300 wsm questions/problems

I am having some difficulty with a 300 wsm. I am looking for powder recommendations. I have a Savage model 12 in 300 wsm, it shoots factory Winchester ammunition very well, and it really liked WIN 760, but I witnessed the temperature sensitivity of it first hand, in as little as 20 degrees going from a safe load to a load showing pressure signs. So that will not really work for me.

I am trying to use 180 accubonds, as this is more of a regular hunting rifle than a long range rifle. The berger's and a-max's shoot better for sure, but after reading a bit, and my own tests on wet newspaper, I do not trust them up close on game. It will not shoot flat base bullets well, so I wanted to see what other powders there were, I have tried: RL 17 with no luck, even with the a-max's yes, velocity was higher, but groups were not good at all. H4350 and 4350 are okay, but do not group that well. Also, I have varied charges a bit, there is not a very big window for the wsm as far as charges go it seems, so I have exhausted that option, and as far as length, I am loading for magazine length, which with the accubonds, is pretty far off the lands, I did not bother to check, but they are not very close, the berger's or a-maxes are much closer. What else should I be looking at? Also, the debate about primers has me wondering, I have been using cci 250's should I switch to a 200 or a BR2? Perhaps? Any other bullet to try that is made more precisely or shoots better than the accubond, but will hold up? Thanks in advance.

what powder is used in factory winchester loads? is it proprietary or has anyone figured it out?

thanks in advance

I'm finding this caliber to be very tricky to load for. I have played with H4350 and currently use RL17. It is difficult to find decent loads. I have tried some of these accuracy loads of H4350 in the 61 to 63 grain range and it is just way to much pressure for Win. brass and my rifle. Right now I can keep 1MOA or less with 60grns of RL17 shoving my bergers .015" into the lands. I did find with a high pressure load of H4350 and 208 A-max they liked to be .100" off the lands. But that load I fired once and ruined the cases. So my goal is to find a slow powder (Retumbo, RL19, 22 and 25) that gives good case capacity and just deal with what ever the velocity is. As far as primers, I am currently using Federal 210's. I just picked up 1000 210M's for when my new barrel gets here. Hopefully that will work.

I have four firings on my brass right now working on the fifth right now. My current load has an ES of 10, SD 8 and velocity is an avg of 2896 from my 26" factory Savage tube. I have to bump the shoulders every time I reload. The one time I didn't, it shot very well, but extraction was difficult. I want to try some Mag Pro, but it is difficult to find in my area.

Tank

timeless61 said:

I am having some difficulty with a 300 wsm. I am looking for powder recommendations. I have a Savage model 12 in 300 wsm, it shoots factory Winchester ammunition very well, and it really liked WIN 760, but I witnessed the temperature sensitivity of it first hand, in as little as 20 degrees going from a safe load to a load showing pressure signs. So that will not really work for me.

I am trying to use 180 accubonds, as this is more of a regular hunting rifle than a long range rifle.

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I have the Savage 16 weathermaster in 300WSM. It likes Nosler and Combined Technology 168 grain Ballistic tips, pushed by 60.1 grains of H380, lit by Remington Large Rifle Magnum primers.
I have tried the 180's, I've tried the 150's. For my application, I'm getting right in the ballpark of 3050 FPS, right at the edge of the "sweet spot".
I have yet to have a deer not be DRT (Dead Right There) or take a step beyond where I shot them.
Those bullets seem to cause catastrophic damage internally, don't blow out the backside of the animal (except coyotes), and I'm extremely happy with them.
The CT's need a little fouling before they really start shooting well, so I usually take 3-5 foulers at the start of the season, and clean it after the season's over.
Not exactly ideal, but it works for me.

My Tikka is picky with powders/charges but COL hasnt seemed to be a big factor for it. It has a detachable magazine so I dont have much room to get the bullet closer to the lands so I just loaded everything to 2.86" with the 180 Accubonds. I had no luck with RL 17 or 22 (still need to play with the 17 some more) but IMR 4350 works great in it. I get sub MOA groups at 64.5 grains and half MOA groups at 65.1 grains. I actually loaded some up at 65 grains (which is MAX Load!) and they grouped really well without much pressure signs then the next time I loaded for it I accidentally put .1 grain extra in the first case so just did that on the rest of them. Worked out great, seemed to actually tighten the group a tiny, tiny bit....... Havent ran it through a chrono but it the Nosler book says 3013 fps with 65 grains and that bullet.......... I am using CCI 250 primers and Winchester brass.........

thanks for the responses so far, RL 17 did not work for me much at all, 4350 and h4350 both have the same "max" for me, "max" as in where I still have useful case life, that is at 63 grains, and I have gone down to 61 grains in .5 increments with both powders, and none really get much more accurate or worse whether it is any charge in that range, it shoots okay, not good.

like i said 760 produced the best groups, and seemed to be good velocity wise, but going from say 40 degrees during development to 60 degrees or a little more created a bit of pressure, so I kind of ruled that out.

