Howa 1500 sporter 300 win mag

[McCraggen]

G'day lads,

I have recently got a 300 win mag with a sporter barrel. Im just wondering if its possible to get it to shoot reasonable hunting groups without too much load development?

The action isnt bedded and its a thin 24 inch barrel.

Cheers.

 

[mechengr]

I don't have any experience with the Howa magnums, but it wasn't very hard to find a good load for my Howa 25-06. Sporter barrel as well, but only 22 inches. Did decent with handloads out of the box, then after bedding it in the factory wood stock and free floating the barrel, will now shoot ~1/2 MOA at 100yds with my current load and VLD's

No way to know until you try it! Good luck

 

[RevJim]

It will definitely test your "shooting off a bench" skills. I suggest, and this is just a suggestion, that you shoot a couple boxes of factory loads, a few at a time to practice your form, trigger squeeze,etc. and keep ypur targets. then, use that fired brass for your test loads, and don't try to get less than 1.5", at first. A consistent 1.5" to 2" five shot group ( shot very slowly, a few minutes apart) from a light magnum rifle is very good! Time and skill will tighten that up ( though you can kill everything in the mountains with a 2" rifle!) Good luck to you.

 

[Sauer6point5]

Get a supressor or brake, it will help you with recoil and get your groups down to 1" easy.

 

[gohring3006]

I have a Weatherby Vanguard in 300 Weatherby.
I added a brake and it's now sub Moa..
The accuracy is there with the Howa/Weatherby, the recoil was there too.

 

[McCraggen]

Thanks for the advice guys, im new to magnums, i know theres a lot of me in why im not grouping 100% i was just thinking sporter barrels wouldnt yield good accuracy.

 

[RevJim]

Sporter barrels can be super accurate...with some bullets. I noticed in all my "lighter barreled" rifles through the years that they can "prefer" a certain weight, even style ( say flat base over a boat tail,etc) A Barnes 180 TTSX is a good weight for a 300 mag...they are also pretty easy to get good accuracy from. I used H4831, then went to R22. There are several good powders for the 300 mag. If your rifle doesn't like that 180, keep dropping back a weight, say, 165s but if you go 150 be sure it is a monobullet. Just be patient, I never saw a good rifle in 300 win mag that wouldn't shoot "something". I once tried some factory Federal Blue Box loaded with 150 Sierra Pro Hunter bullets. It acted like Partitions on small Texas Hill country deer! So you just decide what you would "like" to shoot in your magnum and start working with it. Have a ball!

 

[McCraggen]

Thanks for all the info, ill have to start loading some different combos up and see howa i go

 

[barefooter56]

G'day lads,

I have recently got a 300 win mag with a sporter barrel. Im just wondering if its possible to get it to shoot reasonable hunting groups without too much load development?

The action isnt bedded and its a thin 24 inch barrel.

Cheers.

McCraggen,
The Howa , SAKO and TIKKA rifles dont have very generous magazines as far as COAL goes so standard magazine length is about it. If youre thinking of trying BERGER hunting bullets. Go with the 168 or 185 grain CLASSIC HUNTER bullets ( #30570 & 30571). These are hybrid bullets designed to work at standard magazine length so in most cases all the load testing thts done is to work the load up slowly checking for pressure signs and accuracy until your highest velocity accuracy node is found. You can find more information on these bullets here: New Berger Classic Hunter Bullets | Berger Bullets Blog
Dont discount the barrel until you test it. It may be a real hummer! If you have any questions please contact us here or at [email protected]
Take care,

 

[mechengr]

McCraggen,
The Howa , SAKO and TIKKA rifles dont have very generous magazines as far as COAL goes so standard magazine length is about it.

I'll have to measure mine tonight, but I was always under the impression that Howa was known for their long internal mag lengths. I've got TONS of room to load 25-06 VLD's to the lands.

They do offer a detachable box mag conversion though, which will of course limit COAL, if that's what you were referring to.

 

[mechengr]

Checked my long action's internal mag length: 3.5" on the nose. So, I guess plenty long for 30-06 derivatives, but a little short for the belted magnums like the OP has.

 

[McCraggen]

coz im new to magnums, im gunna go with a 165grain sst with 68grains of H4350, which is AR2209 over here.

Im not hunting anything too large so should be more than enough zip for now, also will let me adjust a bit to bigger kick.

 

[McCraggen]

It will definitely test your "shooting off a bench" skills. I suggest, and this is just a suggestion, that you shoot a couple boxes of factory loads, a few at a time to practice your form, trigger squeeze,etc. and keep ypur targets. then, use that fired brass for your test loads, and don't try to get less than 1.5", at first. A consistent 1.5" to 2" five shot group ( shot very slowly, a few minutes apart) from a light magnum rifle is very good! Time and skill will tighten that up ( though you can kill everything in the mountains with a 2" rifle!) Good luck to you.

Yup my best group for the day was 1.5 inches at 100, I feel as though I could do a lot better with LOTS of practice.

 

[gohring3006]

I remember my trigger was horrible.
I was able to get it down to 2.5 lbs with some work.
That would help your groups as well..