flinter · 08-19-2005, 04:20 PM

I don't have any first hand experience w/ them, but he might want to try the Managed Recoil shells. I have heard that there is a noticable difference with them and that might be just what he needs. They have been proven to be effective on deer, so you would have to worry about the 125's or 130's not doing a good enough job.

ELKINMTCWB · 08-19-2005, 04:21 PM

I did a lot of shooting with the 125s I found them to be very ery good on KS deer and the deer in MT.I have not stot 130s but I am sure there is very little difrance in them.I did however try 110 in my 3006 they where way to little and did not get though the sholder of deer.They just blistered the meat real bad.After shooting the deer 4 times with 110s my wife backed me up with the 125s.

I allso did the same test on elk 125 to a 165 in3006. The 125 where to small and did not go though the sholder.The 165s droped him in his tracks.

Vapodog · 08-19-2005, 04:55 PM

If you reload try the 150 grain bullets intended for the .30-30 and load them to 2200'/sec like the .30-30

56 grains of H-4831 yields about 2,350'/sec...that's fairly mild and will work very well.

trailer · 08-19-2005, 05:03 PM

308 hunter, my cousins was looking at managed recoil shell but I thought I could load some shells to try. He might end up going that rout .

Elk, thanks for the info on the 110 grain bullets. I have a box of 110 and had considered reloading some to try but after reading what you had to say, I"™m not going to bother. We will try the 130 gr. instead.

Vapodog, that was his intentions to have something reloaded equivalent to the 30-30. I might just give that a try also.

Thanks guys

Mykey · 08-22-2005, 05:45 AM

I've been loading Hornady 130gr spire points in my 30.06 for about 8yrs and have never had a problem killing deer with it. I've only had a couple that didn't give a pass thru and they were lodged in the skin on the opposite side after going through both shoulders. I've shot them from close up out to 300yds with this bulletwith most falling in their tracks and the couple that did run didn't go 25yds.As for recoil it's pretty mild and i have a 15yr old son whoshoots it with no problem and he's not a big kid. Your friend can rest assured if he does his part the 130gr bullet from the 30.06 will get the job done.

Scott Gags · 08-22-2005, 07:05 AM

Try out the Remington Managed Recoil 125 grain load the ballistics are just above a 30-30 or the Federal Reduced Recoil 170 grain loads. They both are suppost to kick like a 30-30 and the bullets are made operate and expand properly at the reduced velocity of these loads.

steve4102 · 08-22-2005, 04:36 PM

I have been working with Blue Dot for reduced loads in my 30-06 and 7mm-08. The guys over at Accurate Reloading have a lot of info on the Blue Dot loads
http://forums.accuratereloading.com/groupee/forums/a/frm/f/2511043

I am shooting a Rem 700 in 30-06 with 24gr of Blue Dot, WLR Primers, 130gr Hornady SSP. This load is very very accurate, has a velocity of 2300fps and has very very little recoil.

trailer · 08-22-2005, 07:06 PM

Thanks guys for all the info. Hopefully I can work something out for my cousin.

swampstander · 08-28-2005, 10:33 AM

I bought some sierra 125 grain spitzers to use for practice rounds for my son in his .308 Win.when he was 12 yrs old. I loaded them way down and let him shoot shoot shoot without fear of recoil. (He is 16 now and as big as me). Later I stepped the charge up with some leftovers and took them hunting with a muzzle velocity of about 3000fps. I shot a medium sized doe behind the shoulder at about 150 yds. The deer ran about 50 yds and piled up. Upon inspection there was no exit wound. The bullet struck a rib and fragmented into several smaller pieces each cutting its own swath through the lungs. While its hard to say the bullet failed as the deer was dead, I have not taken another one of those out to the woods since then. I think at reduced velocity such as in a 30-30 contender they would be fine.