I thought I would give a report on my experience shooting a reduced recoil load for my 30-06. I am pretty new to reloading and so I'm learning a lot of new things about shooting.
I needed another gun for fall hunting because all of my kids now like deer hunting. I went with a 30-06 just in case one of the kids drew a moose tag. As luck would have it, one of them did. I wanted them to shoot the gun as much as possible so they get used to handling the gun but being it's a 30-06, the recoil is an issue when shooting a lot of rounds. I decided to start off reloading with Trail Boss powder, which is a very reduced recoil powder. I have to say, we had a lot of fun shooting this weekend.
I reloaded 40 rounds with 15 grains of Trail Boss and a 125 grain bullet. I don't know the velocity but I would guess it was around 1400-1600 fps. It was accurate enough at 50 yards. The great part is that it had about 1/4 the recoil of a .243 if I had to guess.
It was great practice for the kids. We walked around a pasture looking for gophers and blackbirds. The shooting was real world as they had to stalk the animals and then take a shot either standing, kneeling or sitting down. I can't think of a better way to get practice with a larger rifle than this. It's also fun because the gophers and blackbirds pretty much explode when hit with a 125 grain bullet. If you want to shoot the big guns for practice, give it a shot.
I needed another gun for fall hunting because all of my kids now like deer hunting. I went with a 30-06 just in case one of the kids drew a moose tag. As luck would have it, one of them did. I wanted them to shoot the gun as much as possible so they get used to handling the gun but being it's a 30-06, the recoil is an issue when shooting a lot of rounds. I decided to start off reloading with Trail Boss powder, which is a very reduced recoil powder. I have to say, we had a lot of fun shooting this weekend.
I reloaded 40 rounds with 15 grains of Trail Boss and a 125 grain bullet. I don't know the velocity but I would guess it was around 1400-1600 fps. It was accurate enough at 50 yards. The great part is that it had about 1/4 the recoil of a .243 if I had to guess.
It was great practice for the kids. We walked around a pasture looking for gophers and blackbirds. The shooting was real world as they had to stalk the animals and then take a shot either standing, kneeling or sitting down. I can't think of a better way to get practice with a larger rifle than this. It's also fun because the gophers and blackbirds pretty much explode when hit with a 125 grain bullet. If you want to shoot the big guns for practice, give it a shot.