Anyone have experience with this bullet in .30-06?
My go-to powder and bullets for my .30-06 hunting load (RL-19 and 180 Accubonds) are both pretty much unobtainium right now... And of course this is the year I drew my dream hunt limited entry elk tag. I have enough loaded ammo, and a small amount of components to backfill what I might shoot to verify zero, but I'd really like to practice a bit with the load I end up hunting with. I really don't want to work up a new load... but if I want to practice with the same load I hunt with, I'm gonna have to change things up it seems.
Which brings me to this thread. I can get 168gr TTSX bullets in a decent quantity right now, and I can probably find a few suitable powders in the short term. I have plenty of primers and brass to load several hundred rounds. Barnes recommends IMR 4064 with this bullet, but I'm open to using others, especially if its more available ( Ramshot Hunter and Big Game are two I'm looking at). The 168gr bullet is supposedly designed with .308/.30-06 velocities in mind, as it expands down to to around 1500fps... with full "magazine ad" expansion probably down to around 1800-1900fps. Which gives me full expansion out to 400-500 yards if I can get ~2800fps from them. I'm not one to shoot beyond about 300-400 on game, so this should meet my needs.
I'd like to buy 200 or so bullets and 5-8lbs of a good powder, and have things all sorted out this summer, so I can practice before the hunt in September. My rifle is an older pre-accutrigger Savage with a 22" barrel. Nothing fancy, but it shoots quite well. I believe its a 1/10 twist, so bullet length should not matter much.
Worst case, I stick with the known load, and practice a bit with other ammo before the season.