155gr Sierra Palma in 300WM?

NewLRhunter

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Jun 26, 2011
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Anyone tried this combo yet? I'm using Winchester nickel plated brass (once fired and neck sized...I have a ton of this stuff on hand...would have preferred to use standard brass...but free is free!), H4350, and WLRM primers. The rifle is a Tikka T3 and the magazine restricts the COL to right at 3.340". So, at this COL and given the 155 Palma's ogive, I have a fairly long jump to the lands. We'll see how it works out...just interested to see if anyone out there has tried them. They should be moving at around 3200fps, and the twist is 1/11 on the Tikka, so i'm hoping it will like the lighter bullets. I have had great luck with it using 200gr Accubonds and H1000 with Federal brass and Federal LR primers, but would like to also have a very flat shooting load to use in it for varmint and whitetail hunting.
 
I've shot Sierra's Palma bullet from a .308 Win. case in a 32" 1:13 twist barrel and got 3160 fps. A 1:14 twist may be best at that speed which is what your .300 may well push 'em out at.

Spinning bullets too fast is often dangerous for accuracy. Any unbalance the bullet has will cause it to jump off the bore axis as it exits; which way depends on what side the heavy part's on. The centrifugal force at that speed from a 1:11 twist will be awsome. If the rifling's too deep, the engraved bullet jacket may be weakened enough to let the bullet fly apart.

I"d use a reduced load of Varget or IMR4895 to get the muzzle velocity around 2900 fps. You should do much better with those bullets leaving at that speed.

And seat the bullets out as far as possible then single load 'em for best accuracy.
 
Update: Got back from the range today. I had loaded up 8 batches of 4 shots each jumping .4grs between loads. 3 of the 7 groups were less than an inch. I'm pretty happy with that for an initial pass. With any luck I'll be able to get a final load that is in the .75moa range. Good enough for me (...since I'm probably the weakest link in the chain anyway). Next time out to the range I'll do another spread around the best in the first batch and pick my final load. Then it's off to test them out on a hog/deer.
 
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