300 Dakota?

[MontanaRifleman]

I'm considering a rechamber on one of my rifles to a 300 Dakota. I would probably put a 27" barrel on it. Anyone have any stats or experience with this cartridge?

 

[MontanaRifleman]

I am also thinking about chambering to the 330 or 375 Dakota. Is there any capacity difference between the 300, 330 and 375 Dakotas and how practlicle/possible would it be to neck down the 330 and 375 to a 308?

 

[ol mike]

Montanarifleman ,

All three cartridges are based on the same case ,there are the typical small differences like there are w/ the 30-06 case parent cartridge.

The reason the dakotas aren't more popular is because it takes opening up the boltface of a magnum boltface to except the .545" dakata case.Whereas the ultra-mag and wsm's are based on a rebated case design -> same case made smaller at the bottom.

Lapua brass -in a case that fits much better in a long action receiver than the ultra mag or stw case -what's not to like.

You can go to -steves pages cartridge drawings- and look at the case dimensions and many others...Good luck -Mike

 

[J E Custom]

There is nothing wrong with the dakota except the brass is hard to find
and expensive .

The 300 Winchester mag will edge it out in velocity and the RUM or the
Lapua will beat it by well over 100 ft/sec.

I would think the ease in getting brass,dies and standard mag bolt face
actions would make the Win Mag or the RUM a better choice.

If you dont mind these things I would recomend the Lapua over the dakota.

A while back I checked Into a 416 Dakota and the problems were just not
worth the trouble ,(brass was only available from Dakota and they were
proud of it,plus as Ol Mike said the boltface would have to be opened up).
So I built a 416 based on a 375 RUM and have been very happy with
my decision.

Good Luck and good hunting
J E CUSTOM

 

[MontanaRifleman]

There is nothing wrong with the dakota except the brass is hard to find
and expensive .

The 300 Winchester mag will edge it out in velocity and the RUM or the
Lapua will beat it by well over 100 ft/sec.

I would think the ease in getting brass,dies and standard mag bolt face
actions would make the Win Mag or the RUM a better choice.

If you dont mind these things I would recomend the Lapua over the dakota.

A while back I checked Into a 416 Dakota and the problems were just not
worth the trouble ,(brass was only available from Dakota and they were
proud of it,plus as Ol Mike said the boltface would have to be opened up).
So I built a 416 based on a 375 RUM and have been very happy with
my decision.

Good Luck and good hunting
J E CUSTOM

Thanks and you make some good points but I'm working with a Ruger M77 action, so the RUMs and Lapua are not an option. I already have a 300 WSM and want to get away from the belted cases so dont need a 300 WM.

Right now leaning toward a 7mm Dakota, I really like the ballistics and also thinking of multiple barrels with different chambers (another thread) for this rifle setup.

Thanks for the input.

 

[NesikaChad]

7mm and 300 "Duhkhot-haahs"

Are just flat out bad ***.

Pretty cool little cartridges. Call Dakota Arms and ask for Ward. (He's the only Ward there)

605 347 3220 M-F Ward gets in early and leaves mid afternoon. He'll set you straight.


Lapua brass (now, used to be made by Jameson International)

they also have the dies. All Redding.

Enjoy.

 

[locotrician]

I have a custom built .300 dakota and it shoots great the case design is vey efficent and it has no problem shooting one ragged hole at 100 yards and my best so far is .435 inches at 300 yards and i am by no means a match shooter i have no trouble getting brass just dont order it fro midway cause it wont come. as far as the win mag goes i cant see how it would edge out the dakota i have two and neither of them are faster than the dakota and the dakota case is better as far as accuracy potiental in m opinion because it is not belted . the dakota has a larger capacity then the win mag as well. im shooting a 27 inch kreiger barrel and couldnt be happier.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

ole mike, thanks for the info. I called Dakota Firearms last week and Hornaday now makes their 330 and 375 brass and Norma makes their their 7mm and 300 brass.

