Long shot for my 30-06

Tarfur

New Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2002
Messages
4
Location
Iceland
Hello guys.

How long shots would you take with a 30-06? I have one and I can shoot groups under an inch no prob (100m). I will be using Sierra 165gr HPBT GameKing or the 150gr. Sierra SPBT. The rifle is a Husqvarna 1640 and is topped with a Schmitd & Bender 8x56. I do not have much experience in this but I´m willing to practis as much as needed.
 
I'm not expert enough to tell you how far to push that rifle, but I've been practicing out to 700 yards with a .308 and I can't see any reason why a 30.06 would be any less. The main reason I'm posting though is I notice you are from Iceland. So what do you hunt there?
 
how long you can shoot is just first a question of how much MOA you have on your scope , usualy European hunting scope have very few MOA in elevation so make a trial at 100 yards and shoot one group , set your elevation turret to max elevation shoot another group , measure the distance between the two groups and you get your maximum elevation by this way and with your balistic chart you know what is your maximum distance to shoot with your rifle .

I am a great fan of S&B product but the tactical 10x is a good scope for long range and a used one cost around 550/600 Euro in France

on 30.06 I use

Sierra 175 MK and Sierra 190 MK and the very good lapua Scenar 187 ( less costly than Sierra in Europe ) without any problem at 1000 yards , but 168 SMK can work too .

good shooting

DAN TEC
 
For my hunting rifle in 30-06, I have put a shooting limit of 700yds. It is a range that I have enough scope elevation for, the bullet will arrive with enough vel to do fatal damage, I can range easily with my Leica 800, and most importantly, is the range that I can confidently put my bullets into the kill zone.

The lethal limits of the 30-06 with a 165gr bullet is probably out to 900yds. The problem is can you shoot well enough in hunting situations to get the job done?

Shoot at the ranges you want to hunt at. You may be surprised that your sub MOA rifle isn't. When I was load developing, I too had sub MOA groups at 200yds. However, at longer ranges, there was so much vertical stringing that I would have been happy hitting a 2.5 MOA target. A change of powder and I was back to shooting true sub MOA groups at long range.

Use hunting positions most common to your styles of hunting. You will quickly find that max range and effective range are very different.

When still hunting, I will not shoot beyond 400yds. Just not steady enough from field rests. From a bipod, off the hood situation, I can go to my max 700yds.

My load is a 165gr SST over H4350 with a muzzle vel of 2750fps. This is a consistent sub MOA rifle, if I do my part. I have shot this rifle accurately to over 1000yds, but they don't build concrete benches in the bush.

Good luck...

Jerry
 
I have been using a 30-06 since out at the 1000 yard mark for over 25 years with great success on everything that walks the continent. Many moose any several bears will attest to this. I have found that 180 grain bullets seem to work better in this cartridge than the 165s at longer ranges. True they will drop a bit more but this can be compensated for . The big gain is in the residual kinetic energy. Pretty much across the board you will find a higher ballistic coefficient with 180s along with a higher sectional density.As with all long shots bullet placement is the key but having that little bit more retained energy helps too.
 
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