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I agree with all who have said that each gun shoots different factory ammo a bit differently. It is best to find a round that works well with a given rifle.
My approach is to find good bullets, and since I shoot very little, I want to make each shot count. I sight in my rifle and handgun at my local range, then I hunt. Then I clean my guns and do it again the next year. I mostly practice with snap caps.
Once I found what studies indicated were very good bullets, then I bought a few boxes of different ammo using those well-performing bullets to find out what shot well in my gun. I've got a Savage 110 FP in 300 win mag with a 4x12 Leupold VX II with a range-finding reticle. It's a heavy barrel with a muzzle brake from jprifles.com.
I settled on Remington Safari Swift A-Frames in 200 grains, shooting at 2825 at the muzzle. It shoots accurately for me and my rifle. I usually group a bit under an inch at 100 yards, under range conditions with sandbags in back and my Versa Pod short bipod. My Accu-trigger is set for about 24 ounces of pull.
I can't say what would work well in a given gun, 30.06 or 300 win mag or whatever.
But the way I got to my cartridge of choice for deer and elk was to look at bullet studies. A bunch of them.
Some are below. I think there are many good bullets for 30.06 and other high powered, centerfire rifles. But a few stand out based on the tests. A cheaper bullet that rates well is the Winchester Power Point. The factory cartridge is quite inexpensive, less than half of my Remington Safari-Grade A-Frames. But I don't know how it groups in my gun.
Here are some of the bullet studies I've read:
October, 97 GGG Win Mags
This study favored the Swift A-Frame,
"Remington Safari Grade with a Swift A-Frame 200-grain bullet. Our testing demonstrated that this is the best round available for the .300 Winchester Magnum. Each bullet expanded well in all three mediums and retained most of its weight. It also delivered the most energy at 300 yards because it's a faster, heavier bullet than most of those tested."
but here is what they said about the Barnes:
"PMC with a Barnes "X" 180-grain bullet. This fairly expensive bullet solves the problem of core separation by not using a core. It's solid copper alloy, and it's too hard to expand very much. Barnes attempts to solve the expansion problem by fluting the inside of the hollow point. On impact, the point splits and folds back into four petals, which form a nice but small mushroom. Note that the bullet we tested in bacon did just that. But at higher velocities and heavier impact mediums, these petals break off. We sifted all four of them out of the sawdust portion of our bullet trap after the bone test. Only three of the petals broke off in the water test; we couldn't find any of them. But these copper slugs did retain most of their weight and there was a small amount of mushrooming even without the petals. Note: Handloaders should be wary of this bullet. It's hard and the engraving resistance is high. This leads to a steep pressure gradient, a large increase in pressure for a small increase in powder."
Here are a bunch more:
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Notice the discussion of Barnes bullets here with petals that break off:
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And the Swift A-Frame which doesn't break off.
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24HourCampfire.com - "Move Over Fail Safe" by John Haviland
through
24hourcampfire.com "Move Over Fail Safe - Winchester's New XP3 Big-Game Bullet" by John Haviland
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Bullet reviews @ www.reloadersnest.com
Best Big Game Bullets - RifleShooter
March, 96 Premium
Swift A-frame reviews @ www.reloadersnest.com
Winchester Power Point reviews @ www.reloadersnest.com
Terminal Ballistics