22” 300 Win Mag - Bullet and Powder Choice

Hello all,

After lugging around a 10.5 + pound 300 Weatherby for a couple years I decided to order an SSK barrel in 300 Win Mag for my TC encore. I got the tapered barrel and had it fluted so it should be a sub 6.5 pound rifle without a scope. I plan to put either a Leupold Mk4 4.5-14x40 or a VX-2 3x9 that I have laying around on it.

I will be using my Rugged Razor suppressor on it occasionally, which should help with the recoil from the light rifle.

I will be using this rifle for deer hunting in Indiana where shots will likely be under 100 yards, but could also be 300-400 depending on where I'm hunting. I also would like to eventually start taking this rifle on my western hunts for antelope, deer, and hopefully someday elk.

I'm having trouble deciding what load to try out in it. With the 22" barrel, I am a little worried about it being a flame thrower if I don't use the suppressor, and I also don't want the load to be too hard on my suppressor with unburned powder. Would a faster burning powder and lighter weight (sub 168 grain) bullet be a good option? I've considered everything from 130 grain TTSX bullets to 190 VLDs, so I'm open to anything! I usually handload 168 TTSXs with RL19 to around 3300 FPS in my Weatherby, and it has always worked great on deer and antelope, but I'm tempted to try something with a little more terminal performance and faster expansion. Let me know what you think! Thank you!

Edited to add - I ordered a 1 in 10 twist on this barrel

I have a load for my 24" with the 150 Hammers. I am in Virginia so not long range either.

6.5 Staball right around 3415 FPS.
H4831sc did well also, but never got a velocity on it, cause I am in VA and didn't need to know .

What powders do you have on hand? ... or can get???

But to answer your question.... yes. Faster powder with lighter bullets will be fine for your use.

H4350 with 130-155 grain bullet would be my choice (Hodgdon website).

Hope this helps.

Thank you all for the advice. I have H4831, RL19, IMR4350, and superformance on hand. I also have a couple hundred 150 grain interlocks that I found buried back on the shelf. Maybe I will just give those a whirl! Have any of you ever shot the 130 TTSX out of a Win mag or cartridge with similar speeds?

aOWENc said:

Have any of you ever shot the 130 TTSX out of a Win mag or cartridge with similar speeds?

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Yes, have used them in 300WM, 300 Weatherby & my 300-416 Rigby Improved at 3900fps…petals broke off, but the shank exited. Pretty tough bullet.

Cheers.

Get on Hodgdon reloading site. It'll have min/max loads. IMR4350 and either of those bullets will be a laser.

Like Frank said above, you'll be at 30-06, or maybe even 308 recoil.

I run the same 208-210 gr bullets on Retumbo loads in my 21" 300 win that I run in my 26" 300 wm's. Never shot either without a supressor, little loss in velocity is it, no fireball etc.

aOWENc said:

Thank you all for the advice. I have H4831, RL19, IMR4350, and superformance on hand. I also have a couple hundred 150 grain interlocks that I found buried back on the shelf. Maybe I will just give those a whirl! Have any of you ever shot the 130 TTSX out of a Win mag or cartridge with similar speeds?

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I'm having really good luck with H4831 and heavies in a 20" and 22" barrel. I think any of those powders you have would work.

buckbrush said:

I'm having really good luck with H4831 and heavies in a 20" and 22" barrel. I think any of those powders you have would work.

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Great to hear! What bullets are you using and can you give a ball park on speeds?

Right at 2700 out of my 22" barrel with 215 Bergers, WW brass. There is probably more there but it shoots really well at this speed. 208 Hornady ELD-Ms shoot at about the same speed out of my 20" barrel. I also tried some 175 SMKs out of the 20" and they were low 2900s. .

Is it Sammi spec chambered? If so, then I would use 70.5 grains of H-4831 using a 200 grain bullet. Should get around 2,800 FPS and would have a ton of energy to knock a deer down all the way out to 500 yards.