I'm planning to use my .30-06 for deer hunting this fall. I'm inclined to use 180 grain Remington core-lokts because this is what I have been shooting through this rifle at the range and it shoots them well enough. I suspect these bullets are designed for bigger, tougher game and won't expand well on deer. At the same time, I'm thinking the deer will die pretty quickly anyway, whether the 180 grain bullets expand properly or not. In my hunting ground 300 yard shots would be very uncommon, and at ranges less than 300 yards (ranges from 30 yards out to 150 yards probably covers 85% of the opportunities) I don't think the greater bullet drop of the 180 grain bullet will matter.

Comments?

In the past I have used my .25-06 and .243 for deer hunting, but want to give the .30-06 some field experience. Also, I'm hoping to use the .30-06 on a cow elk hunt in the not too distant future -- maybe 2006? -- and it occurs to me it might be a good idea for me to get some experience with it in the field not just at the rifle range, and I'm liable to use the 180 grain core-lokts for the cow elk. (I've tried some other rounds, for example Federal Premium using 180 Grain Nosler Partition, but in my rifle the groups opened up undesirably. Barring my starting reloading, which is a possibility, I'm liable to stick with the Remington Core-lokts for cow elk.)