Reduced Recoil Loads
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:53 am
I have been looking into reduced recoil loads for my 30-06, and found that starting loads for the 30-06 with a 150 grn bullet approximate top 30-40 Krag velocity at 2500 fps.
Speer's starting load with Varget was 49 grns for @ 2559 fps.
Hornady's starting load with Varget was 41 grns for @ 2500 fps.
- I went with the Hornady load.
( The maximum loads for 150grn bullet in the 30-06 are all around 3,000 fps. )
The shells are significantly more comfortable to shoot, a lot less violent while still providing enough grunt to be a good hunting round.
If I understand correctly, the commercially produced reduced recoil 30-06 loadings use 125 grain bullets... But I decided to go with 150's.
My reasoning there being that I would feel obligated to spend more for a premium bullet if using 125grn bullets - but that if I stuck with 150's I could buy a big box of the much less expensive Hornady spitzers, and still be confident that I was going to get good penetration, etc. if and when I ever used the load on a game animal.
I know that 999 out of a thousand rounds for this rifle will be shot at paper - but when a hunting opportunity does come up, I will want to be confident about the bullets performance.
To boost my confidence, I tried reading 30-40 Krag hunting stories , and I reminded myself that my 150grn spitzer will be traveling roughly 500 fps faster than a flat-point 30-30 load - and those have killed countless numbers of deer and pigs over the years.
After a lifetime of being a big-bore enthusiast who always went for the maximum possible velocity, I really have to work at being confident with a medium bore at reduced velocity.
On the other hand, now everybody in the family can enjoy shooting the gun with me.
Handloaders have got it made for producing reduced-recoil hunting rounds... - Just use the starting load for the lightest bullet weight that you are confident will do the job.
There are powders that will allow me to reduce the 30-06 to 30-30 velocity, but I think I would consider rebarreling for a smaller cartridge like .300 Savage if I were going to try that. - In the 30-06 case I would worry about loading density issues affecting accuracy, the possibility of accidentally double-loading, etc..
But that's just me.
Speer's starting load with Varget was 49 grns for @ 2559 fps.
Hornady's starting load with Varget was 41 grns for @ 2500 fps.
- I went with the Hornady load.
( The maximum loads for 150grn bullet in the 30-06 are all around 3,000 fps. )
The shells are significantly more comfortable to shoot, a lot less violent while still providing enough grunt to be a good hunting round.
If I understand correctly, the commercially produced reduced recoil 30-06 loadings use 125 grain bullets... But I decided to go with 150's.
My reasoning there being that I would feel obligated to spend more for a premium bullet if using 125grn bullets - but that if I stuck with 150's I could buy a big box of the much less expensive Hornady spitzers, and still be confident that I was going to get good penetration, etc. if and when I ever used the load on a game animal.
I know that 999 out of a thousand rounds for this rifle will be shot at paper - but when a hunting opportunity does come up, I will want to be confident about the bullets performance.
To boost my confidence, I tried reading 30-40 Krag hunting stories , and I reminded myself that my 150grn spitzer will be traveling roughly 500 fps faster than a flat-point 30-30 load - and those have killed countless numbers of deer and pigs over the years.
After a lifetime of being a big-bore enthusiast who always went for the maximum possible velocity, I really have to work at being confident with a medium bore at reduced velocity.
On the other hand, now everybody in the family can enjoy shooting the gun with me.
Handloaders have got it made for producing reduced-recoil hunting rounds... - Just use the starting load for the lightest bullet weight that you are confident will do the job.
There are powders that will allow me to reduce the 30-06 to 30-30 velocity, but I think I would consider rebarreling for a smaller cartridge like .300 Savage if I were going to try that. - In the 30-06 case I would worry about loading density issues affecting accuracy, the possibility of accidentally double-loading, etc..
But that's just me.