# bullet weight????



## seabiscuit (Mar 30, 2007)

Hello all, i'm new to this form and am looking forward to some conversation. so heres my first question.

I have been hunting all of my life and I have always been under this assumption that, in a 30 caliber gun (30-30 30-06, etc) for deer hunting that a 150 grain bullet was the proper bullet weight and any thing more then that just would not mushroom when it hit the deer. Reason for my thought is my dad when he shot his first deer (back in the early 70's) he used a 30-30 with a 170 grain bullet, 50 yard shot double lung, deer ran some 150 + yards before it died, the bullet never expanded (same size exit wound as entrance wound, almost like he use a FMJ bullet) But I read some conversations about people using 165, 170 and 180 grain bullets, was my dads deer a once in a life time type of thing, or are there other people that have had this same thing happen?? Any insight??


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## ac700wildcat (Oct 30, 2006)

A 30-30 is only going 2300-2400fps when it leaves the barrel and that speed drops pretty quick. Now compare that to other 30 calibers like the 30-06 and 300mag, or even the .308. 30-06 leaves the barrel normallly between 2900-3000fps, 300 3000-3200fps, and the 308 at 2800-2900 fps. All those are 150gr bullets. All of them also have at least 1000lbs more energy at the barrel too.

That 170 gr bullet was going slower than the 150 by up to 200fps so at fifty yard even there was a lot of lost energy and thats probably why the bullet didn't expand. I could be wrong tho, but we'll see what everyone else has to say.


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