300 WSM - Loads and bullets......

[Bluejay]

Hi Gents,
a friend of mine has just bought a SAKO 75 in .300 WSM for hunting Red Stag (European deer) and Chamois (European Mountain goat) and I would like to help him out in finding a good load.

Powder choices : As far as availability, I would prefer a Vihtavuori Powder and, according to their manual, the 165 seems to be the way to go....
Do you have a good powder charge to suggest ?

Bullet choices : I've read some notes where the use of the 180 grs. is advised, or "at least" the 165.
Which one would you suggest, considering the main shots are going to take place from 200 to 400 yds. ?

Thank you in advance.

Cheers
:wink:

P.S.: I have shot the gun @ 100 yds. using Winchester XP 180 Power point factory ammo's, and the results seemed to be quite good.

 

[DrMike]

My experience with the 300 WSM (I've loaded for about 30 of them) is that the calibre will shoot about any 165 or 180 grain bullet quite acceptably. My primary hunting load for some years has been a 180 grain Fail Safe with a charge of 69.5 grains of WXR. I'm using the last of my WXR, so I'm working on some new go-to loads. I have good success with a 180 grain AB and a charge of 69 grains of N560. A charge of 64 grains of H414 gives accuracy that is only slightly less, but with slightly higher velocities. I don't think you will have any difficulty finding an acceptable load with N165 or with N560 or N550.

With 165/168 grain bullets, I have used primarily Hornady IB (66.5 IMR4831) and SST (67.5 IMR4831). I had very good success with 165 Nosler BT and 57 grains of RL15, and with 168 grain Competition and 60 grains of RL15. I would think that experimentation with the 165 grain AB would be profitable. The 168 grain Barnes TSX and a stiff charge of 70.5 grains of IMR4831 yielded very good velocity and accuracy.

 

[Big Squeeze]

Hi Gents,
a friend of mine has just bought a SAKO 75 in .300 WSM for hunting Red Stag (European deer) and Chamois (European Mountain goat) and I would like to help him out in finding a good load.

Powder choices : As far as availability, I would prefer a Vihtavuori Powder and, according to their manual, the 165 seems to be the way to go....
Do you have a good powder charge to suggest ?

Bullet choices : I've read some notes where the use of the 180 grs. is advised, or "at least" the 165.
Which one would you suggest, considering the main shots are going to take place from 200 to 400 yds. ?

Thank you in advance.

Cheers
:wink:

P.S.: I have shot the gun @ 100 yds. using Winchester XP 180 Power point factory ammo's, and the results seemed to be quite good.

.............Bluejay,,,,,

The powders listed for the 300 WSM in my VihtaVouri Reloading Guide Edition 6, show N160, N165, N550 and N560. The N550 was only listed for the 165 gr Scirocco. If the Vihta is your best available powder in Italy, go with it.

Just picked up a pound of N165 to try for myself and looking forward to trying it. All the reports and reviews I`ve read, give the N165 a 5 star rating in the 300 WSM. I`m reading that it is very clean burning, has very low extreme spreads over a chrony (like within a 5 fps spread in one report) showing great consistency and delivers top velocities similar to RL22, but with a little less pressure and better ES consistency than RL22.

Reporting about the N160, also gives similar results with a 5 star rating. Either one should work very well in a 300 WSM.

From my Lyman manual, this particular load (in bold shade), shows as their most accurate using the N165 with the 180 gr Scirocco.

180gr Swift Scirocco,,,,,24" barrel,,,,,,2.860" OAL,,,,,,,WLRM primer,,,,,,,70.0 gr (compressed) N165,,,,,2936 fps @ 60,500 PSI,,,,Win casings,,,,,,trimmed to 2.090"........

In my VihtaVouri manual, I read a max loading of,,,, 71.3 gr N165,,,,185 gr Lapua Scenar,,,,,,2989 fps from a 24.5" barrel,,,,COAL of 3.031" (which is a little long for most 300 WSM magazines??).....LR Mag primer,,,,,Win casings,,,,,,trimmed to 2.091"......

N160 is also shaded in bold (as most accurate) in Lyman using the 150 gr Scirocco,,,,,70.0 gr N160 (max) @ 3247 fps @ 62800 PSI. Same primer, same casing and trim length, barrel length as the above Lyman listing, but with a COAL of 2.850".......

N160 is again boldly shaded in Lyman as the most accurate using the 200 gr Nosler Partition.............63.0 gr (max),,,,,,2763 fps @ 63500 PSI. N165 gave 2805 fps using 68 gr (max) with the same bullet @ 62400 PSI,,,,,,2.860" COAL.

I also notice in my 49th edition Lyman manual, that no N550 or N560 is listed at all for the 300 WSM in any bullet weight.

Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[Bluejay]

Thank you All for your detailed answers.

:wink: