Need help with 300 wsm please!

[volunteerbee]

I am fairly new to reloading but am being coached by a friend that reloads for his 22-250 but has no knowledge on the 300 wsm. I have tried the Reloder 17 at 69.3 gr. and the IMR 4831 at 70 gr. both under 150 gr. Nosler Ball.Tip bullets using cci magnum primers with no luck.Appox. 2 in.groups at 100.This rifle was shooting .5 with factory loaded 130 gr.barnes.These factory loads are just way to expensive to buy and i have also been told i need to go up on my bullet weight in this caliber.Can anyone give me some more good powder ideas and tell me were i should try to have this rifle at on my chrony for max speed as well as max accuracy.Thanks in advance for any replys.

 

[baldhunter]

This is what I get with my 300 WSM and 165gr Hornady SP bullets.69.0grs of the discontinued Winchester WXR powder, 3030fps.Reloader-22 also gives me the same and I believe it's the same powder,just a different lot and package.65.0grs of IMR-4350 did almost as good.Do a ladder test and keep on trying.300WSM 3 shots 100yds on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[jmason]

Your not just arbitrarily picking powder charges and shooting them are you? Your gun may not like someone else's load. often there is a certain powder and bullet that works somewhat across the board for a given cartridge but you'll need to adjust for you gun.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Hard to really answer without more info. Can you explain step by step your hand loading and load development process?

Your rifle might like RL17 with another bullet, or the 150 BT with another powder, or RL17 with the 150 BT at another charge, or different primers, etc. A 2" group seems kind of big in any case. What rifle are you shooting? Have you clean it or tinkered with it since getting the good groups with the Barnes?

Mark

 

[freelunch]

volunteerbee,
This may be off the wall to you, but I calculated the OBT node loads for you. If you want to take a chance, load 3 of each and see what kind of group accuracy you get. This is for RL-17 with 150gr Nosler ballistic tip.

67.8gr node 3, expected 3319fps
66.1gr harmonic between nodes 3 and 4, expected 3241fps
64.3gr node 4, expected 3161fps

If you try it, let us know whether the OBT loads are good.

 

[goose]

How does your bullet seating depth compare to the factory loads? I just went through a similar situation, and was only able to repeat factory load groups when I matched the seating depth. I was using the same bullets as the factory loads, so it may not work for you. Due to the different shapes of the bullets, an overall length measurement probably won't be a good comparison. I use an RCBS precision mic set, there are other methods as well.

 

[Popapi]

I am fairly new to reloading but am being coached by a friend that reloads for his 22-250 but has no knowledge on the 300 wsm. I have tried the Reloder 17 at 69.3 gr. and the IMR 4831 at 70 gr. both under 150 gr. Nosler Ball.Tip bullets using cci magnum primers with no luck.Appox. 2 in.groups at 100.This rifle was shooting .5 with factory loaded 130 gr.barnes.These factory loads are just way to expensive to buy and i have also been told i need to go up on my bullet weight in this caliber.Can anyone give me some more good powder ideas and tell me were i should try to have this rifle at on my chrony for max speed as well as max accuracy.Thanks in advance for any replys.

If you can find some try Vihitavouri N550 at 66grains sparked by a Fed215GM for the 150's and thank me later! START LOW AND WORK UP this powder has some ZING to it. My rifle shoot 150grn TTSX anywhere from .500-.6!

 

[ZSteinle]

I have had good results with H4350 64gr. pushing a 168 SMK at around 3030 FPS not really pushing it but the accuracy was incredible so i left it at that, best group was .136 inch

 

[Scout1]

volunteerbee,
This may be off the wall to you, but I calculated the OBT node loads for you. If you want to take a chance, load 3 of each and see what kind of group accuracy you get. This is for RL-17 with 150gr Nosler ballistic tip.

67.8gr node 3, expected 3319fps
66.1gr harmonic between nodes 3 and 4, expected 3241fps
64.3gr node 4, expected 3161fps

If you try it, let us know whether the OBT loads are good.

Freelunch, how are you calculating OBT when I didnt see where he told us the length of his barrel.

I'm running a 155 Scenar out of a 28" barrel using cci br2's and 67.6 grns of 4831. Very accurate

 

[freelunch]

Scout1 concerning OBT method,

For those who do not know, OBT is optimal barrel time and is a theory that the accuracy nodes for any caliber, bullet and powder is dependent on specific barrel time nodes (pressure waves). People use Quickload to determine the exact powder load to equal the pre-calculated OBT node times.

The tables for OBT Scout1, are in 1/2" barrel length increments, and the time adjustment for each increment merely adjusts it so all barrel lengths will give the same OBT node. So in this case I just chose a barrel length of 24". I could have used 26 or 20" and it would have resulted in the same OBT node results.

I had an ulterior motive in calculating the OBT nodes for volunteerbee. This was a double-blind statistical test of OBT where volunteerbee probably didn't know about OBT and I didn't know the accuracy nodes beforehand for 300WSM.

Yeah, I was "using" volunteerbee as a test subject for my own purposes in proving or disproving the OBT method. But, but, if the OBT method calculates good accuracy nodes then volunteerbee gets them for use rather than using the max load for RL-17 from the Alliant website as he did (69.3gr), which wasn't on an accuracy node.

 

[Scout1]

freelunch, I have used the OBT as well, http://www.the-long-family.com/OBT Table.pdf with Q.L. there are way too many variables needed to calculate a good OCW in the middle of a node. Thats the reason Q.L allows you to manipulate so many varibles such as H2O cap, burnrate, bullets weight, temperature to name a few. Q.L. must be callibrated to your specific lot of powder and your specific chamber and barrel since no two barrels will offer the same pressure caricturistics(spelling?), throwing out a generic charge weight might not be safe in someone elses rifle even if it is in yours.

Sorry for highjacking the thread,

Jon Hetzler

 

[freelunch]

Scout1,
When the loads I mentioned are under the max load, they are safe in any rifle. In this case, volunteerbee used 69.3 gr max load already and didn't see overpressure signs. The loads I calculated are lower than he already used--they are guaranteed safe. I agree that when you have the exact H2O capacity of the brass used and COAL used, then OBT gives a more precise calculation.