Bullet seating depth and load suggestions for Tipped TSX?

[GlennRMK]

Shooting a Remington 700 CDL Stainless Fluted in .300 WSM.

Have tried the following bullets:

200 Gameking
200 Accubond
180 SST
180 Interbond
180 Accubond
180 Scirrocco
180 Gameking
165 Accubond
165 SST
165 Interbond

So far the 180 SST shoots the best. Followed by the 165 Accubond and 180 Interbond.

Figured I might give the Barnes a try so bought a box of the 168 Tipped TSX.

According to my Hornady gauge, the bullet seems to hit the lands at about 2.875". Ive heard people say get Barnes .050" off the lands. Is this still the general consensus? So I am thinking start at 2.825"?

Any recommendations on loads? I am thinking about trying RL15, Varget, RL17 and N550. Thinkin I will stick with 215M primers?

These things are expensive to experiment with. If nothing shoots well within 50 of these things, I guess I will stick to the 180 SSTs as my elk, deer and black bear load.

 

[jimbires]

I have no 300 wsm experience . I have used Barnes bullets . here is the instruction sheet that was packed with the TSX bullets . hope it helps . Jim

 

[Shortmagman]

I spent time yesterday shooting 168 TTSX bullets out of my Ruger Mark II in 300WSM. I have been working up loads using this bullet and two powders that you mentioned. Both N550 and RL-17 have worked quite well in my gun but as of now I plan to use RL-17 as the load that I will take on my Wy. elk hunt in Oct. . My goal was to find an accurate load at about 3000 ft/sec and I was able to achieve that with both powders. I did get just a bit better accuracy with the RL-17 load.Here are my loads. They are not max loads and you can get 150-200 ft/sec more velocity it you want with this bullet and powder combinations.
WW cases
64.7 grains RL-17-3012 ft/sec average
215M Primers
.050 off the lands as the instruction sheet recommends

N550 load 62.5 grains 2990ft/sec
Norma cases
WLRM primers
.050 off the lands to start

My next step is to shoot my RL-17 load at 300 yards. This is about the max distance that I want to shoot. My gun weights just over 8 lbs with scope and I wanted to keep the recoil down to a manageble level.


I have been able to get Barnes TSX and Barnes TTSX bullets to shoot very accurate with many different guns. The secret is to get the bullet off the lands. Read the instruction sheet and follow it and your gun should shoot the Barnes bullet as well are better that the other bullets that you mentioned. All four member of my elk hunting party will be shooting Barnes bullets. I have loaded them all.

 

[jimbires]

I forgot to mention . I have my best accuracy at .050 - .060 . in my 7mm rem mag . 160 grain @ 3100 fps . Jim

 

[ShortMag3]

I have tried the below list of bullets with RL17 & RL15. In general I get better groups with RL15. I could not get the grouping I wanted with RL17 until I loaded the TTSX. I ended up at 65.5 grains, Fed215 primers, Norma Brass and shot 3150 fps with .75 average 3 shot groups. I keep the COAL at 2.875, this works through my magazine.

165 SST
165 Accubond - Shoots awesome with 61gr of RL15
180 Accubond
168 TTSX

I will be testing 168 Bergers this weekend. I have loaded three different powder charges with RL15 & RL17. I am hoping I can get them to shoot well. The price is good and from what I read this is the bullet for long range hunting.

ShortMag3

 

[GlennRMK]

I keep the COAL at 2.875

How far off the lands are you?

In my gun that would be in the lands.

 

[Steve7mm08]

I have found the 50thou jump to be pretty much bang on, other criteria for accuracy that I have found is to push them along fast.

In my 7mm08 I am using 48 gn of Varget (worked up from 45gn), the accuracy got better as the groups got faster.

You should be fine starting mid way between books min and max loads for traditional bullets. Every TTSX or TSX load I tried was over maximum load for lead bullets.

 

[GlennRMK]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

I finally had some good luck with the TTSX and RL17 today. Wind was calm and temp was around 55 deg F.

My rifle: Remington 700 CDL SF .300 WSM with HS stock and sako extractor.

I weighed the bullets and all 3 were within .1 grains. Did not weigh cases.

I used brand new Winchester cases and Federal 215M primers.

I seated the bullets about .050" off the lands which in my gun gives a COL of 2.825"

64 gr resulted in an average velocity of 3062 fps and .3" 3 shot group that was a clover leaf. This is the best group to come out of my gun this year.

65 gr and 2x fired Norma cases trimmed to 2.092" gave around 3115 fps and a group around 1.25" although i may have pulled that one.

66 gr and once fired Federal cases trimmed to 2.092" gave around 3160 fps and group of .75".

This is 2 grains under the max load on Alliant's website for 165s.

I stopped here because the wind picked up.

I have shot up to 66 gr with 180s at over 3100 fps before but that seemed pretty warm.

I shot a bunch of 1" groups with RL15 and Varget but nothing spectacular.