300 win Mag advice

[tac29136]

Hi guys, Dave from ireland here. i am hoping to ask advice and opinions.

i am in the process of customising my rifle. It was a standard Remington 700 Police in 300 Win Mag.

i have fitted a PSE Composites Hunter stock on it, and now i am going for a re-barrel. I don't know what length to go for.

i want to make the rifle as light a possible. the barrel i hope to fit is the Bartlein 5R 1/11" twist, with a remington varmint contour, and fluted.

as it is illegal to reload in ireland, the ammunition i use are 180gr Hornady SST's.

the rifle will only be used for hunting, stalking and mountain stalking.

what barrel length would you guys advise? My gunsmith has suggested a 22" barrel, insofar as it would be more rigid and have less "whip" that a longer barrel. I dont want to loose much benefits of the 300WM by going too short as some people have stated to me that a 300wm with a 22" barrel is no better than a .308 or 30-06.

i will also be using a moderator / silencer with the rifle.

thanks in advance for your replies and advice.

dave

 

[dkhunt14]

You will gain around 30 FPS with each inch. That is approximate and might help you decide on what length you want. Matt

 

[tac29136]

Thank you Matt. I was thinking 24". Would that be too short for the 300WM?

 

[MudRunner2005]

I would go 26" minimum, if it were mine.

Illegal to reload ammo there? What is their logic behind such a law?

 

[tac29136]

Yea we are still living in the dark ages here insofar as firearms legislation goes. :-( under the law here, gun powder is classed as an "explosive" instead of a "propellent" so therefore illegal, as are centre fire semi auto rifles, and any rifle above 308 is "restricted" meaning very very hard to license....

I think ill stick with 24 to 26 barrel, hopefully it wont be too heavy for mountain stalk, etc... if i went with the 24" barrel in 1/11" twist would i loose the benefits of the 300WM?

Thanks for the advice guys. Really appreciate it.

 

[MudRunner2005]

The only lost benefit would be some velocity.

 

[tac29136]

Hopefully not too much velocity. Id still like to be secure in the knowledge that i can hit my target with enough power to kill it at long range too....thats why i was questioning the 24" barrel. Thanks for the replies.

Ill go with the Bartlein 5-R fluted remington varmint contour in 24". That should be a good accurate set up.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

If you want to spin any heavier than a 200 grain bullet I'd go to a 10" twist barrel. I'd Look at 24" to 26" long... preferably 26".

 

[NW Hunter]

My 300 has a Bartlein 24" with a 11.25" twist. Muzzle velocity with Berger 190 VLDs is just over 3000 fps. Killing energy of 1600 ft/lbs at 700 yards. My barrel contour is the same as a Remington Sendero. Randy

 

[Teri Anne]

Hi guys, Dave from ireland here. i am hoping to ask advice and opinions.

i am in the process of customising my rifle. It was a standard Remington 700 Police in 300 Win Mag.

i have fitted a PSE Composites Hunter stock on it, and now i am going for a re-barrel. I don't know what length to go for.

i want to make the rifle as light a possible. the barrel i hope to fit is the Bartlein 5R 1/11" twist, with a remington varmint contour, and fluted.

as it is illegal to reload in ireland, the ammunition i use are 180gr Hornady SST's.

the rifle will only be used for hunting, stalking and mountain stalking.

what barrel length would you guys advise? My gunsmith has suggested a 22" barrel, insofar as it would be more rigid and have less "whip" that a longer barrel. I dont want to loose much benefits of the 300WM by going too short as some people have stated to me that a 300wm with a 22" barrel is no better than a .308 or 30-06.

i will also be using a moderator / silencer with the rifle.

thanks in advance for your replies and advice.

