30 Nosler Reloads

[fishingstockwell]

Any body else shooting a 30 Nosler and have any range data. I shot mine for the first time today, mainly breaking in the barrel, but also shooting some single shot ladders to test for velocity and pressure. I shot the following combinations:

1. Factory loaded Nosler ammo with the 210 ABLR
2. Berger 210 VLD with Retumbo
3. Berger 210 VLD with RL 26
4. Nosler 200 Accubond with Retumbo

The gun started as a Win Model 70 300 win mag. It now has a 26", #4 fluted Brux, 4 land barrel, and sits in a Mcmillan Mcswirly stock. The factory loads were 2930 over a magnetospeed, quite a bit slower than advertised. The hand loaded 200 grain accubonds with a max load of 83 grains of Retumbo, only reached 2986 fps. The 210 Berger VLD shot 3012 with 84 grains of Retumbo and 2951 with 79 grains of RL 26. These were all max charges according to the latest Nosler reloading manual.

I was surprised to see the 200 grain Accubond shoot slower than the 210 Berger, both at max load according to the book. Even with the same powder charge of 83.0 grains, the 200 gr accubond was slower than the 210 berger. I know the bullets are different designs and the berger has a much higher BC, but that should not matter 6" from the muzzle. Is there any other reason that the 200 gr accubond would have shot so slow, relative to the 210 berger, and way below the expected book speed of 3080?

The 210 Berger with Retumbo shot 4 fps FASTER than expected, at least according to the manual

The 210 Berger with RL 26 shot 66 fps SLOWER than the manual, and RL 26 was supposed to be the fastest powder.

The 200 Accubond with Retumbo shot 94 FPS SLOWER than the manual.

Mainly wanted to share my range info, since there seems to be very little on the 30 Nosler out there, but also curious if anyone has an idea why the 200 gr accubond shot slower than the 210 berger. I would have assumed the 200 would have certainly been faster.

The good news is I had time for one 3 shot group, after breaking in the barrel and testing all the different loads, and the first 3 shot group out of the gun measured .280 MOA at 100 yards.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[wilkup]

That does seem quite slow, especially when there's guys out there pushing the 195gr Berger at 3200' in the 28 Nosler cartridge.

 

[Deleted member 46119]

Factory: 2930 from loads rate for 3000fps is a %2.5 drop. Not a big difference.
210 vld+Retumbo: 4fps "faster" than the load from the manual is actually as perfect as it gets.
210 VLD+RL26: 66fps slower is within the tolerances of lot to lot powder variation.
200 AB+Retumbo: 94fps slower is something I would expect. Especially if that was from Nosler's manual.

I think you are actually doing really good compared to book.

Forget the FPS and find the load that is accurate. Then cron that.

 

[Browning300]

seems slow to me also. considering I'm shooting the berger 215s at 2971fps with 78.5gr of 7977 in a 300wm I would have expected the nosler to get a solid 3100 with comparable bullets. you might try 7977 it seems like it might work well with the extra case capacity of the nosler.

 

[Wachsmann]

Its no 300 RUM no manner how you much the books like to post that it compares...
Also the bearing surface for the 210vld may be a bit less than the other bullets you were shooting. I think the 215 is even less than the 210 vld. So it can also achieve or run a little faster than the 210. If I remember correctly a lot of shooters was seeing this same thing happen when they switched from the 210 to the 215vld.

 

[fishingstockwell]

Since the first day with the 30, I modified my magazine to allow the bullet seated much farther out. The second trip I shot the following loads

Accubond 200s with H1000 - shot very slow. Could not reach 2900 fps.

Accubond 200s with Retumbo loaded .010 off the lands - shot poor groups, but the velocity increased to 3075. Not sure if that is due to the bullet being seated closer to the lands or the barrel speeding up after break in. Either way, they were shooting 80-100 fps faster than Monday.

Berger 215 with Retumbo(82.0 to 84.0 grs) loaded .050 off the lands. Had to load them short to eject a loaded round. At .010 off the lands, I had to drop the bolt to remove a loaded round. 82.0-83.5 did not shoot well, but it came together at 84.0 with a 4 shot group that measured .350", and shot over the Magnetospeed at 3080 fps. Only down side is it started to show pressure at 84.0 with a slightly stiffer bolt lift. I would normally back off a grain, but 83.5 shot poorly. It was 95 degrees, so that could have raised the pressure some. I'm going to try shooting the load first thing in the morning to see if the bolt lift changes. The first round of reloads were with virgin brass so the neck tension may have been more than the .003 neck tension of the second set of reloads. I'll shoot it in the next couple of days to see if the 30 degree lower temps and lighter neck tension makes a difference. I hope it to see the pressure drop just a little with this load. I like the sounds of a 215 hybrid with a .691 bc at 3080 fps.

