New to long range shooting. 300 prc

[68birdra1]

What part of MT? I've got a LabRadar if you're near Billings. I could also walk you through my load development process. Shoot me a PM some time if you want to discuss.

I'm south of missoula in victor. Thanks for the offer. I'll hit you up when I get the gun finished and broke in. Then I can start the load development

 

[Spoonbill]

I am new to the long range shooting. This last year I was able to save up and am having a custom built 300 prc in the works. I have been collecting components as funds and availability allows. I have 100 rounds of loaded ammo for break in and after that I have little to no experience on how to percision reload. Any advice for a newbie. Thanks

Congrats one the new build. would advise looking up Panhandle Precision on YouTube. This cap has an entire series on load development .

 

[Wolf01]

So the build is a stiller preditor action with a carbon 6 24" 1:9 barrel, ag composite alpine hunter stock hs percision dbm and trigger tech special have a 20 moa rail and probably going with a luepold vx5 4-20 scope( still thinking between the leupold and zeiss 6-24.)

I have 1000 215m primers and a lbs of h1000. I have 205 berger hunter hybrids and 200 eldx. I am waiting on some n570. I have reloaded a little with a buddies help. I don't want to have to rely on factory ammo availability. Main use is elk hunting first and foremost. I will be wanting to play at 1000+ yrds but not on animals. I am also keeping it as light as possible as it will be packed. This is my first full custom.

Nice

More experienced guys will chime in.... here's my 2 cents.

TAKE YOUR TIME AND DON'T SHOOT A HOT BARREL!!!

Start .001-.002 off the lands. [Then the only way to go is further off the lands].

Work up a ladder until you find pressure [less than 10 shots.. say 75-85 gr in one grain increments]. You'll get a light ejector mark, followed by bright ejector mark, followed by stiff bolt lift. Recognize these signs. I try not to go to stiff bolt lift. I find faint ejector mark and I'll usually go my next higher load to confirm that it is a brighter ejector mark. Now you know your max load for YOUR action.

Now review your ladder test. Let's say you ran your test from 75-85 gr for ten shots and got faint ejector mark at 83, bright ejector mark at 84 [should stop here], and stiff bolt lift at 85.

You now know you cannot load past 83...i wouldn't go higher than 82 but others do...

Then i would load up 3 each at 78, 79, 80, 81, 82. Now plot these on a graph to look for flat spots. You want low ES and a wide flat spot to equal a forgiving load.

You have also just shot five 3-shot groups, so review these sizes but do not anchor yourself to them... call a bad shot when you know it is bad.

You have shot 25 shots and you should now know where your pressure max load is, your velocity nodes are, and your relative accuracy nodes.

Keep all your brass on the same firing. Don't mix 1x and 3x fired brass. Everytime you start on the next firing you need to verify your speed. You want consistent speed and sometimes your charge weight will vary slightly. The biggest difference is new unfired brass to that next firing.

Only thing else to do is seating depth. There is a sticky about seating depth tests specifically with berger bullets I'll let you read.

Post pics of your process and ask questions along the way. Guys on this site are awesome.

Nice instruction man.

 

[jpndave]

Here's a QuickLOAD run for your load showing potential differences from various powders. This is theoretical so don't use this as recommended loads your results WILL vary. It does show the relative differences and what powders should work best quite well. LMK if you get some specific information on your COAL, etc. and I will do a run for you that is more specific. I am building a 300 PRC and have VV570 and RL33 for it. I have RL26 I use in other rifles but it is a little fast for the 300 PRC. If your rifle likes it, VV570 will give the best speeds. There is a lot of good advice on your thread here.

 

[Dmagna]

I couldn't get N570 to respond good in my barrel. Mine liked H1000, buy about 10 pounds which would get you through at least the life of the first barrel. 1 pound in a magnum like a 300 prc won't get you far. You will probably need 200 to get a load down and break in. 300 prc is fun, I use 215s at 2930 with adg brass and h1000.

 

[68birdra1]

I couldn't get N570 to respond good in my barrel. Mine liked H1000, buy about 10 pounds which would get you through at least the life of the first barrel. 1 pound in a magnum like a 300 prc won't get you far. You will probably need 200 to get a load down and break in. 300 prc is fun, I use 215s at 2930 with adg brass and h1000.

I don't have the money to just drop on 10 lbs if it's not going to Like it. I'll buy lbs cans till I know what it likes then I'll buy the 8 lbs can. But I plan on getting a large batch so I won't have to buy more out of different lots

 

[nealm66]

Good plan

 

[nealm66]

I played around a little bit with ramshot lrt, the little I shot seemed promising but was with the 245's. Don't see much info on it but max velocity was par. Temp stability might not be great but I might make winter/summer loads

 

[68birdra1]

The only powder I have found recently that I have heard used in the 300 prc was 8133. Hoping the n570 comes in soon. Then I can give that a whirl too

 

[nealm66]

I use 8133 in my 6.5-300. It's not the fastest but it's very accurate and consistent. Probably a little on the slow side for your setup on a guess

 

[68birdra1]

I use 8133 in my 6.5-300. It's not the fastest but it's very accurate and consistent. Probably a little on the slow side for your setup on a guess

Ok thank you

 

[lhp63190]

Check out the "reloading for long range hunting" from defensive edge by S. Carlock. Watch it a bunch of times. Best tutorial around IMO.

 

[nwmnbowhunter]

Check out the "reloading for long range hunting" from defensive edge by S. Carlock. Watch it a bunch of times. Best tutorial around IMO.

Could you send a link to this? Thanks

 

[lhp63190]

Also. My 300 PRC load is:

215 Berger (strongly advise you look at this bullet.
78 gr of H1000. (I could run hotter bf pressure but this was most accurate.
ADG brass
Fed 215.

it runs about 2875 FPS and is .25 moa.