What is the "best" grain round for whitetails in a 30-06? I have always used Remington 180 grain and have noticed it is very he

[feltcheeks]

What is the "best" grain round for whitetails in a 30-06? I have always used Remington 180 grain and have noticed it is very heavy at distance. I am looking for a mid to long range round that will slam a white tail.

[Walt Smith]

Stick with the 180!

[jeffo52284]

not to disagree with walt but a 165 grain will fly farther and pack a punch further. compare the two on jbmballistics.com

[scratchgolf72]

150-165 is where i would want to be for whitetails out of a 30-06

[Jim in Mo]

In Missouri range is close so I use 165.

[wp]

I primarily use 150s in my 30-06 for deer, mostly because my gun seems to prefer them. I typically handload using premium bullets, but Remington coreloct, and Winchester powerpoints have also worked for me in the past.

[steve182]

180's are overkill for deer unless that's what your gun prefers. I like 150's(fast) or 165's

[steve182]

180's are overkill for deer unless that's what your gun prefers. I like 150's(fast) or 165's

[BigBboy25]

What is considered a long shot? and there is nothing wrong with a 180. If it isn't broken, don't fix it.

[Edward J. Palumbo]

I preferred the 165 grain, in part because the 162 gr, HPBT Match performed so well in my .30-'06 on targets. I used much the same load with my 165s.

[Treestand]

Use what shoots well in your Rifle, I preferr the Hornady 150gr/InterBond/LM or 150gr/GMX its only a deer,not a RINO!

[Sarge01]

I would suppose that your 30-06 would be similar to my 300WSM for deer and I like to use 165 grain bullets usually Hornady Interlocks.

[RES1956]

In the past, factory 180's had too thick of a jacket to open reliably on 150 pound deer. The sports would come in and ask for 220's cause them 180's were not gettin it done, deer runnin off and hardly any bloodtrail. They thought I flipped or was crazy or whatever when I told them to go to a 150 grainer, but they started killing (and recovering) deer.
If there has ever been a more perfect bullet than the 150 grain Hornady spite point for Alabama whitetails, I have yet to see it (in .30 cal). In a .30/06, I would not be opposed to a 165, if we are talking less than 250 pound whitetails.

[DakotaMan]

Deer are pretty easy to kill with a 30-06 regardless of the specific bullet as long at it is a good hit. A good modern 130-150g bullet is plenty. I usually use 150g Hornady Interbonds or SSTs. I like having as much velocity as possible to minimize lead on running deer. I do use 170g round nose bullets if I am forced to stomp through very thick brush where shots are likely to be under 50 yards and the bullet is likely to have to break through brush. I don't really know if it helps or just makes me feel better but it seems to work.