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US869/ 300 RUM ?

US869 and 180's will work, and I have shot a fair amount of old mil surplus powder that for all practical purposes was US869. The vels are on the lower side for a 300RUM, but if it is all you have, have some left from years gone by or have bulk mil surplus like I did/do, then it will work.

Personally, I load most of my 300RUMs with Retumbo, and with a 180gr NAB, I am running just over 3,400fps in my 26" tube. A little higher in the 28".
 
I use h-1000 in my rum. I don't get anywhere near 100gr of powder in there. It shoots 230 at 3,000FPS.
Makes sense, 869 is a ball powder, h1000 is extruded stick type. As a rule you can't get nearly as much of that pellet/kernel shape into a given volume.

That sounds like a good load! Velocity is right where I'd expect, in my 300 win mag I get 225s to 2760-2800 so 200 feet per second faster with a 5 grain heavier pill makes a lot of sense.

Do you find the h1000 lives up to the reviews it gets regarding temp insensitivity and consistency?
 
H1000 is one of the best for temp stability. I couldn't get it to group Well with 180 scirocco but at 94.5gr was around 3200 and according to book could go to 96gr
 
Makes sense, 869 is a ball powder, h1000 is extruded stick type. As a rule you can't get nearly as much of that pellet/kernel shape into a given volume.

That sounds like a good load! Velocity is right where I'd expect, in my 300 win mag I get 225s to 2760-2800 so 200 feet per second faster with a 5 grain heavier pill makes a lot of sense.

Do you find the h1000 lives up to the reviews it gets regarding temp insensitivity and consistency?
Yes, the gun groups well and don't see a difference when the weather is cold or warm.
 
2 Different threads, 1 for 7Rum and 1 for
300RUM. Ha. Ha. Though I was loosing my mind. 🤣
869 will work fine, if you live or going to hunt with temp swings, Be careful.
I like Retumbo, used it alot, but since Vihtavuori is less expensive and I don't care if I burn my barrel I have been using
N-570 get 100 to 200 more fps.
With 185 Juggernaut and N-570 out of a
28" barrel she's cruising nicely 3250fps.
 
I have tried US 869 in both my 7 RUM and my 300 RUM and quickly went back to Retumbo. I was looking for a full case with the 869 but I couldn't get the velocity or the consistency with it. Sd and Es was horrible in my rifles. Hope this helps, Jason
 
Yup! I was just looking at hodgdons data…the do indeed have data for 180s with 869, it's not that it can't be done but the velocity tops out at 3070 or so with 107 grains of the stuff packed in there if I recall correctly, I'm just thinking why use up barrel life and components and generate all that blast and recoil just to match boring old 300 win mag performance?

The other four you list here should all be great, and of them my moneys on rl25 yielding the highest muzzle velocity and overall performance.

Rl22 may be a tad on the fast side for the RUM case but I suspect would still make more sense than 869 on the other end.
Retumbo would be the best bet. I got 190 VLD's soaring at 3100 with Retumbo, N560 would be the next best thing. Both shoot really well and have great velocity with realistically low SD, in my rifle of course.
 
I tried it andH870 many years ago, and could not get velocity. Both are similar. We used H870 with Hornady 220 grain round nose bullets in .300 Weatherbys as a brush load...back in the 1960s. I thought US 869might have worked with a 210 grain Berger when I switched to a .300 RUM, but could not get any velocity...with a 30" barrel.

Fast fwd to last year, I tried it in a .375 Cheytac with a 36" barrel and the first 2 shots went through the same hole. I was looking for about 3,000 ft./ second with 400 grain cutting edge bullets, and the Vos were 3158, and 3163 (28 deg.F.). I saved the 3rd round as the recoil seemed a little more than usual and found I had loaded 148.5 grains instead of 138.5. I shot the US 869 again and had varying degrees of success. It is very temperature sensitive. I was able to get good results with lower powder charges and repeated the 149 and had good ES, usually, but velocity was temperature dependent and varied widely.
I never shot the hot load in warmer temperatures. I suspect and agree with others that it works very well with larger projectiles at higher pressures...near or at the max. It is one of the most temperature sensitive of the single based powders, and there are better choices.

If you have a lot of it and want to experiment: Something I have also tried at various times to get results is to raise the pressure by jamming the bullets into the lands. So if you want to raise the pressure a little and have a little more case capacity, and get higher velocity, you might try going into the lands a bit. Proceed with caution, of course. A longer barrel will also yield better results with a slower burning powder, and hotter primers (which will might increase ES). One upside to US 869 is that I have read it is easier on barrels.
I don't know if that's correct. I'm trying to determine that now which is what led me to this post.

With my RUM I cannot find anything better than Retumbo....not to say that there is not something better out there.
 
Retumbo is a known "good powder" for 300 UM. If you got any R33 or can find some it might be a good one. Not temp stable like Retumbo but might surprise you.

Guessing it d be close to a full case also on the load density.
 
I used it in my 338 Edge, but I had to extrapolate and confirm with QL and the Pressure Trace. Have none left and never got a chance to try it in my 300RUM, it would be ok with 220g+ bullets.
Retumbo is the perfect powder and H50BMG works quite well also.
I run 200g-210g bullets in mine or 180g TTSX.

Cheers.
My go to powders in big cases are Retumbo, H1000, and RL 33:

Retumbo in 300 RUM with 220 or heavier bullets (lighter with mono)
H1000 in the Edge
Retumbo in .338 Lapua
RL 33 in 28 Nosler
 
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