I am now interested in like RL 19 or the Hybrid 100 v or varget, varget i know is not as temperature sensitive, or the VV powders, or ramshot, but they seem to be very hard to come by.

I assume no one knows what the factory loads use or it is a powder that is not available? seems like the factory loads had everything I wanted in my rifle anyway, but just too expensive.

CLW said:

My Tikka is picky with powders/charges but COL hasnt seemed to be a big factor for it. It has a detachable magazine so I dont have much room to get the bullet closer to the lands so I just loaded everything to 2.86" with the 180 Accubonds. I had no luck with RL 17 or 22 (still need to play with the 17 some more) but IMR 4350 works great in it. I get sub MOA groups at 64.5 grains and half MOA groups at 65.1 grains. I actually loaded some up at 65 grains (which is MAX Load!) and they grouped really well without much pressure signs then the next time I loaded for it I accidentally put .1 grain extra in the first case so just did that on the rest of them. Worked out great, seemed to actually tighten the group a tiny, tiny bit....... Havent ran it through a chrono but it the Nosler book says 3013 fps with 65 grains and that bullet.......... I am using CCI 250 primers and Winchester brass.........

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I have some very old IMR 4350. Have you found many problems with temperature effecting your loads and pressures?

Tank

Over the past year I have shot 300 wsm exclusively. Over this time I have worked up a number of loads that will shoot well under moa and several under half. Almost all bullets have shot better with different powders. 165 accubonds and rl 19 hover between 1/2 and3/4. 168 bergers and vihta vouri n550 shoot well under 1/2 if I do my part. 190 bergers and 7828 shoot pretty well. I am currently shooting 185 bergers and n-165 and shot a .60" group at 200 yds Friday. The easiest powders by far have been imr 7828, rl 19, vihta vouri n550, n560, n165. I got great velocity with rl17 and everything looked excellent but the targets lol guess my rifle just doesn't like it. Also I tried 180 accubonds quite a bit and never consistantly shot less than 1 1/4 so I moved on to other things. One thing I learned is that the lighter bullets liked the quicker powders and the heavier ones like the slower ones. Hope this helps.

I would recomend H4831 SC . It is an extreem powder and works well in the 270 WSM ,
7mm WSM, 300 WSM and the 325 WSM. I live in south texas and temp swings can be 100o
one day and 30o the next. I have and use the re powders but I have to change loading
depending on the time of year.

I also use a lot of ball powders and the velocity can swing as much as 150 ft/sec.

Varget is a realy good powder for lighter bullets but the case density is poor.

IMR 7828 is also a good choice and seems to be very stable.

I dont know what you are off the lands , but if you are close back off a little and it
will help sometimes.

J E CUSTOM

Stay with F210 primers and you will have better results.

The go to powders for the 210s have been both H4350 and Norma MRP with MRP giving great results. Costs more, and harder to find (Grafs and Black Hills) but works the best.

BH

BountyHunter said:

Stay with F210 primers and you will have better results.

The go to powders for the 210s have been both H4350 and Norma MRP with MRP giving great results. Costs more, and harder to find (Grafs and Black Hills) but works the best.

BH

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What's your set up? I've tried going with the loads other guys use and it just destroys the brass. Right now I'm afraid to even shot 60grns of H4350. Anything over that and I get flattened primers.

Tank

Try some Barnes 180 tipped triple shocks. I've witnessed some fantastic groups with those out of 300 WSM's.

liltank said:

I have some very old IMR 4350. Have you found many problems with temperature effecting your loads and pressures?

Tank

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I havent shot it in a huge range of temperatures yet..........

I've been very satisfied with RL22 shooting heavy bullets in my 300 and 270WSM. Excellent velocity and sub moa @ 1000yds.

I am runing 63.0grs. of RL-19 behind berger 190 VLD's and 67.0 behind Nos 180 AB's and both are sub-moa out of my Douglas barreled Sav. mod 11.