30-06 Springfield – A Reloader’s Hunting Cartridge

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Ed Hale

The 30-06 Springfield was introduced to the US Army in 1906. That was nearly 110 years ago. In that 110 years the 30-06 became one of the most popular hunting cartridges of all time in North America and on the African Continent for American hunters. It still is today due to the wide availability of brass, and later, many bullet weights and styles, shot largely in bolt action hunting rifles. In Africa President Teddy Roosevelt kill much game including an Elephant with the 30-06. I would choose a larger caliber like the 458 Lott for dangerous game (yet another story) , thanks!

In hunting circles the 30-06 brass is still perhaps the most widely available brass along the .308 Winchester a smaller cartridge with its own story as a military round. Every corner store that has ammo stocks the 30-06 Springfield. Reloading dies are everywhere!

What is fascinating is that the 30-06 of military fame gave birth by experimentation by Wildcatters (experimenters) to a plethora of excellent hunting calibers both smaller in diameter and larger in diameter. The 30-06 based cartridge that has dominated the smaller caliber is the .270 Winchester (diameter actual is .277 inches) a necked down 30-06 case. It was Jack O’connor of Outdoor Life that wrote so prolifically and eloquently on the .270 Winchester for all North American Game and African Plains Game but with moderate recoil in a standard action. If memory serves, he loaded 130 grain heads with IMR 4350 and exited the muzzle above 3000 fps. I read lots of his work in Outdoor Life Magazine growing up. He was a master story teller but ever to inform that it is marksmanship that makes the kill possible. The .270 with 130 grain bullets were easier on recoil making it easy on the shoulder on long shots out to 200, 300 or more yards. I took my son Jason on Safari with the .270 Winchester and he did very well but I hand loaded 150 grain Nosler Partitions.(see photo below)

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Also the 25-06 Remington (diameter .257) held its own on deer size game at long distances and is touted as an excellent Antelope round shooting a 100 grain bullet at 3200 fps. The .243 Winnchester and 6mm Cartridges stole a lot of the 25-06 thunder.

In the necked up version of the 30-06 is the 8mm-06 (.323 diameter) or the 338-06 (.338 diameter) but they are still in use today because of the availability of 30-06 brass and a wide assortment of bullets that came as a result of other .338 cartridges. I heard recently of someone singing the praises of the 35 Whelen (developed by Colonel Townsend Whelen developed in 1922) whose parent is the 30-06 case. The Whelen can shoot 180 grain bullets at 2700 fps, the 200 grain bullet at 2600 fps, and the 250 grain bullets at speeds of 2400 fps delivering great down punch on all North American Game. Even better is the .338 caliber bullet which when loaded in the .338-06 can push a 200 grain bullet at 2800 fps, a 225 grain bullet at 2600 fps and has a better long range ballistic coefficient (BC) and bullet selection than the 35 Whelen. Today’s excellent recoil pads are engineered to reduce recoil by up to 50% so go ahead and shoot what ever suits your fancy. If you hand load like I do then the world is your oyster with just a few rifles.

Why the Ruger M77 Hawkeye Predator in 6.5 Creedmoor?

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Ed Hale

This was a cartridge that could have been a kin to the .308 Winchester parent cartridge but wasn’t. Hornady produced this original cartridge in 2007 and has grown steadily ever since in both the target world and the hunting world. Just between the .243 and .270 there was room to create a cartridge who’s mild recoil is similar to the .243 Winchester but shoots bullets 100 grains to 140 grains from Prairie Dogs to Elk. The .243 is not an Elk cartridge and the .270 has not been a favorite of Bench Rest Target shooters for pure accuracy. In order to make this 6.5 special required making its own Cartridge which is a bit smaller and shorter than the .308 Winchester but unwittingly a great big game cartridge.

The Ruger M77 Hawkeye Predator does justice to this Cartridge in many ways. The laminate stock is as strong and precision cut as if made from a pure synthetic material. The stainless steel barrel that is hammer forged is the finest barrel for the price. And the Ruger controlled feed action ensures a very high degree of reliable feed. The trigger is a fully adjustable 2 stage target trigger and comes in the 2 pound class making it a fine long range target or predator rifle. It is recommended that adjustments are made by a qualified gunsmith.