Nesika Chad, I did talk to Ward last week and got some good infoo from him. The 300, 330 and 375 all have basically the same case capasity and the 7mm is a little shorter (2.50 vs 2.55) with about 7 water grains in capasity differnce.

locotrician, glad to see your post. I am alos leaning toward a 27" barrel. What velociteis are you getting from your 300? I am hoping to push a 200 gr bullet to 3100 fps or beter.

 

[locotrician]

well i dont know if you will quite get that out of it im getting just under that with my pet load and 190 jlk bullets it seems to me that you have better bullets in the 190 class than the 200 class but that just opinion good luck i think you will love the dakota.

 

[rlink]

I have shot the 300 Dakota for over 10 years; very accurate cartridge. The load I used was 81.5 grains of RL22, 180 grain bullet and the velocity was 3125 out of a 23 inch barrel with a rechambered sako barrel.

For your question, a 27 inch barrel will definately be long enough to obtain desired velocity.

If you have any questions or comments send me a message.

P.s If you are interested, I have dies and brass available.

 

[284stak]

Hornaday is making the 330 Brass??? Last I ordered it, Norma was making the 7mm and 330 while Hornady was going to do the 300. Does anyone have any first-hand input on the above. I live the Dakota cartridges, but the Norma brass is very soft and does not tolerate pressure very well --- after spending money and time on brass prep, I've learned to keep pressures way down if I want to use the brass more than a couple of times.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

I have shot the 300 Dakota for over 10 years; very accurate cartridge. The load I used was 81.5 grains of RL22, 180 grain bullet and the velocity was 3125 out of a 23 inch barrel with a rechambered sako barrel.

For your question, a 27 inch barrel will definately be long enough to obtain desired velocity.

If you have any questions or comments send me a message.

P.s If you are interested, I have dies and brass available.

Thanks rlink, I currently have a 300 WSM and 300 RUM. A Dakota would be nice too, but at this point it's down the wish list a little ways. I am getting 3193 fps in my 300 WSM with 24 inch barrel and 67.5 gr of RL17 pushing 180 E-Tips. I wonder how RL17 would do in the Dakota cartridges??? I think RL17 in the 7mm Dakota (as well as the 300) could be real interesting...

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Hornaday is making the 330 Brass??? Last I ordered it, Norma was making the 7mm and 330 while Hornady was going to do the 300. Does anyone have any first-hand input on the above. I live the Dakota cartridges, but the Norma brass is very soft and does not tolerate pressure very well --- after spending money and time on brass prep, I've learned to keep pressures way down if I want to use the brass more than a couple of times.

I would suggest calling Dakota about the brass. What I posted is what they told me last year.

What adverse affects do you see in your Norma brass from pressure? I'm using it in my 300 WSM and it seems to be holding up OK so far with some slightly loose primer pockets.

 

[284stak]

I would suggest calling Dakota about the brass. What I posted is what they told me last year.

What adverse affects do you see in your Norma brass from pressure? I'm using it in my 300 WSM and it seems to be holding up OK so far with some slightly loose primer pockets.

Primer pockets stayed pretty good - the problem I see with it is case expansion. If I use a hotter load, I would get about 3 firings before I would have to decrease powder, otherwise I would get sticky to difficult bolt lift. I shoot a 330 necked to 7, initially was necking the 300 down to 7, but really didn't care for the Jamieson 300 brass, have not tried the new 300's, which Hornady now makes.

If I keep my velocities around 3350, using rl-22, and 140gr accubonds, I can get about 10 reloadings out of them, but if push them them over 3400, things get sticky very quickly after again, about 3 firings. To give you an idea - first few reloadings would be around 74 grains and no bolt release issues, but later on at 72 grains I would get a sticky bolt in similar conditions.

I FL resize after each firing using a custom match die set.

I have tried retumbo, H-1000, 7828, rl-25, but the rl-22 gives me the best velocity without pressures issues as long as I keep them around 3350 fps.

Perhaps the guys shooting a plain 7 Dak don't see the problems I see, but would be interested in knowing what velocities they are getting and case life.