I have a favorite load that's been good on a wide variety of critters...
Moose, elk, deer, and 1 each antelope and caribou......
This for a modern bolt action /06....my rifle is a Rem 700 ADL.
I use Nosler 180 grain Partition, WW case, Fed 210 primer.
IMR 4350 powder.
I started at 54 grains of powder, and worked my way slowly and carefully up to 5X grains. This final load has the bullet firmly pressing on the powder, but not crushing it. Chronographs at 2779 fps in 22" barrel.
I bought my Winchest model 70, 30-06 as a sophomore in high school (fall of 1977) I started with 180 grain winchester silver tips, and 165 grain Remington pointed softpoints, once I even shot an Antelope with a 55 grain Remington Accelorator. A little over 20 years ago I started reloading and have never looked back. My primary load is 180 grain partion or partion gold, I use Winchester cases, 60 grains of RE 22, and Federal primers. I also load a 165 grain ballistic tip (RE 22 62 grains). The ballistic tips are extremely accurate well beyond my ability to shoot them in the field. The problem is that they ruin a lot more meat then I can accept. Penatration is also suspect. If you use ballistic tips make sure the impact is behide the muscular part of the shoulders, and stay away from rear angling shots.
When it comes to hunting a am stuck on the 180 partions. With the exeption of point blank shots on elk they have been text book perfact.
Here are a couple of examples:
5 X 5 bull elk 75 yards laying down. Bullet entered the left shoulder 3/4 of the way up the scapula. It lodged the far side scapula scrambled every thing inbetween. The lead nose separated but true to form from the partion back stayed intact. When I walked up to him he did manage to some how get to is feet but couldn't go any where.
Cow Elk way out there crossing an open snow field. I had all the time in the world to setup in the a prone position resting on my backpack. I held about a foot over her head and in line with her front leg. What I didn't know was that between me and the elk (I was out of the wind) there was a nasty cross-wind. On the fist shot the snow behinded the elk looked like someone had tossed out a bucket of crimson paint. I have a rule if anything is up I am still shooting. I repeated the shot two more times. Oviously hit hard and on the way out I went after her head but before I could connect she dropped. The three bullets struck the elk within an eight inch group in the right femur (large rear leg bone) and adjacent muscle group. Two of the bullets exited the far side the third bullet lodged in the off side hide. The femarial artery was severed which caused a quick death (quicker than most lung shots). When I hiked up to the elk I realized that cross wind was quite stiff. I guessed the bullet drop at close to 3.5 feet. The rifle is sighted in at 2.25 to 2.5 inches high at 100 yards. Approximate velocity is 2800 fps.
The load crushes deer (shoulder hits are hard on meat but a whole lot better then any other bullet I have ever used).
Long story short; my two cents is on the 180 grain partions and find a safe load in gets you into the 2800 fps range.