The 6.5 Creedmoor round is said to be great on barrel life so for those who shoot large quantities of ammo are in for a treat. Go to my first article far below to begin reading this in the correct sequence.

Reloading 6.5 Creedmoor Cartridge – Initial Observations

Posted on May 23, 2015 by Ed Hale

The first thing I discovered is that new Brass for the Creedmoor does not appear to be abundant. In fact I found Hornady brass to be the one of the only available new brass in stock. Nosler Brass was out of stock. If you have read my previous articles on the 6.5 Creedmoor you will see that the Hornady brass is soft, thus making it difficult to reload. Lots of case prep to bevel the inside of the case neck without creating a sharp flair edge is difficult indeed. Pressing on with the only new brass in town, I have succeeded in reloading it more than twice. The brass is stiffer as it becomes harder with use and better for pressing the bullet into the neck.

Of great interest should be Cartridge Overall Length (COL) ; The Max SAAMI Over All Cartridge Length is specified as 2.825.

I am shooting 120 grain Sierra Pro-Hunter heads as I am a hunter first and a target shooter second. I originally set the COL for this head with case at 2.53 inches and later discovered that I could push the head out as far as a COL of 2.70 and still have enough of the bullet seated. Groups of the 2.53 COL show excellent results as groups are 1 inch or less. Yesterday I shot several rounds set at a COL of 2.70 and the result deteriorated with fliers in the 2 inch group area. One would think that groups would improve as the bullet is closer to the rifling. Not so in this case, perhaps because the case had very little of the bullet in it. I perceive that the 120 grain is still a small bullet for the 6.5 and that heavier and larger bullets will make better use of the max COL.

Bullets are readily available from most all manufacturers, key bullets like the Nosler AccuBond are available as are several Berger Hunting Bullets, et al. The reloader must experiment with COL to see what works best and provides best groups.

On powders, my only experience is with Hodgdon Hornady Superformance at this time and I like it very much because it is a smaller kernel and meters well with less variation than larger kernels. Nosler folks suggest powders such as Varget, W760, IMR 4007 SSC, Big Game, H4350, RL17 and Hunter.among others.

Since the Creedmoor Cartridge is new, older reloading manuals do not have it. Nosler does provide load data at http://www.nosler.com/nosler-load-data/65-creedmoor/ and SAAMI specifications. Hornady has the 6.5 listed at http://www.hornady.com/store/6.5-Creedmoor but no data for reloading. Check out the scrapbook of game animals taken. It includes a record Gemsbok. © 2015

A Box of Gold – The Leupold VX-6

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Ed Hale

This is a rifleman’s “Box of Gold.” Inside this box is a device known to rifle hunters World Wide. It contains a Leupold Gold Ring Scope arguably one of the finest rifle scopes on planet earth with its Quantum Optical System. NH Rifleman will test it!

Leupold VX-6 3-18x50

This scope is in 3 -18x44mm CDS riflescope with an Illuminated Boone and Crockett Reticle. (Photo from Leupold.) CDS stands for Custom Dial System and a dial can be created free that will be for your best bullet and with a twist dial your yardage. More later.

Above is the Boone and Crockett reticle (image from Leupold) and power selector values for cartridges (more on that later). Also visible is the 10 mph shift posts we will use in testing

The Box of Gold also contains an instruction guide, Scope caps and a neoprene cover are the other gems included. When I was a kid, most hunters that had a scope shot 3 power or 4 power fixed. Then the industry produced a 3-9 power that was affordable, and filled the tube with nitrogen, an inert gas to prevent internal fogging. Today, Leupold uses second generation waterproofing exclusively using a blend of Argon/Krypton gas. Now with supreme engineering and optical know-how Leupold offers hunter the power of close hunting at say 30 yards with the 3x all the way to 600 yards up to 18x. A new way to sing “You Got The Power”, a scope that is best of both short and long-range hunting and target shooting. In the coming months we will talk again and again of our experience with this world-class scope on the Ruger and Savage rifles. In my testing will include the internal twin bias erector system that can handle most any caliber in the field or in the African bush. Look for more on this scope soon!

