GunTalk-Online.com

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.

That the benefit of relaoding, you can load soft or hot. Now some guns do not shoot accurate at the starting load. But if yours does, good. A lighter bullet will also produce a lighter recoil after you shoot your 150's up.

I remember reading a little while ago about reduced recoil loads in 30-06, a lighter bullet at lower velocity always works for that. but the writer, Mike Venturino I think, went with cast bullets with pistol powder (If I recall correctly) and had good results I think I saw that in Handloader with in the last year, I'll look in the magazine stack and see when I have a chance.

I've shot 110's out of my 308 win and had great results and little recoil....

I have loaded some 58 grn V-Max bullets for my .243 Winchester.

58 grn Hornady V-Max
43 grn VARGET
@ 3700 fps

The theory here being that if these bullets shoot well in my gun, then I will have a varmint rifle, similar in performance to a 22-250.

I did a backyard check on this load, and on the strength of that one shot, I found that the brass looked OK, and that it had noticeably less recoil than the regular 100 grn bullet loads do - which I consider to be negligible in the first place.

My .243 is built a bit on the heavy side, and has a 24" barrel that measures .707" at the muzzle. Even with hot 100 grn. deer hunting loads, you couldn't really call the thing a kicker.

Hi Charles, I'm new to this forum; so I'd like to tell you about my low recoil
experience. It's very simple, Start using cast bullets(with gas checks).
You can load the lead bullets to acheive very effective hunting velocities.
I was just trying to find a load that wasn't so punishing for one of my then
eleven year old twin sons. They were both shooting in a monthly club High Power
Rifle match. One of the twins(the smaller one!) had no problem shooting
medium power 165 gr loads with his Springfield 1903a3. But his larger brother
was getting beat up shooting a lighter 130 gr load in an Argentine Mauser,
30-06 arsenal conversion.

So One of the club guys gave me some 180gr cast bullets(gas checked),
to try to get a reduced recoil load. I loaded using Lyman recommended loads.
That cast bullet load was so gentle I thought the 1909 Argentine Mauser
felt like shooting a gentle Black Powder Rifle. I eventually found a cast bullet load
that gave great accuracy for the 100 yds targets. That load gave a best
5 shot group of 1 3/8" at 100yds.

That was 2 decades ago, but I'll never forget how low the recoil felt and the
surprising accuracy acheived . I bought enough cast bullets from my club friend
to last several months. I tried 160, 180 and 200gr Lee design bullets, the 180gr
was the most accurate. Sorry for the Tome; but I hope this helps.

Tony