30-06 Ballistics Chart: Velocity, Energy & Drop by Load

.30-06 Springfield is the American service-rifle cartridge approved by the Secretary of War on 15 October 1906 as the “Cartridge, Caliber .30, Model of 1906” — a rimless, bottlenecked case driving a .308-inch bullet, originally a 150-grain spitzer at 2,700 fps — and, long retired from military duty, it is loaded today chiefly for big-game hunting and for vintage service-rifle target shooting.

What follows is the ballistics record for the .30-06 loads Hilltop Armory LLC carries. Hilltop Armory is a licensed retailer — FFL 5-43-119-01-6B-18066, Pineville, Missouri — and has not fired, chronographed or measured any of these loads. Every figure below was read from the manufacturer’s own product page for the item number shown, on 20 September 2026, and every energy figure was checked against grains × fps² ÷ 450,437 before it was published here. Six loads could be traced to a maker’s published figure and are shown. The ones that could not are named at the end, with no numbers attached to them.

30-06 ballistics chart: muzzle figures and test barrels

Read the right-hand column first. A muzzle velocity without the barrel it was measured in is not a specification, and these makers do not all publish one. Nosler states 24 inches and Sellier & Bellot states 23½ inches. Federal, Remington and Grizzly Cartridge publish no test barrel length for these items. The rows are each maker’s own figures and are not directly comparable with one another.

Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.

Provenance: every velocity, energy, coefficient and barrel length above is the manufacturer’s own published figure, taken from Federal’s page for 3006150LFA and Federal’s page for AE3006M1, Remington’s page for R27853, Nosler’s page for 40043, Grizzly Cartridge’s page for GC30-06S19 and Sellier & Bellot’s page for SB3006B, all checked 20 September 2026. Nothing in these tables is a unit conversion: each of these makers publishes in feet per second and foot-pounds, and the figures are reproduced in the units they were published in. Ballistic coefficients are quoted exactly as published and are never calculated from the other fields.

Velocity and energy downrange

Five of these six loads come with a published range table. Grizzly Cartridge publishes muzzle figures only, so it is absent below rather than extrapolated, and no column runs past the last range its maker publishes: Sellier & Bellot stops at 400 yards, and Nosler’s table runs to 800 yards but is cut here at 500 so the rows line up.

Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.

Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.

Provenance: the velocities and energies above are the manufacturers’ own — Federal, Remington, Nosler and Sellier & Bellot — from the pages linked in the previous section, checked 20 September 2026. Every energy cell was recomputed from the bullet weight and the velocity in the same row, and the largest disagreement anywhere in these two tables is 0.07 per cent, which is rounding. Velocity and energy fall from left to right in every row, as they must.

Trajectory with a 200-yard zero

A drop figure without its zero range is unusable, so the zero is named in the caption and the table holds only loads whose maker publishes a 200-yard-zero table. Sellier & Bellot publishes a 100-yard zero instead and is therefore absent: on that zero its 180-grain load sits 4.0 inches low at 200 yards, 15.8 inches low at 300 and 37.6 inches low at 400.

Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.

Provenance: these are the makers’ own 200-yard-zero tables — Federal, Remington and Nosler — checked 20 September 2026. The zero cell is printed as 0 rather than left blank on purpose. Federal’s and Remington’s published tables render that cell empty, and a reader or a parser that skips it will shift the whole row one column left and read the 300-yard drop as the 200-yard drop.

What the numbers mean for a shot

The two lead-free 150-grain loads publish identical numbers. Federal Power-Shok Copper and Remington Core-Lokt Copper are each quoted at 2,910 fps and 2,820 ft-lb with a coefficient of 0.278, and their 500-yard velocity, energy and drop tables match digit for digit. Both brands sit inside The Kinetic Group and both classify the load Big Game. On the published record there is nothing to separate them on ballistics.

Federal American Eagle AE3006M1 is the slowest 150-grain load here at 2,740 fps and the flattest-shooting of the three, because its coefficient of 0.410 is half again the copper loads’. At 500 yards on a 200-yard zero it is 50.5 inches down where the copper 150s are 55.7 inches down, and it still carries 1,021 ft-lb where they are at 740. Federal classifies it Competition and Target Shooting and publishes no terminal-performance data for it, so on the maker’s own account it is a practice and paper load.

Nosler’s 165-grain Ballistic Tip is the most completely documented load on this page: a stated 24-inch test barrel with a 1-12 twist, figures published out to 800 yards, and 3,188 ft-lb at the muzzle falling to 1,505 ft-lb at 500. It is also the flattest of the four in the trajectory table, 40.2 inches down at 500 yards from a 200-yard zero, some fifteen inches less drop than the copper 150s at the same distance. Nosler’s own use classification is deer-sized game, and Nosler publishes no ballistic coefficient for this ammunition, so none is shown.

