30-06 150 Scirocco

[OzarkOaks]

Hello,

I am thinking about loading up some 150 grain scirocco for whitetail out of a 30-06. Looking at possibly loading the 180 grain scirocco for elk. Currently shooting 165 grain Speer BTSP for whitetail. I had 3 dead deer all 1 shot kills this season with the 165 BTSP. Had a real good exit wound on the first at 30 yards. DRT. The next deer was shot on a very hard quartering away and it dropped in its tracks. Very small exit wound. 100 yards on that one. The last deer was at 125 yards directly facing me. Entered right above the heart and exited 2/3 down the body. Just a fragment exited. Deer ran about 75 yards before expiring. No blood trail. The last was the only one that ran. So 2/3 DRT, and all 1 shot kills.

I'm wanting less fragmentation, more shocking power, and larger exit wounds. My thought process is to drop to a 150 grain to pick up some speed, and move to a bonded bullet in hopes that higher weight retention results in more penetration and larger exit wounds.

I'm wondering if anybody has made the switch from a 165 grain BTSP to a 150 grain bonded bullet or a partition and had better results on whitetail. Kinda trying to decide between accubonds and sciroccos. It looks like the scirocco retains its weight pretty well, and I have a tendency to put hard quartering shots on deer looking back at me so I'm leaning towards the scirocco for that reason.

Also leaning towards the scirocco so that I can get some field experience with the 150's and use the 180's on a first time elk hunt in 2 years. I was leaning towards running a 168 grain barnes as a woods load, and 168 grain accubond LR as a bean field load, but since the bullet shortage shows no sign of letting up, I am looking for an all around-er.

The 30-06 was new to me this past deer season. I've only shot Speer 165 BTSP. Prior to that I have killed about 30 deer with a 243 running a 100 grain BTSP. I do not have any experience doing any killing with bonded bullets or partitions. My brother has been using a 30-06 with 165 grain game kings, and the last two seasons the 178 grain eld-x. All dead deer. So between helping clean my brothers deer, and all of mine over the years I've seen a lot of BTSP kills, but zero bonded kills.

I've heard sciroccos are finicky. If anybody has any advice on getting the seating depth right I am all ears. I have a Winchester Model 70 Boss, so I think I will be able to get them to shoot because of the barrel tuner. The 165 grain BTSP shoot 1/3 inch at 2775 fps with 56.4 grains of RL 16, so I am really hoping I can get that kind of accuracy out of the sciroccos since I know the gun is capable.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Bockja]

I've been shooting the Swift Scirroco 165 gr in a 300 wsm for years. It has served me well on dear and elk with 1 shot kills on all. Shots were between 80 and 385 yrds. The biggest thing I noticed is that they like some jump. When I jammed them into the lands I was getting 1.5 moa or so. But with 0.025 to 0.03 off the lands I was getting sub 0.5 moa. As far as exit wounds, I only ever had one punch all the way through and that was on a doe at 263 yrds. All the others were caught in the off side hide. No shoulder or bad quartering shots either.

 

[North country]

Your ‘06 loaded with 150 or 180 siroccos will be a stunner killing deer or elk but just as bockja stated they can be seating depth sensitive as well as being fairly expensive if your doing any volume of shooting.

 

[452b264]

If the 150 gr. Sciroccos shoot good you wont need another bullet for elk. I use the 150 gr. Barnes TTSX for elk and it drops em

 

[OzarkOaks]

I've been shooting the Swift Scirroco 165 gr in a 300 wsm for years. It has served me well on dear and elk with 1 shot kills on all. Shots were between 80 and 385 yrds. The biggest thing I noticed is that they like some jump. When I jammed them into the lands I was getting 1.5 moa or so. But with 0.025 to 0.03 off the lands I was getting sub 0.5 moa. As far as exit wounds, I only ever had one punch all the way through and that was on a doe at 263 yrds. All the others were caught in the off side hide. No shoulder or bad quartering shots either.

Thanks for replying, and thanks to everybody else who has replied as well. Once I find some 150 grain sciroccos I will load some and update the thread. I appreciate the information on the jump data!

 

[Jim1187]

I do like the scirocco's from my experience with them in other cartridges and don't want to discourage you from using them, but why not a more conventional bullet like the hotcore or interlock flatbase, particularly if deer under 400 yards are the bulk of your use?
Hotcores are tougher than Speer's BTSP and are my preference between the two.

 

[Newtosavage]

If I wasn't worried about lead in my meat, SST's are all I'd ever use on deer. They drop deer like a hammer. No other bullet I've used drops them quicker, but then I haven't used them all either.