Scouting for Tom Turkey

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Ed Hale

Today after a morning rain the sun came out and brought a delicious taste of spring with it. My new used hunting truck (a 2001 F150 Lariat) had some more work done to fix the rust-out of my radiator frame, now all new (yea it cost me but it was worth it) so I took it on a Turkey scouting trip and went a little off-road with it. Nice and solid when off road. Nice!

Just like in deer hunting you look for food sources, mating areas, and in the case of Turkeys you look for roosting areas. I carried my .243 Win in case a coyote was spotted.

I struck pay dirt and found great turkey sign. I was able to leave my jacket in the truck. The peepers in every swamp puddle was going bananas making that wonderful springtime noise. The NHFG department believes there are approximately 40,000 turkeys now in New Hampshire. Opening day is May 3 thru 31st for Gobbler season. Be sure to pattern your shotgun and load. Ok this paper turkey is dead as the head and spine are engulfed in shot at 30 yards.

http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Hunting/hunting_dates_and_seasons.htm

I located a few trees to sit against and where the turkeys appeared to be moving.

Get ready and be sure to spray your clothes with Permethrin to ward off ticks and let them fully dry before wearing them. I have a friend that has been so bitten that he is afraid to go out, but he did not use Permethrin. I swear by it! It works! You still need to do a tick check!

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Full Circle – The .308 Winchester

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Ed Hale

I have been stewing on this for some time so here goes. Many of us have purchased the AR-15 or similar rifle. Unless you have lots of money to spend on ammo, it sits in the gun safe after the first 500 rounds and is a great varmint rifle but as a big game rifle it is a waste. If you are just concerned with home protection,a second amendment rifle, good for competitive shooting, it is a great choice, don’t get me wrong.

If you hunt too, the better solution for some is perhaps the M1A in .308 Winchester perhaps if you want a semi-auto and want to hunt too.

Fact is, the more I study the .308 Cartridge the more respect I have for it for home and hunting. I have hunted Africa for plains game and believe the .308 Winchester is just fine out to 200 to 300 yards for almost all except giant eland. (no big five). Why? It is about shot placement not just power. The recoil of the .308 is considered mild to moderate and with a state of the art recoil pad it is easy for a young or newer shooter to shoot accurately.

Alas, we have been brain washed a bit, me included, to shoot bigger more powerful cartridges. I took a .338 Winchester Magnum to Africa, still a medium bore cartridge, however it takes practice to master it’s heavier recoil. I do love the bigger bore rifles however, they deliver punch, in spades like my .375 Ruger that I hand-load. The ubiquitous and classic 30:06 is a great middle ground and it can be shot in an M1A semi-auto too.

As a reloader, the .308 Winchester cartridge design is highly efficient and cost-effective in powder usage for reloaders. These facts when coupled with the accuracy of the .308 cartridge and bullet selection for hunting big game make it a great selection as a deer and black bear rifle at ranges out to nearly 500 yards or so or as a long-range target rifle at 1000 yards. As a simple hunting rifle that can be tack driving accurate, easy on the shoulder, ready to reload inexpensively, can be shot as a semi-auto as in the M1A, I believe the .308 is poised for resurgence.

I shot one the other day at the range out of a Remington 700 with a Leupold scope at 100 yards. Groups were astounding, just like the groups I shot out my son’s Savage .308 at 1/4 inch a few years back. Yesterday I shot consistently less than 1/2 inch groups, in fact, if the trigger was adjustable as I suggested and set at around 3 pounds, the groups would merge into a ragged hole and put a real smile on my face. ©2015

