BH,
What you say may have some trueth in it but to me +72,000 psi is still +72,000 psi. There is no way the WSM case is designed to handle that kind of pressure from its makers. WIll it take it, certainly but that is far over the safety margin of what the case is designed for and you have to agree with that.
You can talk all you want about drift and drop numbers as well but there is a reason your shooting 210s in your WSM and not 125s at long range isn't there. Simply put, its easier to make consitant hits and small groups at long range with heavier higher BC bullets. Not to mention, most loads are more consistant with heavier bullets compared to lighter bullets as far as velocity spreads are concerned.
Also, you or I or most on this board reading this realize the special features built into this rifle in custom receivers, chambers and such. There are unfortunately a bunch of semi educated shooters out there that own 300 WSM rifles, some in varmint type factory rifles that will read this and say, ****, I want that velocity and then they will try to do it.
The same thing happened when the 257 STW came out. Some very irresponsible smiths, one in general was quoting the 257 STW as a 4100 fps round in a 28" barrel with the 100 gr XLC bullets. This simply is not a true representation of the round. I had dozens of customers order 257 STWs from me and many of them came back complaining that they were blowing primer pockets at anything over 3900 fps in a 28" barrel with the recommended loads this other smith recommended.
Many of them were plenty ****ed because they ran through an entire batch of brass with these supposed 4100 fps loads and bolt life was perfectly smooth, no pressure sign on the case head at all but when they went to reload the brass, all had primer pockets far to loose to reuse.
All these were built on Rem 700 receivers so we both know that bolt life on a properly accurized and trued Rem 700 is not a good indicator of excessive pressure.
It got to the point I was having so much trouble trying to straighten out my customers from what they had read by a mr. Ferguson down south with his 257 Hot Tomale that I even tried to call him. Never got ahold of him but finally got him to reply to an e-mail once. This was several years after he had the article about "his" wildcat printed talking about these velocities.
His only comment was, "I load for shear performance, case life means nothing to me. If I get one firing at 4100 fps that is fine with me, cases are cheap and expandable so to answer your question, yes my 257 HT is a 4100 fps round in a 28" barrel."
Just because you can does not mean you should.
You make a reference to wildcats based on the Lapua chambered in the Rem 700. Not sure if you were referring to mine or not but I can tell you right now, with the properly designed chamber, you could easily load the Lapua up to put a serious strain on the Rem 700 receiver. But I will also say a properly trued Rem 700 is every bit as solid and strong as Wby MkV.
My wildcats have been designed with such a min taper on them that you will run into extraction issues well before you get anywhere near the pressure limits that would be classified as dangerous in any Rem 700.
I guess my point is this, in a specialized rifle, these pressures can be handled, I would still love to hear what the honest case life is with these loads, I suspect less then a couple firings.
Offering this information to the masses is in my opinion irresponsible at best. Most will never read the mentionings of "If your using a Rem 700" compared to a custom receiver. All they read is a 300 WSM loaded to 4000 fps which can not be argued is producing pressures WAY over what the case was designed for.
Just my opinion and we all have them. Just because you can does not mean its a good idea to do it.
Kirby Allen(50)