Still need to try the 210 again with the bullet loaded out to .010 off the lands.

I've got 10 days till I leave for my AZ elk hunt. It needs to come together quick.

I'd like to hear opinions if anyone has experience with Retumbo and pressure changes due to temperature. On another forum, it was suggested that I dry lube the necks with graphite before seating the bullet to reduce pressure.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[wilkup]

How'd Saturday work out for you? I'm seriously considering this round myself and would love to see how your load development continues! Good luck on your hunt gun)

 

[Gone Ballistic]

How'd Saturday work out for you? I'm seriously considering this round myself and would love to see how your load development continues! Good luck on your hunt gun)

Gentlemen,
Remember to check one major thing in your reloading book when trying to compare your results to those listed in the book." What were the test loads shot with?"
If you have a longer or shorter barrel, that makes a huge difference! If you didn't seat the load or use the same brass and primer, that makes a difference. If the twist of your barrel is different, that makes a difference.
I shoot a 30" barrel which generates speeds of over 3300fps with my most accurate 200 grain Accubond load using 91.6 gr. of Retumbo.
Shooting the 210 gr. ABLR is another story. I have always found that when you shoot a heavier grain bullet, you want to use a slower burning rate powder. Therefore, I'm using 89.3 gn. of H-1000 and getting wonderful groups of less than 1/2" at 100 yds.

 

[fishingstockwell]

I've been to the range a couple of times, with interesting results. The load 84.0 grain load that shot the .35" at 3080 fps was with virgin brass. Shot it again with once fired brass and was way over pressure.

Went back yesterday and shot the 215 berger with 82.8 grains of retumbo at varying seating depths. Velocity stayed about the same around 3060-3070. Still a heavy bolt lift and ejector mark on the case head. only shot a couple groups of 3, but continued to shoot one ragged hole.

Went back today and shot the 215 berger with 81.6 grains of retumbo and varying seating depths. Velocity only dropped to 3040-3050. Still getting an extractor mark and heavy bolt lift, but not as bad. Groups were not as good today until I got to my longest load, .020 off the lands, and it shot a 4 shot ragged hole. This load had the highest pressure being closest to the lands and shot over the chrono a little faster than the others at 3058 fps.

With the virgin brass I had no pressure signs at 83.0 grains. With once fired brass I have pressure at 81.6. The loads with the accubonds and berger 210s were also over pressure and much faster with the once fired brass. I have such limited time to finalize load development that I decided to stick with one bullet and postpone any development with the berger 210 or accubond 200.

I loaded another 25 rounds tonight with 80.4 grains and varying seating depths. I think this will get me down around 3025 and hopefully the heavy bolt lift will go away. Tomorrow is my last day for load development and then I need to load enough to zero at 200 and head to AZ for my elk hunt on Tuesday.

If it settles in with a good group around 3025 fps, I will be very happy. Before I re-barreled the gun it was a 300 win mag, also a custom barrel, and I was getting up to 3050 with berger 185 before hitting pressure signs. If I can shoot a 30 gr heavier bullet with a much improved BC at 25 fps slower than the 185 in my 300 win mag, it will be well worth the effort to have made the change to the 30 nosler. Shooting that 215 berger at 3000 fps or more has incredible ballistics with close to 2000 ft lbs of energy at 1000 yards. I think the 185 in the 300 win mag was about 1200-1300 ft lbs of energy at 1000 yards.

Matt

 

[jgal72]

I never shot accubonds in 30 nosler, but have shot them many other calibers. My findings are they always shoot slower than comparable bullets. Shot same load just last week with 280AI. 160 accubond shot 100 fps slower than 162 eldx. However they were more accurate and from experience they are great killers.

 

[FURMAN]

How did load development go? How did your elk hunt go?

 

[Tommy T]

Thanks for the information on loading my nosler 30 the only thing is I'm not able to fined any retumbo powder so I may have to go with the H 1000 powder .

 

[Tommy T]

Dose anybody have any good powders that I could find ?

 

[WestCo]

Thanks for the information on loading my nosler 30 the only thing is I'm not able to fined any retumbo powder so I may have to go with the H 1000 powder .

H1000 with 215 hybrids shoots lights out with my 30 Nosler