30-06 with 168g E-Tips

[JGJohnson]

I spend a lot of time on the road in the fall and just listened to the Hunt Talk podcast on non-lead ammo. Kind of eye opening. The most concerning thing I took from listening was how much lead am I feeding my two year old daughter. I trimmed pretty wide on the last deer I shot, but sounds like it may not be enough.

I currently use 180g Partitions out of my 30-06 as my do everything load from antelope to elk. I am contemplating working up a load this winter with the 168g E-Tip. My understanding is that I can count on penetration as deep or deeper than the Partition? I like full pass throughs whenever possible. What experiences has everyone had with this particular bullet or the comparable Hornady or Barnes? Can I expect it to be a do all load like the Partition?

Thanks in advance.

 

[p_ham]

I shoot barnes 168s out of my .308 with good results. You should be fine out of an '06. Make sure you run your ballistics and dont shoot further than your bullet will expand.

 

[rideold]

I use the Barnes VOR-TX in 168 in my 30-06. It's as accurate as I can shoot (older Remmy 700)

 

[Carlin59]

Never tried the etips but have used the 165gr Hornady GMX in my .300WM for the past ~5 years. Love the performance, and would shoot them over anything else even if lead wasn't a concern. As an illustration of typical performance, I shot a decent 6 point bull last weekend, 275 yards, almost broadside with a slight quartering to. The GMX punched a perfect ~1 inch hole through both shoulders. Very, very little bloodshot or ruined meat. Just a clean hole in and out, took out the lungs, bull stood for about 10 seconds and tipped over. I'm sure a partition would have killed him just as dead, but I know it would have been with more meat damage.

 

[belly-deep]

My understanding is that I can count on penetration as deep or deeper than the Partition? I like full pass throughs whenever possible. What experiences has everyone had with this particular bullet or the comparable Hornady or Barnes? Can I expect it to be a do all load like the Partition?

Thanks in advance.

Yes.

A partition will lose about 40% of its weight. It is not uncommon for copper bullets to retain close to 100%. So they penetrate well despite weighing less at the start.

You could probably go even lighter than that if you want. I shoot 150 Barnes in my 300 Wby and 80's in my .25-06. Haven't found a bullet in an animal yet, but I've only shot maybe 1/2 dozen with copper bullets.

I do see animals stay on their feet a little longer with copper bullets though. Lead fragments and does more damage outside of the main wound channel.

 

[Big Fin]

I use them in my .308. They perform great and their accuracy is excellent. I suspect in your 30-.06 the Nosler E-Tip will perform the same way.

 

[1_pointer]

FWIW, John Barsness, the outdoor writer, used to say that a Barnes/Etip would penetrate as deep as a Partition weighing 1.2times as much. Kind of a rule of thumb...

I can't think of anything I'm likely to hunt that a good 165/8 gr bullet out of a 30-06 wouldn't work well on.

 

[6mm Remington]

I think you will be very happy with the E-tips and if the 168 gr. E-tips don't shoot in your rifle for some reason, try the 150 gr. E-tips.

In my son's one 6mm Remington he uses 90 gr. E-tips and it has taken antelope, deer, and his first elk with was a large cow at 350 yards. All of his stuff has been one shot and done and we have not recovered one from an animal yet including his elk. She was broadside and the bullet entered tight behind her right shoulder and it angled forward slightly and exited her left shoulder. She staggered about 20 yards and dropped. I'd say that's pretty impressive performance!

 

[Guy]

I think you will be very happy with the E-tips and if the 168 gr. E-tips don't shoot in your rifle for some reason, try the 150 gr. E-tips.

In my son's one 6mm Remington he uses 90 gr. E-tips and it has taken antelope, deer, and his first elk with was a large cow at 350 yards. All of his stuff has been one shot and done and we have not recovered one from an animal yet including his elk. She was broadside and the bullet entered tight behind her right shoulder and it angled forward slightly and exited her left shoulder. She staggered about 20 yards and dropped. I'd say that's pretty impressive performance!

Pretty awesome performance from the little 6mm Remington.

Good to see you here!

Guy

 

[Mcseal2]

I switched to the 180gr E tip in my 300 win mag this year. I found a box of the factory Nosler loads on sale and gave them a shot, I was thinking of going to an even tougher bullet than the Accubond for my moose hunt in AK. From my 300 they averaged 2896fps and shot extremely well. Practicing with them I shot a group at 600 yards that measured 3.5" across taking one round out of each from 4 different boxes of ammo. Pretty consistent factory ammo. I ended up shooting my bull at 300 yards in Alaska broadside. I put 2 through him and both exited. I used the same rifle on my KS whitetail. He was sparring with another buck as light faded and not giving me a great shot opportunity. He was at 370 yards, so I wanted things to be as perfect as possible before I shot. Finally I got him stopped quartering toward me and got the crosshairs steady enough on him I knew I could make the shot. I hit him inside the near front shoulder and the bullet stopped under the hide in front of the opposite hind quarter. Impact velocity should have been around 2075fps. The bullet expanded well and weighs 179gr. The friend I hunt with switched when I did in his 300 win mag and he has taken a moose at 500 yards and a buck at 200 yards. Both bullets exited. His brother in law borrowed my 300 to take a doe after I had shot my buck, he shot her at 300 yards and the bullet exited.

I will keep using them. From my limited experience (2 moose and 3 whitetail) they penetrate more than an Accubond but have a smaller wound channel. The Accubond creates a much larger mushroom and has a bigger frontal area that limits it's penetration. Animals go further and react less to the hit on a broadside shot. They still do the job just fine. I will continue to use them on anything bigger than an elk. I'm still undecided which bullet I will take elk hunting next fall, but I have faith in either. The only thing I'd caution is shooting at ranges where the bullet slows to much under 2000fps. I just don't know yet how much expansion you would get when the bullet slows way down. The cavity below where my bullet stopped expanding is as deep as the plastic tip of an E tip. It expanded very well but didn't fully expand on my 370yd shot.

 

[6mm Remington]

You too Guy! Good bunch of folks here just as it is on the Nosler Forum!

 

[GlockZ]

Whether you end up shooting Nosler E-tips, Barnes, and or Hornady's GMX bullets, all are accurate, and for some reason the 165-168 grain bullets in the mono form seem to be the right choice for the 30-06. It's almost magical.