The 5 Best .30/06 Big-Game Loads

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Even with the introduction of the .308 Winchester in the early 1950s and the meteoric rise of the 6.5 Creedmoor more recently, the 115-year-old .30/06 Springfield remains one of the top-selling—and best—all-around cartridges for big-game hunting. It has and will continue to do it all, from Africa to Alaska. The veterans of two World Wars clung to the cartridge because it served them well when everything was on the line. And their sons and grandsons still treat the .30/06 with reverence because they grew up learning what it was capable of.

The original .30/06 loading fired a 150-grain bullet at 2700 fps, which was enough for the likes of Teddy Roosevelt and Stewart Edward White to shoot, well, everything. With today’s wide range of available loadings and much-improved bullets, the ’06 still does it all, only better, with improved accuracy and terminal performance. That doesn’t mean, though, that you should just grab any box off the shelf; you need to pick the right load for your specific purpose and needs. Here are the five best .30/06 loads for everything from deer and hogs to African game.

1. Federal Premium 165-grain Nosler Partition

Elk are tough animals, and a bull moose can push the scales to 1,000 pounds. The 30-06 is plenty of gun for either, but it requires the right bullet to be most effective. You want a bullet that will upset enough to damage lots of tissue and will also penetrate deeply—up to two feet being ideal. The Nosler Partition was made for this kind of job. During penetration, it opens quickly and will sometimes shed its front core, creating internal havoc; meanwhile, the bullet’s in-tact rear core helps keep it driving through for deep penetration. Nosler’s 165-grain 0.30-caliber Partition bullet for the 30-06 is one of the most iconic of all big game bullets, and it is available in factory ammo from Nosler and Federal. No matter which company loads it, the bullet is big-bull medicine, just as John Nosler intended when he introduced the bullet more than 70 years ago.

2. Winchester Expedition 190-grain AccuBond LR

In Africa, if you draw blood you pay, whether your animal is found or not. This means you need to make every shot count. Not only must the bullet hit the right spot; it also needs to deliver lethal terminal performance. This Winchester load utilizes the Nosler AccuBond Long Range bullet, which delivers extreme precision at distance and massive tissue destruction. For plains game as small as springbok, which may require shots at very long distance, to antelope as large as eland, which are as big as a bull moose, this load makes for short blood trails and a full skinning shed.

3. Remington 180-grain Core-Lokt

The Nosler Partition is probably the most iconic of all premium big game bullets, but when it comes to traditional big game bullets, the Remington Core-Lokt is one of the most revered. With the 180-grain PSP Core-Lokt load for the 30-06 Springfield, hunters can expect nearly two feet of penetration with a frontal diameter that is about two times that of the unfired bullet. Though this load is way more than any deer hunter would ever need, it’s a favorite in the whitetail woods, and it will put down a big buck in a Texas sendero just as easily as it will a monster whitetail in the Saskatchewan timber. Compared to many other 30-06 Springfield loads, it is also generally more affordable.

4. Buffalo Bore 168-grain Barnes TTSX

This is designed to be the one load capable of doing everything the 30-06 Springfield can do, which is a lot. The 168-grain Barnes TTSX bullet is loaded for the 30-06 by several manufacturers, but the Buffalo Bore offering will give you 3000 fps out of a 24-inch barrel. You can expect double-diameter expansion and almost 30 inches of penetration. Mono-metal bullets like the Barnes Tipped Triple Shock thrive on velocity, and that’s a hallmark of Buffalo Bore ammunition. It will zip clean through a whitetail deer from any angle, and it will also give you all the penetration needed to anchor a bull moose, elk, or grizzly at any reasonable distance.

5. Hornady Lite 125-grain SST

Some argue that if your rifle kicks too hard, you should get a rifle chambered for a lesser cartridge. That’s good advice, but what about the hunter who has only one rifle and is recovering from shoulder surgery? Or, what about a parent who wants to take their son or daughter hunting but does not have enough money to buy another rifle? This is exactly what the Hornady Custom Lite loads were created for. This load utilizes a 125-grain SST bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2700 fps, essentially turning the 30/06 into a 300 Savage, which was and still is a fantastic big-game cartridge. This load delivers about 25 percent less recoil than a full-power 150-grain 30-06 load, and it does that with a bullet that’s optimized to deliver excellent terminal performance at that velocity.

Selecting Hunting Ammo for the 30-06

There’s a certain appeal to the notion of only owning and hunting with a single rifle. You become more familiar with that rifle and will shoot it better. And if the ammunition is available to support all the hunting you’ll want to do with the cartridge your rifle is chambered for, there’s really no need for another rifle chambered for anything else. Such is the big game appeal of the 30-06; it is more than capable of delivering on big game all over the world, and with more than 100 factory loads to choose from you can tailor it for optimum performance on just about everything short of buffalo, hippo, rhino, and elephant. Though not legal, in a pinch it will even work on those beasts too.

Any factory 30-06 load that uses a big game bullet will work just fine for whitetails and mule deer. Find the load that shoots best in your rifle and just go hunting; you don’t need a premium bullet to deer hunt with the 30-06. However, you might want a bullet that performs well at extreme distance, and this is where high ballistic coefficient bullets come in. When you step up to larger game like some African plains game, elk and moose, a lot of deer capable bullets will work for those animals too, but only ideally with broadside shots and with bullets weighing 165 grains or more. This is because those bullets won’t impact at velocities that will over stress them. If you want to be able to take more of a raking shot and still get good penetration on bigger animals, consider a bonded bullet, and for the deepest penetration a mono-metal bullet is always a good option. In fact, if you can afford premium ammo for your 30-06 there’s nothing at all wrong for using it to hunt everything.

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