So my long range shooting and reloading addiction pretty well began on this website and I thought i would post a recent success in my journey to hit things further than I ever could have imagined. I even bought an unfired McMillan built Remington 700 300 WSM off this site from a guy that his own reloading business that decided he liked the 300 RUM better.
So I've made about every mistake possible when it comes to reloading down to learning the importance of seating depth, brass prep including annealing and neck tension. My recent goal was to build a hard hitting load for my WSM with bullets i could find over the counter, because before the best load I had for this rifle was with the 197gr Bullets made for Best of the West by JLK that was a dealer for them.
I didn't realize that Berger was about to move to Arizona, so that was a major speed bump since the gun has shot them very well in the past, but I was looking for something in the 200gr ball park with over a .600 BC and the only thing I have been consistently finding was the 195 gr Tipped Matchkings. I also have been reading great things about RL26 and despite very little info for the WSM, i wanted to give it a try. This stuff is amazing.
Today I loaded up my 10 shot ladder after already having found a seating depth the gun liked and took my press and prepped brass to the range with me. After checking a few plateaus in velocity I fell on 68.3 gr behind the 195s pushing them at an average velocity of 2948fps, a SD of 4 and an ES of 16! To top it off, i shot my smallest group to date in the tune of .10". I am beside myself with the performance of this rifle and am looking forward to putting this bad boy to use.
Hope you all enjoyed the story, thanks again to guys on here and thank you Sam at Panhandle Precision you have been a great resource .
So I've made about every mistake possible when it comes to reloading down to learning the importance of seating depth, brass prep including annealing and neck tension. My recent goal was to build a hard hitting load for my WSM with bullets i could find over the counter, because before the best load I had for this rifle was with the 197gr Bullets made for Best of the West by JLK that was a dealer for them.
I didn't realize that Berger was about to move to Arizona, so that was a major speed bump since the gun has shot them very well in the past, but I was looking for something in the 200gr ball park with over a .600 BC and the only thing I have been consistently finding was the 195 gr Tipped Matchkings. I also have been reading great things about RL26 and despite very little info for the WSM, i wanted to give it a try. This stuff is amazing.
Today I loaded up my 10 shot ladder after already having found a seating depth the gun liked and took my press and prepped brass to the range with me. After checking a few plateaus in velocity I fell on 68.3 gr behind the 195s pushing them at an average velocity of 2948fps, a SD of 4 and an ES of 16! To top it off, i shot my smallest group to date in the tune of .10". I am beside myself with the performance of this rifle and am looking forward to putting this bad boy to use.
Hope you all enjoyed the story, thanks again to guys on here and thank you Sam at Panhandle Precision you have been a great resource .
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