I only have a .30-06 and a bow, and I want to go coyote hunting. Anyone have any ideas as far as loads go for a .30-06? I was thinking 180 grains, I heard they do less pelt damage.

I use 180s in my 06 for moose. If you reload, you can always drop down to a 100gr bullet or you can get some " Accelorators" (a 22 bullet in an 06 case) to use on varmints. They may be hard to find now adays though. Hope this helps you some.

Ron

180grain holy you wnt to blow em apart? no offence but i have shot at muscrats with 180 and missed and hit there house and blew there house apart. i would say u want to get the smallest round possible. the smallest i have seen is 125 which would work pretty good i think.

I read on some other boards about using a 180 grain becuase they dont expand as quickly, therefore doing less pelt damage. Thats just what I read though. Anyone know if you can buy 125 grain bullets for an ' 06? I know you can handload them for 125, but I dont load my own bullets Thanks guys

you trying to take there heads off use a .243 or 22-250

Try a full metal jacket, for less damage.

yep that cheap military swdish /norma 30/06 150 grain full metal jacket ammo i bought a bunch of would work... but shot all even before hunting season

I' d like to go with one of those, but dont have one, maybe next year...[:-]


The 150 grain FMJ' s sound like a good idea. Thanks guys...

Yes, you can buy 125gr cartidges for the 06.

Ron

Yeah, buyin 180gr loads for coyotes is a BIG waste of money. Most guys that use 180gr for yotes either don' t know what they are doing, or do so because it is the only hard construction cheap .30-06 ammo around them. In 30cal rifles, it' s important to have a very hard bullet on yotes, the bullet is already big enough to do the deed without expanding, as is necessary of smaller diameter bullets.

I STRONGLY advise against using/loading " accelerators" because they suck. It is a great theory, but in practice, it doesn' t work, I believe it is something to do with the separation of the bullet and sabot, it just can' t happen uniformly at that speed and small diameter, so they are INCREDIBLY inaccurate.

Look for a lightweight bullet of hard construction, federal usually has a couple of these loads out in any store they sell in. If you can' t find a lightweight bullet, go ahead with 150gr bullets, again in hard construction.

If you reload, which your post makes it seem you don' t, I' d also advise against using 100gr bullets, they are very accurate at lower velocities in .30-06 at ranges out to 100yrds, but they shed energy in flight very quickly, and become terribly inaccurate and unstable out there past 150yrds. At standard energies (obtained by HIGH velocities), typical rifling rate of .30-06 isn' t able to shoot 100gr bullets, I' ve tried against the advise of my reloading manuals, and basically I had a scatter gun, the bullets exploded upon exiting the barrel.