Grizzly Cartridge’s 165-grain bonded Swift Scirocco II is quoted at 3,100 fps and 3,521 ft-lb, the highest muzzle figures on this page and above the 3,015 fps the SAAMI standard lists as a reference velocity for a 165-grain .30-06. Treat that as a question rather than a verdict: Grizzly publishes no test barrel length, no coefficient, no range table and no pressure standard for this item, so there is nothing published to read it against the other rows. Grizzly’s own recommendation for it is deer and elk.

Sellier & Bellot SB3006B is the heaviest and slowest load here at 180 grains and 2,707 fps, and the only one publishing both a G1 and a G7 coefficient, 0.298 and 0.150. Its published sectional density of 0.271 is the highest in the set and checks out against grains ÷ (7000 × diameter²). It trades trajectory for weight: 37.6 inches of drop at 400 yards from a 100-yard zero, with a published 1,051 ft-lb still on the bullet at that distance.

Why the test barrel is named in every table

Three of the six loads above were measured in a barrel nobody outside the company can identify: Federal, Remington and Grizzly Cartridge publish no test barrel length for these items, and Federal’s own downloadable ballistics catalog does not state one either. Nosler’s 24 inches and Sellier & Bellot’s 23½ inches are not the same barrel as each other. That is why the barrel column is carried in every table, why “not published” is spelled out rather than quietly filled in with SAAMI’s 24 inches, and why no row on this page is ranked against another on velocity alone.

For reference, the industry’s own barrel for this cartridge is 24 inches: the SAAMI standard velocity and pressure test barrel drawing for 30-06 Springfield specifies 24.000 in ± .010, four grooves, with a 10.00-inch right-hand twist. That is the industry standard, not a claim about what any of these makers actually used. A hunting rifle with a 22-inch barrel is not that barrel, and a shorter .30-06 is further from it still, so expect your own chronograph to read under the catalog.

Twist rate, chamber and pressure

Provenance: the table above is read from the ANSI/SAAMI Z299.4 centerfire rifle standard, checked 20 September 2026. The +P row is a statement about that document: it carries separate entries for cartridges that do have a +P standard, 257 Roberts +P among them, and carries a single 30-06 Springfield entry with no +P variant. A box marked +P in this cartridge is therefore the loader’s own step above the industry standard rather than an industry ceiling, and belongs only in the specific rifles that loader names.

Twist is rarely the limiting factor in a .30-06 at the bullet weights sold today. SAAMI’s reference twist is 10 inches and the cartridge drawing marks it optional, so factory rifles vary: Nosler states a 1-12 twist for its own test barrel and publishes the 165-grain figures in this chart from it. Very long, very heavy .30-caliber bullets sold to reloaders can outrun a slow twist, but none of the six factory loads charted here is in that territory. If you are shooting something heavier than 220 grains or a long monolithic bullet, measure the twist your rifle actually has rather than assuming it.

M1 Garand and other platform limits

The .30-06 chambering that needs a warning is the M1 Garand, and the warning is about the gas system rather than the chamber. Hornady built a dedicated .30-06 Garand load and published the reason: ordinary commercial .30-06 is often too powerful for the M1’s gas-operated system, and, in the words of Hornady’s chief ballistic scientist at the time, “Permanent damage can occur while shooting standard factory loaded 30-06 ammunition in the M1 Garand” — typical factory propellants produce port pressures and gas volumes high enough to stress the operating rod, bolt and receiver. Hornady’s remedy was a medium-burn propellant chosen to protect the gas port system. Read that statement on Hornady’s own press release before feeding a Garand anything not sold for it.

Two things follow for this page. A load being 150 grains and full metal jacket does not by itself make it Garand ammunition; the propellant burn rate is the issue, not the bullet. Federal’s AE3006M1 carries no M1 Garand statement anywhere in the published text of its product page, and Federal’s published usage for it is Competition and Target Shooting, so nothing here should be read as Federal certifying it for that rifle. If you do shoot a Garand, an adjustable gas plug or ammunition a loader explicitly builds for the rifle are the two routes that do not rely on guesswork.

Beyond that, the ordinary fitment rules apply. Cartridges built on the .30-06 case head are different cartridges: .270 Winchester, .280 Remington, .25-06 Remington and .35 Whelen are not interchangeable with .30-06 Springfield, and neither is .308 Winchester. Loads assembled toward the long end of the SAAMI overall length, up to 3.340 inches, will not always feed through every magazine. Ammunition also cannot be sent direct to consumers everywhere in the United States — several states and localities require delivery to a licensed dealer, and federal age minimums apply to every purchase — so check your own state and local rules before you order.