Long Range Rifle Bullet Energy and Drop Tables

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Ed Hale

My son and I often chat about long range considerations and yesterday we talked about Brian Litz new book Applied Ballistics For Long-Range Shooting 2nd Edition (I have read his first book) and the fact that Brian is shaking up the Long Range shooting world with his plain speak on rifle bullets, rifles and twist rates but using physics to demonstrate by numbers the rationale for changes in the shooting world. It may be too much for a novice but hopefully some of you have the desire to shoot long range. It is also the remaining bullet energy and bullet stability at long range that is sufficient to make the shot count. In a hunting environment, many of us are not skilled marksman to make a clean kill on a deer at long ranges beyond 300 yards because we have few places to practice at those ranges and calibrate your scope to a particular bullet and load. But let us say that we do have a place and you have a long range rifle such as a 6mm or 7 mm or a .308 caliber rifle. The key here is what are we doing when the bullet arrives, paper punching or downing a deer or elk? It makes a significant difference in that the deer and elk require lots of energy delivered by the bullet to enter the animals vital area,provide hydro-static shock, mushroom and exit the animal.

As I have said in previous articles that as a guide you need around 1000 ft-lbs striking energy for deer and around 1500 ft-lbs for elk and some include that at these energies the bullet should meet a speed criteria of 2000 fps for a lead bullet to mushroom fully(I think that this speed varies with bullet material and construction but is still a good guide). In order to calculate striking energy at a given distance you must know the bullet diameter, the bullets ballistic coefficient either as a G1 projectile BC which most of today’s bullet manufacturers provide on the box or the G7 BC.

Chronograph your bullet speed: Then we must measure the bullet speed using a chronograph. I use an inexpensive Shooting Chrony F1 Green. (Cost $100) For long ranges beyond 300 yards the bullet must be shaped to reduce drag thus a pointed bullet is needed. Further that the shape of the tip, the o-give or curvature of the head and the body and the tail of the bullet are critical in maximizing the retained downrange energy. Another component is the twist rate of the rifle to shoot some of these bullets at heavier weights. For example the .243 Winchester needs a faster twist rate than say 1:10 to shoot bullets above 90 grains. Above 100 grains the data provided by Brian in his book Applied Ballistics as well as his other books and DVD’s on shooting that the Long Range enthusiast should purchase to develop the technical skills and know how. Ok so you go to the range and shoot your bullets through a chronograph. Lets take for example my .243 Winchester which shoots a 100 grain bullet through my Ruger American 1:10 twist at 2820 fps and is amazingly still stable. It has a G1 ballistic coefficient (BC) of .373.

Calculate your drop table: Using the website http://www.jbmballistics.com/ you can go to the ballistics page and click on trajectory. There you can enter all the specifications of your bullet, BC and speed, zero range, temperature, humidity, wind speed and angle and distances you wish to chart the bullet to and it’s incremental data points. I calculate that my 100 grain bullet when zeroed for 233 yards is going to shoot 2.7 inches high at 100 yards and drop to 3 inches low at around 273 yards which is my max point plank range. This is all based on accuracy of the data. Now you can shoot to verify the data by shooting at 2.7 inches high at 100 yards and then shoot at a range for 200 or 250 yards if possible to see that there is a match for the data in the output of the data table. At 150 yards you will be 2.9 inches high, at 200 yards you will still be high by 1.7 inches and at 250 yards you will be below the zero point by 1.1 inches. I do not have a capability to test shoot further than 200 yards so that data point of 1.7 inches high will be key to see and validate. This data validation will give you great confidence in the field when hunting.

Wind is a factor that can make or break your shot on long distance game. For example I can shoot out to 273 yards as MPBR – Max Point Blank Range but with a 10 mph wind at 90 degrees crosswind the bullet is off target by 7.4 inches. So you must account too for wind speed and direction. If the wind is blowing into your face, or from behind then the wind can often be discounted to a degree for its lateral effect on the placement of scope crosshairs. By experimenting with the ballistic software you can see the effects of wind on the bullet. Good Shooting!

Huntin’ Notes early November

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Ed Hale

First of muzzle loader season was a bust with that Nor Easter but finally getting out some. Used my fawn bleat and attracted a big fat Coyote who turned tail and ran when he saw me. Seeing mediocre deer sign in southern NH. Deer are there but need to be pushed to see them. Not seeing deer! That will happen in the opening weekend of regular firearms season next week. Rut is approaching peak by the 15th to 20th by my reckoning. Now is a great time to rattle up a buck. I tried it day before yesterday but no luck. Use a grunt call too in combo with doe in estrus. Got to stick with the technique if it is to work.

