125gr Nosler Ballistic tip bullets for a 30-06

[old 30-06]

I really, really love my 30-06, but you do know when you have fired it. The normal diet it has had of 180gr bullets going at full chat give just a little too much recoil for me, especially if I just want to plink or target shoot. They are fine on real stuff, but you have to really want to fire it. I resolved to find a softer shooting round, but as previously recorded here, my efforts with a 110gr round nose soft point bullet have ended in disaster. Back to the drawing board!

My latest experiment was to abandon the 110gr bullet heads and move up to 125gr. This I have done with a Nosler, solid base, boat tail, ballistic tip, part no. 43980. I used the least amount of powder I could find in the book that I had in stores, which turned out to be 48gr of H4895, with a C O A L of 2.915" to give a book 2977 fps.

Today I found the opportunity to quickly try them out in a low light level wood at 100 yards. I shot from my car, resting the gun on the wing mirror, padded out with an old towel. No bi-pod, prone position, kestrel, range finding binoculars, bean bag, or stuff like that for me. The result was a three shot group a bit left of centre, but three clicks right did the trick. When I got home I was so pleased I measured the group, which was 0.814". Subsequently I have been celebrating my success with a very nice red wine, which is probably why I have been blathering on a bit.

 

[A Guy Out West]

The 125 gr. Soft points shoot very well in the 06. Speer 130 gr. HP work well too. If you can get it, a Pachmyer Decelerator recoil pad will work wonders on taming that 180 gr. Recoil.

 

[old 30-06]

Thank you for the info, A Guy Out West. My Sako has an original recoil pad fitted, would I be able to add the Pachmyer to it, or does the whole thing need replacing ?

 

[JTO]

Thank you for the info, A Guy Out West. My Sako has an original recoil pad fitted, would I be able to add the Pachmyer to it, or does the whole thing need replacing

Try an Absorball sleeve from Amazon first.

 

[A Guy Out West]

Thank you for the info, A Guy Out West. My Sako has an original recoil pad fitted, would I be able to add the Pachmyer to it, or does the whole thing need replacing ?

I’m not sure, don’t handle Sakos very often. On my Remington 700, all I had to do was take off the butt plate and screw in the Pachmyer. It’s a lot cleaner than the slip on kind, also, if you have a wood stock it won’t alter the color of the stock. I’ve seen the slip on kind change the wood where the slip on material covers the wood. I even shoot 200 gr. Bullets from the bench and have no problems with the recoil.

 

[JTO]

It’s a lot cleaner than the slip on kind, also, if you have a wood stock it won’t alter the color of the stock. I’ve seen the slip on kind change the wood where the slip on material covers the wood. .

I've also seen that.

 

[bullet chucker]

My factory ammo in 150g does all I need, 180g no way Hosay !

BC.

 

[Puds]

Have you tried the Sierra ‘Tipped Gamekings’ in 125gr? Scarily accurate out of my .308, but made one hell of a mess if you hit bone.

 

[Border]

Is it moderated? This can reduce felt recoil substancially.

 

[Blacey]

I really don't notice the recoil on mine. I prefer to shoot my 30.06 over my 234.

 

[old 30-06]

I am moderated. I particularly noticed the recoil when I was shooting this summer, wearing only a T shirt. Maybe extra layers now will help. Thank you all for your suggestions, which I will follow up asap.

 

[old 30-06]

I do have some Sierra GameKing 150gr SBT number 2125 which I will try.

 

[A Guy Out West]

My factory ammo in 150g does all I need, 180g no way Hosay !

BC.

Absolutely nothing wrong with a 150 gr. From an 06. The 180 and heaver are impressive on game and seem to be less destructive. I sight my 06s in 3” high at one hundred and I’m good out to 300 without fooling with holdover. If I’m going to be shooting in close (100 or less) all I have to do is switch to the 200 gr. And I’m dead on at 100. The 2 bullets I favor have the same vertical impact. They are: Nosler Partition 180 and the Sierra 200 gr. Game King SP. That said, if the game is on the smaller side (below red deer) the 150 gr. Might be a better choice for UK hunting due to its flatter trajectory at hunting ranges.

 

[bbrc]

Ive had great results with Sierra 125 spt in 30-06, good on roe and red hinds

 

[STEWARTSMITH]

Is there a noticeable difference in recoil between 150 grain and 125 grain bullets out of a 30-06? I use 150 grain bullets in my 30-06 for everything but Im interested to see if I can reduce the recoil with a lighter load. I was thinking of working up some new loads but interested to know if its worth the bother.

 

[jthyttin]

There will be very noticeable difference if you go from one extreme (full house load with 150gr) to the other (reduced load with 125gr). Think like halving the perceived recoil.

Other story is, how fast you're currently shooting the 150gr and what you want to achieve with the 125gr load (i.e. can you go reduced). You might not be able to tell a difference between full house loads in both weights. Depends on gun fit, how you perceive recoil etc.

 

[STEWARTSMITH]

At the minute I'm using 50 grains of Varget with 150gn Hornady SST, which should be giving me roughly 2900fps. Good enough for flattening anything in the UK but it does kick a bit more than I would like. I would also imagine 125-130gn bullets at roughly the same speed are also good enough for most game that I shoot, mainly Sika and Roe.
My next problem is that I'm running out of Varget so I would like to find a readily available powder that will be good for 125 & 150gn bullets if possible!

 

[jthyttin]

Looking at the Vihtavuori data, for N140 the Nosler 125gr BT starting load is almost identical to Hornady 150gr SST max load, both giving same nominal velocity of just under 2900fps.

Of course your barrel is different, but gives you a reference. I wouldn't go any slower powder, if you try to minimize recoil and have proper burn with 125gr.

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Vihtavuori offers rifle reloading data for numerous calibers and bullets for match and hunting purposes. Never exceed maximum loads.

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[STEWARTSMITH]

Funnily enough I was just looking at exactly the same thing! The barrel in my rifle has a 1:11 twist I've been told, whereas most 30-06's would be 1:10 I think. Is that better or worse for lighter bullets?

 

[jthyttin]

Slower twist (1 twist in 11" instead of 1 in 10") is better for lighter bullets. But both SST and BT are high quality bullets that do not generally suffer from "too tight" twist.

Tighter twist makes the bullets spin faster (no surprise there!) and if the bullet is poor quality i.e. air gaps or something that makes the geometric center of gravity differ from real center of gravity -> these imperfections get magnified and there's more variables in bullet flight resulting in worse accuracy.