The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Reloading for the 30-06

rwilson452 · August 31, 2005, 11:03 PM

It has been my observation that a charge can vary as much as .3 gr in the 30-06 and you will never notice the difference unless your at or near the max load. If you find the sweet spot for oal it can make your load twice as accurate. You can wear out a barrel tinkering with different powders, brass, bullets, primers and OAL. For hunting big game at nominal ranges, I would say anything close to 1 MOA accuracy is good enough. Nominal range for a 30-06? 300 yards altho harvesting dear out to double that is possible with the 30-06. but most people can't shoot that well. If you realy want to shoot the long range stuff you will need a chronograph and a ballistics program to accurately know the ballistic path of the bullet. For a first chronograph that won't bust your budget I would suggest the Chrony line. I started with the Alpha Master. but upgraded to the Gamma. I did it because I just like to get new toys and the difference on the upgrade between the beta and gamma models was only 10 US bucks at the time.

As a final note i would warn you that reloading can be very addictive. It becomes a hobby within itself. When you get to the point your going to the range to shoot up perfectly good ammo so you can try a new load you know your hooked.

August 31, 2005, 11:03 PM	#13
rwilson452 Senior Member Join Date: June 10, 2004 Location: Tioga co. PA Posts: 2,647	OAL and powder It has been my observation that a charge can vary as much as .3 gr in the 30-06 and you will never notice the difference unless your at or near the max load. If you find the sweet spot for oal it can make your load twice as accurate. You can wear out a barrel tinkering with different powders, brass, bullets, primers and OAL. For hunting big game at nominal ranges, I would say anything close to 1 MOA accuracy is good enough. Nominal range for a 30-06? 300 yards altho harvesting dear out to double that is possible with the 30-06. but most people can't shoot that well. If you realy want to shoot the long range stuff you will need a chronograph and a ballistics program to accurately know the ballistic path of the bullet. For a first chronograph that won't bust your budget I would suggest the Chrony line. I started with the Alpha Master. but upgraded to the Gamma. I did it because I just like to get new toys and the difference on the upgrade between the beta and gamma models was only 10 US bucks at the time. As a final note i would warn you that reloading can be very addictive. It becomes a hobby within itself. When you get to the point your going to the range to shoot up perfectly good ammo so you can try a new load you know your hooked.