Black Bear CO 30-06

[6mm Remington]

165 gr. Accubond or Partition will work perfectly with anything you should be hunting with a 30-06. It's the perfect weight and seems to shoot very well in most rifles. Nothing wrong with the bullet you have chosen. I just have a lot of confidence in the Nosler bullets.

IMR5350 or H4350 would be fantastic powders to work up a load with also.

 

[EdP]

Never heard of IMR 5350, neither can I find anything about it on the web.

 

[OzarkOaks]

I've got a load for ABs in my .270 but not for my 30-06 yet. Since you are already playing around with seating depth I don't think I would be telling you anything you don't already know, but here is what I do for any load development after bullet selection. Use a reliable source (loading manual or on-line publication from bullet or powder mfg) to pick a powder and starting load. I tend to start near the middle of the load range. My preference is to ladder test for bullet seating depth first then powder charge loading at ,005, .010. .015,.020 off the lands. Many, maybe most, do it in the opposite order but pressures go up fast as you approach the lands so I prefer to get the seating depth first. After deciding on seating depth I ladder test powder charge going up a grain CORRECTION 1/2 GRAIN at a time. All shooting is 5 shots at 100 yds over a chrono. The best shooting loads always have good data (small SD and spread). The best load doesn't always have the best data but it won't be far off, and a load with bad data never gives a great group. When shooting I use an old fashioned egg timer and wait 3 min between shots. If I can't get a shot off in a reasonable time after chambering I pull the cartridge and let it cool before shooting it.

Thanks for passing that along. I run a Winchester Model 70 Classic Sporter Boss. I run it with the solid Boss. That throws a third variable into the mix most other reloader's don't have. So far I've been able to make it advantageous to me.

Im bringing up the make and model because I'm curious what rifle you have that didn't like the LR AB. It sounds to me like you have a method that should of yielded a load with the LR AB, but it did not.

Any ideas as to why they won't shoot?

 

[EdP]

I have not tried the LRAB but have tried Hornady ELDX and Swift Scirraco, both of which are secant ogive like the LRAB. The secant ogive bullets are more sensitive to seating depth and are generally recommended to be loaded well off the lands. I've tried close and far with no success, and I check every single load just to be sure they are within .001. The rifle is a Weatherby Vanguard. It will shoot 1/2" 5 shot groups with Sierra Gamekings but with the secant ogive bullets I am lucky to get 2" groups. So far they have me perplexed.

 

[OzarkOaks]

I have not tried the LRAB but have tried Hornady ELDX and Swift Scirraco, both of which are secant ogive like the LRAB. The secant ogive bullets are more sensitive to seating depth and are generally recommended to be loaded well off the lands. I've tried close and far with no success, and I check every single load just to be sure they are within .001. The rifle is a Weatherby Vanguard. It will shoot 1/2" 5 shot groups with Sierra Gamekings but with the secant ogive bullets I am lucky to get 2" groups. So far they have me perplexed.

My bother shoots the factory precision hunter 178 eld-x out of a 30-06 and they shoot right at an inch. Pretty decent factory ammo. I loaded some ELD-X for Dad's 270 WSM. They just got tighter and tighter the faster I pushed them till I hit above pressure and then it went to hell. I was running IMR 4350 with that load at the Hornady book COAL. Dad didn't kill anything this year with it.

My brother has shot several whitetail with the ELD-X load. Big time exit wounds on whitetail. The last one was a quartering shot at 30 yards. See photo. He says's he's gotten exit wounds on all the deer he has shot. He said the one in the photo was the closest he has shot one with that ammo and definitely the largest with the others about 1/2 the size.

Probably wouldn't be a terrible black bear load either.

 

[OzarkOaks]

 

[OzarkOaks]

I have not tried the LRAB but have tried Hornady ELDX and Swift Scirraco, both of which are secant ogive like the LRAB. The secant ogive bullets are more sensitive to seating depth and are generally recommended to be loaded well off the lands. I've tried close and far with no success, and I check every single load just to be sure they are within .001. The rifle is a Weatherby Vanguard. It will shoot 1/2" 5 shot groups with Sierra Gamekings but with the secant ogive bullets I am lucky to get 2" groups. So far they have me perplexed.

Weatherby has been known to use chamber reamers with long freebore on standard non Weatherby cartridges. That my be why you are having trouble with them. They released a new article on the 6.5 RPM cartridge and it states that they used regular freebore on the 6.5 RPM reamer design so maybe Weatherby is going to move away from that on non Weatherby cartridges.

 

[EdP]

For every bullet I use I establish a Hornady Bullet Comparator measurement for contact with the lands using an OAL gauge tool. The 30-06 does not seem to have excessive freebore, not that I think it should matter since I can measure bullet jump, but perhaps I should try some secant ogive bullets in another rifle to see if I still have an issue with them.

 

[OzarkOaks]

Yeah it sounds like you should have found a load for that rifle. It's a head scratcher. I'll let you know how the 168 LR AB shoots and pass along the jump info once I have it. Still waiting on the bullets to get back in stock...so who knows how long that will take. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Paul Shirek]

I took this B+C bear a couple years ago with a 6.5 creedmoor with no problems. This year I plan to use the 3006. I will either be using Federal Terminal ascent or 220 gr. Corelokt...

 

[buffybr]

As a 5 year old thread, I wonder if the OP ever got his bear and elk.

Like previously posted, don't over think your bullet. Your .30-06 deer load would be fine for a Colorado black bear.

I've only hunted black bears twice, both were spot and stalk one shot kills with cast bullets from my pistols, one with my 1911 .45 acp, and the other with my Ruger SBH .44 magnum.

Before I had my .30-06 rechambered to .30 Gibbs, I killed 8 elk with 150gr and 180 gr cup and core bullets from my .30-06. I later made one of my quickest one shot kills on my 2nd best 6x6 bull elk with a 117 gr Sierra GameKing bullet from my .257 Ackley.

Because of the higher velocity of my .30 Gibbs, I switched to 180 gr Nosler Partition bullets, and killed a couple of dozen more elk with them, most were one shot kills.

My favorite elk rifle now is my .300 Weatherby shooting 180 gr Barnes TTSX bullets.