Stay clean and as scentless as you can. I am trying too. I wear a camo face mask if on stand and don’t spook the squirrels who can signal danger. Good Hunting!

NH Pheasant Hunt #2 I’m Late

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Ed Hale

What a difference 30 minutes can have when you arrive late to a bird release. I didn’t think I was late nor did my hunting friend Mike. But we were never the less!

That said, these released pheasants were dug in like ticks on a hound. They flew into woods and brush and without a dog to dig them out, it was difficult indeed. I ran into my long time bowhunting friend Dan Williams who is heavy into hunting ducks and pheasant these days with his now champion dog Cody, a Labrador Retriever. Seen below. After the hunt Dan puts Cody through his paces retrieving four training bumpers in a row! One from 150 yards hidden in the woods!

Dan and Cody

Along for training he brought other dogs to learn from Cody and enjoy the field. They did all of that.

Mike’s dog Sam worked the best when he could concentrate away from the other dogs.

Sam Flushed up a pheasant which I downed with a long shot from my goose gun. We saw where the bird went down. In the wood edge we sent Sam in and he found the bird and retrieved well. Nice job Sam and Mike!

We called it a day when a hen shot up in front of other hunters. Both shot, both missed. Mike shot, I shot twice giving too much lead on the first shot. The bird did finally go down and was retrieved. Ultimately I claimed the bird. Here we shall call him the community bird as we all took a shot and laughed at ourselves. We were thankful that retrievers were there to pick up where shooting skill was not “at its best” for that bird anyhow.

New Hampshire Pheasant Hunt Heaven

Posted on October 12, 2014 by Ed Hale

New Hampshire Pheasant Hunting is easy on the hunters soul. Young hunters, Women, and a gaggle of older hunters and retrievers of all kinds can experience the thrill of the chase. Friendship abounds,dogs are trained and eager to retrieve. In early October God paints all the trees with crimson, orange and yellow and provides a deep blue canopy overhead with puffy cumulus clouds like cotton balls scattered here and there. It is simply heaven on earth to be outside and part of this hunt. Pheasant stocking programs from NH Fish and Game have existed for years here in New Hampshire.

I did not grow up as a Pheasant hunter as my father was more a deer hunter so my exposure was unfortunate. I gathered with my hunting friend Mike and his retriever Sam shown in the October cover photo. We eventually hooked up with his friends who also have dogs with them on the hunt. Some dogs are well trained and other dogs think that this is a social gathering to smell each other and play.

I found that many older men and their hunting dogs are ardent Pheasant hunters. The truth is that the bond between man and dog is inseparable like the hunter below who’s dog is thirteen years old. What a terrific friendship!

Mike and his dog Sam are equally inseparable as they train together to hunt Pheasants. Sam is a young retriever and is still learning the ropes. His exposure to the hunt and to other hunting dogs will aid greatly. Mike uses whistle commands and a training collar.

The hunt is a way for each to frolic and hunt together.

The truck arrived with birds for release into the NH Fish and Game regulated hunting area covering a very large area with woods and fields and released dozens and dozens of mature male and female pheasants. They take flight near and far some landing as far as a quarter mile away. Some right in front of us.

Some land right in the large fields as hunters wait for the truck to leave before advancing to locate and shoot them on the fly.

And fly they did! All of us decked out in orange were cognizant of our responsibilities for safe gun handling.

We had a great time! Birds were flushing everywhere. I did manage to down my limit of 2 birds.

Here Sam is showing off a Hen. What a mouthful. I got the birds home and prepared them by removing the suptuous breasts and legs to my considerable culinary skills. I saved the tail feather for perhaps a floral display or for fly tying. I am ready to do that again! It was great fun and a way to introduce youth hunters to hunting in general. A very social event or private event as you like it! Good Hunting! © 2014

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Category Archives: Big Game Hunting