30-06 loads Hilltop Armory stocks that are not in this chart

A chart is only worth the sourcing behind it, so the .30-06 loads on the shelf whose figures could not be read off the maker’s own page are named here without numbers rather than filled in from memory or from another retailer’s copy. Winchester’s .30-06 product pages — Power-Point in 150, 165 and 180 grain, Super-X 125 grain, Deer Season XP, Ballistic Silvertip and USA 147-grain FMJ — all return the line “There is no ballistics data available at this time,” so no Winchester figure appears above, and the 125-grain light end of the cartridge is missing from the chart because of it. Browning’s .30-06 pages return the same line, and Browning’s Long Range Pro Hunter page additionally names the bullet as a Sierra Tipped GameKing in its overview and a Sierra Tipped MatchKing in its feature list, so this page names neither until Browning resolves it. SIG Sauer and Buffalo Bore .30-06 are stocked but uncharted: their published figures could not be confirmed at the source in this check, and a figure that cannot be confirmed does not go in a table. Sellier & Bellot’s soft-point catalog carries only the 180-grain .30-06, and its full-metal-jacket listing table could not be read row by row without risk of a column shift, so only SB3006B is quoted. Maker pages for the AMMO Inc. 150 and 165-grain SST loads, the Swift 180-grain A-Frame and the Fiocchi 180-grain Field Dynamics load were not reachable. Every one of those is a gap in the published record, not a judgment about the ammunition.

30-06 vs 308: the comparison on one test barrel

The 308 Winchester is the shorter case built to do the 30-06’s job in a shorter action, so the comparison is a fair one and it is almost always made badly — one maker’s 30-06 table against another maker’s 308. ANSI/SAAMI Z299.4 measures both in a 24.000-inch standard test barrel at the same instrumental distance. These are the two cartridges on one basis.

Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.

The 308 Winchester is standardised 2,000 psi higher, at 62,000 against 60,000, and the 30-06 still reaches higher velocities at every matched weight, because it holds more powder. At 150 grains the 30-06 reference range tops out 100 fps higher; at 180 grains it runs 2,690–2,860 fps against a single 308 figure of 2,600. The 30-06 also goes heavier, to 220 grains where the 308 stops at 200.

Which shoots flatter follows from that and from nothing else in the table, because SAAMI publishes no ballistic coefficients. At equal bullet weight and equal bullet shape the 30-06 starts faster and therefore shoots flatter; with a better-shaped bullet a 308 load can and does beat a poorly-shaped 30-06 load past 300 yards. The trajectory table higher up this page shows how wide that spread is inside one cartridge: four 30-06 loads range from −6.9 to −8.7 inches at 300 yards off the same 200-yard zero.

We stock the other side of this comparison too: 308 ammo, 300 Win Mag ammo.

30-06 ballistics questions

How far does a 30-06 drop at 300 yards?

With a 200-yard zero, the four loads charted above fall between −6.9 and −8.7 inches at 300 yards: Nosler’s 165-grain Ballistic Tip −6.9 inches from a stated 24-inch barrel, Federal’s 150-grain American Eagle FMJ −8.6, and both 150-grain copper loads −8.7. Federal and Remington do not publish a test barrel length for their loads, so those three rows are not strictly comparable with Nosler’s.

Which shoots flatter, 30-06 or 308?

At the same bullet weight and the same bullet shape, the 30-06, because SAAMI’s reference velocities reach higher for it at every matched weight — to 3,080 fps at 150 grains against the 308’s 2,980, and 2,690–2,860 at 180 grains against 2,600. Bullet shape can reverse it: the four loads on this page spread over almost two inches of drop at 300 yards within the 30-06 alone.

Is a 30-06 more powerful than a 270?

The 270 Winchester is standardised at a higher pressure, 65,000 psi against 60,000, and it is the faster of the two at matched weight — 150-grain reference loads at 2,830–3,000 fps against the 30-06’s 2,740–3,080, from a lighter .277-inch bullet. The 30-06 takes far heavier bullets: 200 and 220 grains, where the 270 stops at 160. Which is more powerful depends entirely on which end of the weight range the question is about.

What does the M1 Garand need from 30-06 ammunition?

A gas-port pressure the rifle was designed for, which commercial hunting loads do not all deliver. Federal loads item AE3006M1 specifically for it, at 150 grains and 2,740 fps — the slowest 150-grain load on this page and also the one with the highest published coefficient at 0.410. That combination is the M1 requirement, not a compromise, and it is why Federal, Hornady and Sellier & Bellot each load a Garand-specific 30-06 item rather than pointing owners at an ordinary hunting load.

Which 30-06 bullet weight carries the most energy?

Of the loads charted above, Grizzly Cartridge’s 165-grain Swift Scirocco II at 3,100 fps and 3,521 ft-lb leads at the muzzle, with Nosler’s 165-grain Ballistic Tip at 3,188 ft-lb behind it. Downrange the order changes: Nosler’s load is still carrying 1,505 ft-lb at 500 yards where Federal’s and Remington’s 150-grain copper loads are down to 740. SAAMI’s own reference figures run to 220 grains at 2,400 fps, which computes to 2,813 ft-lb.

Where to buy these loads

Every load in the tables above is stocked at Hilltop Armory. Browse the full 30-06 ammo range, which carries makers beyond the ones charted here — the tables are limited to loads whose manufacturer publishes figures that could be verified, not to everything on the shelf.