dave

Hi Dave, Depending on the types of terrain you hunt in determines the length of the barrel with shorter barrels desirable if hunting in heavy cover where a longer barrel will be difficult to maneuver and the shots are at close range. In this type scenario the .300 WIN MAG would not be a good choice. A .308 or 30-06 would be a much better choice. One of the major issues with any rifles performance is having all of the powder in the cartridge burning within the confines of the barrel accelerating the bullet as much as possible. Powder that burns outside of the barrel does nothing to increase the speed of the bullet as it burns harmlessly in the atmosphere. If you hang out at ranges a lot like I do (Rifle and pistol instructor) as the daylight fades and you watch people shooting you will notice muzzle flashes that vary from almost nothing to long flames shooting out of the barrel. What is happening here is that the un-burnt powder leaves the barrel prior to ignition and results in the fire works. You can eliminate or tone down the fireworks by loading the ammo with powder with a burn rate and charge that can be utilized totally within the barrel. This may end up with you shooting somewhat reduced loads but with the powder doing it's job and not burning up uselessly in the atmosphere. As an example my .308 ammo, since I rarely shoot these rifles over 200 yards has the bullet leaving the barrel at around 2500 FPS (Nosler 165 Partitions). The result is that there is virtually no muzzle flash out of either my 20 inch or 22 inch barreled .308's. The reduced powder charge 46.0 gr vs 50.0 gr cuts down the cost of power. Keeping this in mind, think about how this would effect a .300 Mag. Utilizing the same powder the 300 Mag is using between 68 and 72 grains of powder (approximating factory loads would mean approximately 70 grains of powder. If you were to shoot that load out of a 22 inch barrel think about how much unburned powder is going to simply turn into muzzle flash and how much money you are wasting on unused powder with no increase in velocity. I have a Browning AB3 chambered in 300 WM. It has a 26 inch barrel and a 2 inch muzzle brake giving the total barrel length of 28 inches. That extra 6 inches of barrel length allows more if not all of the powder to burn adding velocity to the bullet, adding an additional 600 fps as well as increased energy within the barrel.
If you are going to shoot a magnum, shoot a magnum length barrel no less than 24 inches on up. My AB3 300 WM chronos out at just short of 3200 fps out of the 26 inch barrel, So my advise to you my friend is don't ruin an perfectly good magnum rifle by sticking too short a barrel on it. Without using a chronograph to measure velocity you might be surprised that your 300 WM has no more velocity that a .308 leaving the barrel.

 

[338 dude]

Hi guys, Dave from ireland here. i am hoping to ask advice and opinions.

i am in the process of customising my rifle. It was a standard Remington 700 Police in 300 Win Mag.

i have fitted a PSE Composites Hunter stock on it, and now i am going for a re-barrel. I don't know what length to go for.

i want to make the rifle as light a possible. the barrel i hope to fit is the Bartlein 5R 1/11" twist, with a remington varmint contour, and fluted.

as it is illegal to reload in ireland, the ammunition i use are 180gr Hornady SST's.

the rifle will only be used for hunting, stalking and mountain stalking.

what barrel length would you guys advise? My gunsmith has suggested a 22" barrel, insofar as it would be more rigid and have less "whip" that a longer barrel. I dont want to loose much benefits of the 300WM by going too short as some people have stated to me that a 300wm with a 22" barrel is no better than a .308 or 30-06.

i will also be using a moderator / silencer with the rifle.

thanks in advance for your replies and advice.

dave

24 inches long 1 in 10 twist

 

[Teri Anne]

Each rifle reacts differently and the only way one can really find out what is going to work is to actually shoot the rifle with your pet load. Chronograph your shots to get the real muzzle velocity from your rifle then actually fire the rifle at different ranges noting the drop and adjustments that would be necessary on a tactical scope to keep the bullet dead on at that range. In many cases especially with flat shooting rifles if you zero the rifle in at 200 yards it might be 2 inches high at 100 and only 4 or 5 inches low at 300. Kind of gives you a good dead hold zero from the muzzle to 300 yards when hunting.

 

[DoneNOut]

24 inches long 1 in 10 twist

I second this.

 

[Teri Anne]

The test barrels in the Nosler manual is 24 inches, which is what their data is based off of. It's also a 1 in 10 twist which I have found will stabilize most hunting .30 caliber bullets.