30-06 close range

[shaman]

KYDEER88:  Welcome.  What part of Kentucky?

You bring up a good point, showing off the 150 grainer. Starting out past 100 yards, you're more likely to start finding bullets in deer.  Every bullet has an operating envelope.  So does every deer carcass.  It looks like that bullet functioned perfectly. The funny thing is most deer don't have the resilience to stop a bullet fired from an '06 or its ilk  much closer than that.  I've spent most of my deer hunting career shooting at deer at close range out of tree stands and never recovered a slug.  Even this year, hunting with an '06 and shooting two big doe at 150-170 yards, I did not get a slug back.

[Cut N Run]

I have recovered one bullet from a buck I shot in 1982 from an '06 that started out @ 180 grains and retained 148 grains after passing to his far side and imbedding just under the hide.  It was a 67 yard shot.  I was very surprised the bullet stayed inside.  It mushroomed nicely and the deer flipped in place.
 
In 1985, I killed a 7 point, 2 year old buck that followed the scent trail I made all the way to my stand.  I left the bottle of Tink's un-capped at the base of my tree.  The trail he came in on prevented me from getting a clean shot at him.  He was 25 feet directly below me, smelling the scent bottle and I could not lean out far enough off my Loc-On stand to get a shot.  Instead, I turned toward the tree and shot through that little gap between the platform and the frame of the stand where it rested against the tree.  If the stand hadn't had a flip up seat, I couldn't have made that shot.  Technically, he was 0 yards away...directly under me.  If I would have dropped anything, it would have landed on him.  I took a neck shot and he went straight down. That was a 150 grain bullet and who knows how deep in the ground it went.
 
I had a firearms instructor who said that a .30-'06 could kill any animal on the North American continent and he considered it one of the best & most versitile cartridges ever designed.
 
Jim

[KYdeer88]

[quote]ORIGINAL: shaman

KYDEER88:  Welcome.  What part of Kentucky?

I'm from central KY but do most of my gun hunting in eastern KY. The deer in my picture was shot quartering to me, "not ideal but it's what he gave me," between his left front shoulder and his brisket. It was the only shot I had when he stopped to look up from chasing a doe. The bullet destroyed his heart, cliped the left lung,and liquifide the right lung. I found the bullet lodged next to the hide on the back side of his rib cage on the right side. All my broadside -06 shots have been in and out. As was mentioned I too believe the -06 can kill any game in North America. My buddy shot his bull elk with his -06 and a 180gr round a few years ago and it was bang flop.

[CoG]

ORIGINAL: SHKYBoonie

Most of the time you can just hold on center. The bullet isn't going to rise or fall all that much. But, to answer your question, on most big game cartridges you would hold high on a close shot if you centered your rifle in at 100 yards. The reason for this is, the bullet actually drops before it starts to rise. It is kinda like a well hit drive of a golf ball. If you watch it close enough, you will see it actually drop some before it starts to get some loft. This is the reason most golf tees are built on mounds and not level with the fairway. If you sight your rifle in at 100 yards, chances are it hasn't even started to drop yet. At 125 yards or so, it may even be a little high. At 50 yards it will be around an inch or so low. I have shot the same rifle now for over 15 years. It is a 7MM Mag and I know how it shoots from 10 yards to over 500 yards. I have all the confidence in the world with this gun. Generally, where I hunt, if I can see it, I can kill it!

Actually, the bullet doesn't "drop before it rises" or even rise for that sake.  A bullet fired from a gun begins its decent to earth and "drops" the second it leaves the barrel.  The only drop or rise you think you see is the deviation of the bullet's arc from the line of sight through the scope.  This arc will cross the line of sight through the scope twice.  Somewhere around 25 to 50 yards and again way out depending on your extended range zero.  If you're zeroed at 100 yards, don't ever hold high at close range.  The most your bullet can be below zero at very close range is the height of your scope above your bore.  Normally that's 2.5 to 3 inches max at the muzzle and moves toward zero at that 25 to 50 point.  That's well within the kill area of a deer's vitals.  I swiped a photo to explain.

As for .30-06 at close range.  I've killed my share of deer with the 06.  Took most with 165 grain Sierra Gamekings.  I had one fragment a bunch through a front shoulder quartering towards shot.  Killed the deer quick but that was the last I used of those rounds.  Now I shoot Barnes TSX.  I recovered one a couple years ago.  Put a second bullet in a doe after she took the first bullet from my partner.  Quartering away over 250 yards by a bit.  Entered just behind the diaphram, raked both lungs, went past her shoulder, up the neck, and lodged just under the hide in her neck.  Was mostly intact missing a couple petals.  Quality performance in my book and she went down like a ton of bricks. 

For the short range shots 150, 165, 180 grain doesn't matter.  The construction of the bullet makes the difference.  Some brands the 180's may hold together better, but put in the vitals they are all swift killers.  Don't make the mistake of thinking one will always out perform the other because there's too many other factors involved.  Just land it where it should go and that's all you can do.