These days I shoot copper and I've had a few tracking jobs but always found the critter and all have been one-shot kills. But for spectacular bang-flops, SST's are tough to beat.

 

[OzarkOaks]

I do like the scirocco's from my experience with them in other cartridges and don't want to discourage you from using them, but why not a more conventional bullet like the hotcore or interlock flatbase, particularly if deer under 400 yards are the bulk of your use?
Hotcores are tougher than Speer's BTSP and are my preference between the two.

Hello Jim,

Do you have any field results using the hot core that you would share with me? Caliber, weight, velocity, and results on game? I like the price of the Hot Core. Speer does not say it is a core bonded bullet, but I thought that I read somewhere that there is a light bonding on that bullet?

Thanks for the input!

 

[OzarkOaks]

If I wasn't worried about lead in my meat, SST's are all I'd ever use on deer. They drop deer like a hammer. No other bullet I've used drops them quicker, but then I haven't used them all either.

These days I shoot copper and I've had a few tracking jobs but always found the critter and all have been one-shot kills. But for spectacular bang-flops, SST's are tough to beat.

SST's are definitely a great bullet for whitetail. Part of the reason I want to make a change to a harder bullet is because of lead contamination. The 165 BTSP is a really soft bullet, and it shed a lot of weight on the the kills that I made with it. I have some friends running the ttsx in 25-06 and fast 7's. They have had good result when pushed at 3100-3200 fps out to 250-300 yards. I've been told once it falls below 2600 fps it becomes a pretty slow killer. Running a 150 grain ttsx gets me about 150 yards before 2600 fps is reached. For that reason I have decided I want to try a bonded bullet that still gets really good expansion below 2600 fps. I like the idea of the scirocco because it should help minimize lead contamination, yet still expand pretty good out to 2200 fps. Its not going to be lead free, but I'm hoping it will provide a good middle ground between a barnes and a frangible.

Jim says he likes the hot core. Maybe he has some data on how much weight is sheds on impact?

I appreciate your thoughts. Thank you.

 

[Newtosavage]

The last deer I shot was a pretty small spike buck at just over 200 yards. My 120 TTSX's leave my 7mm-08 at about 2900 fps. Not a hot load, but an easy shooting accurate load. At 200 yards, they should have still been doing 2700 fps, at least. I don't shoot for shoulders - always double lung if possible to minimize meat loss, but even though that deer was centerpunched double lung, it still ran over 100 yards and gave me much more reason for concern than I should have had. I may be going back to the 131 Hammers for that rifle, but I like the 120 TTSX's and will keep using them until and unless I've had one too many tracking jobs. Gotta increase my sample size before I'll know.

 

[Spoonbill]

Have you thought about using the 165 partition? Its not a bonded bullet but it should work based on your parameters. Shooters pro shop has some 168 accubond lr’s for sale right now, be a cheaper way of seeing if they work in your gun.

 

[Jim1187]

Hot cores aren't really bonded according to speer or in my opinion, just a conventional cup and core but supposedly they are poured molten cores rather than draw formed cold like most cup and cores. If you want bonded offerings from Speer look to the golddots and impact offerings. I have not caught many hot cores and can only think of one in a deer. The few that didn't exit mostly got left in gut piles and I didn't bother digging them out. A few under the offside hide or in/against the offside ribcage of moose averaged roughly 65% their starting weight and core and jacket still together nicely mushroomed.

 

[OzarkOaks]

Hot cores aren't really bonded according to speer or in my opinion, just a conventional cup and core but supposedly they are poured molten cores rather than draw formed cold like most cup and cores. If you want bonded offerings from Speer look to the golddots and impact offerings. I have not caught many hot cores and can only think of one in a deer. The few that didn't exit mostly got left in gut piles and I didn't bother digging them out. A few under the offside hide or in/against the offside ribcage of moose averaged roughly 65% their starting weight and core and jacket still together nicely mushroomed.

Thanks for sharing. That is some good information. Sounds like the hot core is a good performer for the money!

 

[jeffpenland123]

the accubonds are good with quartering shot's i shot four all in total 2 quartering away both complete pass thru's the other 2 where broadside complete pass thru's all with 180 grain accubonds out of my 300 weatherby mag at 3250 fps and 4221 energy. with either bullet accubond or scirocco if you do your part it will do it's part. if you load 150's scirocco in your 06 they should do fine for elk from what i hear. if you load 180's in your 06 it will do fine for deer in the scirocco. i would go with the one that is cheaper and easier to get.

 

[rcook10]

150gr bonded or partitioned bullets are great. I also wouldn't hesitate to shoot an elk with one if you can keep the velocity up.