.300 Wrench Help

[Vince]

I need some help with my .300 Win Mag reloading.

I have a Hornady 180 Grain bullet that I can get to shoot at about an inch but I'm trying to get the 200 Grain Accubonds to shoot in my rifle, with little success. I'm using H4831 but was going to try Retumbo and Reloader 22 as well.

I was also thinking of trying a 165 Grain Hornady SST and was wondering what powder I should use. Hornady suggest using IMR 4350 with the ligter bullets and Reloader 22 with the heavier ones. Since the 165 is right smack dab in the middle I'm sort of discombobulated here. Would you recommend trying H4831, RL 22, or IMR 4350 first?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Vince

 

[DrMike]

Not all bullets shoot well in every rifle. The hand loader may find that the time and components expended to find a good load cannot be justified. I like the AccuBond and use a lot of them. However, I have never been able to get the 200 grain AB to shoot well in my 300WSM. I have an excellent load with 200 grain Sierra GKs, however and with 180 grain ABs. I am comfortable with those two alternatives in that particular rifle. Consequently, when working with a 300 WBY, the 200 grain AB performed to expectations and that was the bullet of choice. My conclusion was that I might be able to find a good load for my 300WSM using 200 grain ABs, but I could not justify further tests at this time to find that particular load. As to the question on powder choice with the 165SST, any of a number of powders may work for you. The recommendations Hornady makes is based on Standard Deviations in their testing. Just because they recommend one powder contra a second does not mean that the alternative powder will not work for you. I would suspect that any of the powders you list will work at some particular charge. I would tend to lean toward RL22, in part because it has worked well for me with Hornady bullets across a rather wide spectrum of weights.

 

[velvetant]

In my 300WM I have now I can only get the Hornady 180 Spirepoint to shoot under an inch, Everything else is 2+ inches.
70.5gr H4350/CCI LRM primer/180gr Hornady SP@3020fps.

In my previous 300WM I used H1000 with 180-190 bullets and H4350 and H4831 with the 165 bullets

 

[OU812]

I never ran a 200 AccuBond in my 300wm but did use 180NP and 180 Hornady interlocks and both shot under an inch with RL22. 74.5 for the NP and 75.5 for the interlock.


Bill

 

[JD338]

Vince,

My go to load for the 300 Win Mag with a 180 gr is 75.0 grs RL 22. This load shoots well under MOA in 3 different rifles. It also shoot under MOA for several others. Might be worth a try.
As for the 200 gr AB, take a look at RL 22, RL 25, Retumbo and IMR 4831.

JD338

 

[Vince]

The 75.0 Grains of RL 22 gives me pressure signs.
I talked with the techs at Nosler today and first things first I'm going to try to forend pressure on my floated barrel and see if that helps. Thanks Mike, IIRC, at Nosler.

 

[OU812]

The 75.0 Grains of RL 22 gives me pressure signs.
I talked with the techs at Nosler today and first things first I'm going to try to forend pressure on my floated barrel and see if that helps. Thanks Mike, IIRC, at Nosler.

Have you backed down from 75 grains to see how it shoots? What pressure signs are you seeing?

 

[Vince]

Actually 74.5 grains gives me cratered primers.
I haven't increased from there with the 180 grain load and find the best accuracy at 73.5 grains, 0.9". I'm going to trythe forend pressure idea first and see if that improves accuracy.

 

[SJB358]

I had EXCELLENT luck with around 73 grains of RL22 in my old 300 Win Mag. It ran 200 PT's at around 2950 and man, it shot really well! 75 seems kinda high, what kinda speeds were you getting. Not saying it is unsafe but that is probably on the upper edge with a 200.. The 300 Win Mag running a 200 at around 2900 is some deadly medicine!

 

[.300winmag]

With the 200 grain accubonds, I had a good load with 70.5grs of H4831SC, it was pretty warm too. I also had good luck with 74.0 grains of H1000, Rem. cases, Fed 215M primer and 0.015" off the rifling. H1000 is a great powder for 200-215 grain bullets.

I might also add I am switching to the 215 grain Berger Hybrid soon. It has shot better than any bullet I've tried, has the highest BC without going to a 230 gr. (Which I feel is a tad too heavy for the .300 WM), and I' getting more velocity out of it with a grain less powder over my 210 Berger VLD load. It is an awesome bullet. H1000 is my powder of choice for it. I hope you can find something to get that 200gr. AB to shoot though.

 

[Vince]

It's showing the most potential with 68.0 grains of H4831SC.
I'm going to try some forend pressure next week and see what that does.

 

[FOTIS]

My go to load has been 70-72 gr of RL 22 200 grain nosler.

 

[bullet]

Don't try fore end pressure until you have tried other powders.

 

[OU812]

One other thing you might try is giving the accubonds a longer jump to the lands. From my experiences with accubonds they seem to like a good jump.

 

[SJB358]

One other thing you might try is giving the accubonds a longer jump to the lands. From my experiences with accubonds they seem to like a good jump.

Same here.. I haven't done well with them off the rifling. They seem to do much better with a little more jump..

 

[Vince]

Good point.

I recall how my groups tightened up once I found the right powder for my 25-06 earlier this year. Maybe I'll spend a day playing around with various powders before trying the forend pressure. Thanks for the helpful reminder. :grin: