Hello from Houston Texas

[gordonie]

Hello fellow hunters. my name is Gordon, born and raised near Houston Texas.

grew up shooting, hunting, and loving freedom. happened upon this thread by a friend who recommended it, never been a part of a forum before but I figured I should start. As of late i've had more financial ability to entertain my shooting hobby and with that has come a lot of questions. I research everything I do before I even take one step, i'm an engineer by school/trade so it comes natural.

Anyway my latest project has been a Savage 111 chambered in 300winmag. My goal with the rifle was to take the most accurate sub1,000$ gun I could get (finances at the time were tighter) and to make it an accurate long range platform for target shooting, and also hunting. I love the idea of being able to plink something at a mile with power so the 300winmag seemed to be the best budget option at even coming close to that range. 338 to expensive to feed haha. Anyway started with the savage after researhcing it was an accurate factory platform with all the accu trigger/stock and stuff. Then I slapped a sigh-tron 8x32x56 scope atop its rails, would have loved a nightforce but couldn't at the time. Always had trouble getting the thing to group tightly, at best it was a 1.2ish MOA gun at 100yards. My goal was more like 1/2MOA haha I am a bit of an accuracy addict.

Couple years later after graduating college I had more freedom to buy stuff. Then I heard of the new 300PRC round hornady released so I picked up a pre-fit barrel from Proof research for a cool 900$ thinking that would solve my accuracy problems and get me into a cool new round. Unfortunately it didn't help too much, shooting the Factory hornady 225gr ELD MATCH with the proof and still getting 1-1.2 MOA on average. Super disappointed obviously, I have been researching like crazy on how to shoot better myself. I would dare say I am a decent shot, i've got a stable platform and with 32x zoom I can say I have very little reticle wiggle. I've also shot other friends guns that they have accurized with handloads and I can do 1/2MOA groups all day long with their rifles, which tells me its not all me. I take D.O.P.E. on everything and after shooting the new barrel a few times I noticed large group sizes mostly due to vertical stringing, which I hear is the primary function of tuning a load to match barrel harmonics by hand loading. In my endless quest to achieve 1/2MOA accuracy, I am now left with needing to hand load which is something I have zero experience with. So here I am to research what I can again to find out how.

 

[338 dude]

Well you are in the best spot to learn how to do that a lot of members here from Texas I'm sure you'll fit right in sounds like you have a good rifle you just need to start hand loading to reach your goals

 

[gordonie]

Well you are in the best spot to learn how to do that a lot of members here from Texas I'm sure you'll fit right in sounds like you have a good rifle you just need to start hand loading to reach your goalsView attachment 198001

thanks, and nice groups!

 

[ShtrRdy]

Welcome to the forum! Before diving into hand loading, did you try buying several different types of factory "match" ammo to see if the gun liked one of them?

 

[gordonie]

Welcome to the forum! Before diving into hand loading, did you try buying several different types of factory "match" ammo to see if the gun liked one of them?

hey ShtrRdy id love too but the round is relatively new, so far i've only found two options for ammo at all both from hornady. They are the ELD-X and ELD-match. I havnt tried the ELD-X yet, you think that might improve things?

 

[crystalgayleguy]

greetings from north texas glad to have you aboard

 

[Rick Richard]

Hello fellow hunters. my name is Gordon, born and raised near Houston Texas.

grew up shooting, hunting, and loving freedom. happened upon this thread by a friend who recommended it, never been a part of a forum before but I figured I should start. As of late i've had more financial ability to entertain my shooting hobby and with that has come a lot of questions. I research everything I do before I even take one step, i'm an engineer by school/trade so it comes natural.

Anyway my latest project has been a Savage 111 chambered in 300winmag. My goal with the rifle was to take the most accurate sub1,000$ gun I could get (finances at the time were tighter) and to make it an accurate long range platform for target shooting, and also hunting. I love the idea of being able to plink something at a mile with power so the 300winmag seemed to be the best budget option at even coming close to that range. 338 to expensive to feed haha. Anyway started with the savage after researhcing it was an accurate factory platform with all the accu trigger/stock and stuff. Then I slapped a sigh-tron 8x32x56 scope atop its rails, would have loved a nightforce but couldn't at the time. Always had trouble getting the thing to group tightly, at best it was a 1.2ish MOA gun at 100yards. My goal was more like 1/2MOA haha I am a bit of an accuracy addict.

Couple years later after graduating college I had more freedom to buy stuff. Then I heard of the new 300PRC round hornady released so I picked up a pre-fit barrel from Proof research for a cool 900$ thinking that would solve my accuracy problems and get me into a cool new round. Unfortunately it didn't help too much, shooting the Factory hornady 225gr ELD MATCH with the proof and still getting 1-1.2 MOA on average. Super disappointed obviously, I have been researching like crazy on how to shoot better myself. I would dare say I am a decent shot, i've got a stable platform and with 32x zoom I can say I have very little reticle wiggle. I've also shot other friends guns that they have accurized with handloads and I can do 1/2MOA groups all day long with their rifles, which tells me its not all me. I take D.O.P.E. on everything and after shooting the new barrel a few times I noticed large group sizes mostly due to vertical stringing, which I hear is the primary function of tuning a load to match barrel harmonics by hand loading. In my endless quest to achieve 1/2MOA accuracy, I am now left with needing to hand load which is something I have zero experience with. So here I am to research what I can again to find out how.

First of all welcome from North Carolina. By the way, I use to live in Seabrook.

Yep, to achieve 1/2 MOA or better you will more than likely have to learn to reload. There are many resources out there that are available such as YouTube and numerous reloading manuals. Word of advice to save you money in the long run....purchase good stuff. Good luck and be safe.

 

[ShtrRdy]

hey ShtrRdy id love too but the round is relatively new, so far i've only found two options for ammo at all both from hornady. They are the ELD-X and ELD-match. I havnt tried the ELD-X yet, you think that might improve things?

Oops, sorry 'bout that. My brain was still thinking about your 300 Win Mag.

I think the general consensus is that the ELD-X has less accuracy than the ELD-M.

 

[CTK]

I lived in Houston until I was 16. Fond memories of good people, Mexican food, and pretty girls.

You are probably going to have to hand load to get that rifle where you want it. Prior to that, research and copy torque settings for the action screws, make sure your barrel is not touching the stock, adjust the trigger as low as it will safely go down, check your mounts, make sure that you position your rifle in exactly the same position in the rest each shot, use your last digit of your finger to pull the trigger, pull the trigger straight back as much as possible, use the same grip and pressure on the pistol grip and fore end, if you hold it, put your cheek in same spot and same amount of pressure each shot. Getting a hunting weight rifle under 1/2" consistently requires a lot of things to be right.

Good Luck!

 

[gordonie]

First of all welcome from North Carolina. By the way, I use to live in Seabrook.

Yep, to achieve 1/2 MOA or better you will more than likely have to learn to reload. There are many resources out there that are available such as YouTube and numerous reloading manuals. Word of advice to save you money in the long run....purchase good stuff. Good luck and be safe.

roger that. researching reloading equipment now, RCBS sells a all in one kit that seems to be good, minus the dies.

 

[Scott E Ames]

Welcome aboard! 300 PRC will get you where you want to go for accuracy. Most everyone here reloads saying it is for accuracy but it also double the fun and sense of accomplishment when it all comes together. With a good barrel in place it might be time to think about a trigger upgrade. You will enjoy being part of this group. This place is loaded with helpful knowledgeable people. I went from 1 MOA accuracy to this on a 15-20 MPH crosswind day. Mostly with input from here.

 

[gordonie]

I lived in Houston until I was 16. Fond memories of good people, Mexican food, and pretty girls.

You are probably going to have to hand load to get that rifle where you want it. Prior to that, research and copy torque settings for the action screws, make sure your barrel is not touching the stock, adjust the trigger as low as it will safely go down, check your mounts, make sure that you position your rifle in exactly the same position in the rest each shot, use your last digit of your finger to pull the trigger, pull the trigger straight back as much as possible, use the same grip and pressure on the pistol grip and fore end, if you hold it, put your cheek in same spot and same amount of pressure each shot. Getting a hunting weight rifle under 1/2" consistently requires a lot of things to be right.

Good Luck!

thanks for the advice CTK! ive been using a bipod and a small rear bag, i do notice a small amount of shake in the reticle, maybe about 1/4MOA, its hard to hold it perfectly still. perhaps a front bag and some weights like you said to make the rifle heavier.

 

[gordonie]

Welcome aboard! 300 PRC will get you where you want to go for accuracy. Most everyone here reloads saying it is for accuracy but it also double the fun and sense of accomplishment when it all comes together. With a good barrel in place it might be time to think about a trigger upgrade. You will enjoy being part of this group. This place is loaded with helpful knowledgeable people. I went from 1 MOA accuracy to this on a 15-20 MPH crosswind day. Mostly with input from here.
View attachment 198088

holy crap thats a nice group, looks like mostly horizontal spread. without that wind I bet it would have been better.

 

[slv hunter]

Welcome from Colorado. I met my wife in Tomball.
Get a couple of loading manuals and read, read again, and then keep the manual open to follow step by step while getting started. There are a lot of very experienced gunsmiths and reloaders here to answer questions. Enjoy and be safe