I hear all the time about shooting 55gr to 225gr bullets from a .30-06 !?!?

I agree that the .30-06 is one of the best all around cartridges of "our time", however I know barrel twist will only allow for a much smaller range of bullets to perform well.


Some of you "numbers guys" tell me what is the REAL range of bullet weights an ott 6 can handle ?

I have fired as low as 125 grain with good success and up to 180 grains. I have never tried more or less, never really seen a need to. Those 55 grainers you mention are what I think were the old Accelerator sabot rounds. Much like a shotgun or muzzleloader sabot round it was a .22 caliber bullet in a plastic sabot. I am not sure if they outlawed those or what happened, but they are no longer available as far as I know. They leave no rifling mark on the bullet and make matching bullet to rifle hard for investigation purposes. They were short lived. I can not really think of any reason to need less than a 150 grain bullet much though. Anything you want a lighter bullet for is a game animal you probably don't care about destroying so 150 grain bullets will be fine. I would recommend the weights for 30-06 bullets from 150 to 180 grains. I know of people having good success with 200 grain bullets, but I don't know of any factory loadings out there from the major manufacturers. Handloaders can take advantage of the 200 grainers I am sure though.

I find that about right.Between 150 and 180 work good in 30-06.I use 165 grn factory loads for whitetail and black bear.200 grn are for bigger animals like moose or elk where you would need the extra bullet weight to carry though the animal vitals.

they also make factory "hot loads" that have a lil more umph in em.

Most 06 rifles are 1:10 twist rates which will easily stabilize most if not all 220 grain bullets and even heavier round nose bullets.

As far as lighter bullets go you cannot over spin a bullet as long as the bullet can handle the RPMs without comming apart. This would be very unlikely at 06 velocities even with lighter bullets.

I like my 06 best using 165 to 200 grain bullets.

Any "keyhole" issues outside of the recommended 150-180 gr. bullets is the question ?

One of the books that I have states that they quit making the accelerator rounds due to lack of sales. They made them for the 30-30 as well, where they where supposed to have sold fairly well. A 30.06 does pretty well with 130gr. up to 220gr. from what I have seen. Lighter or heavier is a crap shoot.

If a person really wants to try the Accelerators, I see them occasionaly at flea markets and gun shows. I aways heard the accuracy was definately lacking with them.

I have shot 90gr all the way up to 220gr with good accuracy out of quite a few '06's.

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