Reload 17 for 300 WSM

[400bull]

BountyHunter,
I'm a little confused at your comments. I said in my post that I assembled a dummy round at 2.935 to see if it would cycle fine in the action as well as the magazine. I have not measured the mag to know what it will allow but my mag did not have any problems with the dummy round at 2.935.
Could you please explain this comment "the barnes are designed for jumps and big ones, at .03 and similar intervals you will wear out 5 barrels."

400bull

 

[brentc]

BountyHunter,
I'm a little confused at your comments. I said in my post that I assembled a dummy round at 2.935 to see if it would cycle fine in the action as well as the magazine. I have not measured the mag to know what it will allow but my mag did not have any problems with the dummy round at 2.935.
Could you please explain this comment "the barnes are designed for jumps and big ones, at .03 and similar intervals you will wear out 5 barrels."

400bull

He is saying that if you adjust your load .03 at a time starting at your lands you will use up a lot of barrel life and components only to find that the Barnes bullets like to jump quite a ways from the lands.

Barnes bullets jump very well. You will most likely find a good load between 2.84 and 2.86 COAL.

 

[BountyHunter]

Barnes info: In our lab, we have experienced best pressures and accuracy when TSX Bullets are seated .030″ – .070″ off the lands (the grooves or rifling in a barrel.) The majority of the time, we've seen optimum accuracy when bullets are seated .050″ off the lands, so start there.

Use big jumps to determine a wide band that has a sweet spot in there somewhere and then use smaller jumps but still larger than .003 to fine tune the spot. Finally get down to .003 intervals IF you even think it is necessary.

If you are using a hunting gun and getting .5 MOA at .080 off and .4 MOA at .120 off , "is it really worth the time, effort and expense to try to get that extra .1 MOA?"

If so split it at .100 and see how it shoots, that will tell you which way to go.

.003 intervals sounds nice and really cool as that is common in min SAAMI tight neck BR chambers for 1K guns, but in factory chambers you are wasting your time and barrel life. Particularily if you are basing you assessment on one 3 shot group.

BH

 

[400bull]

BountyHunter,
I see where you are coming from now. I was thinking of starting my load development with the bulleted seated .030" off the lands (first post was a type error). Depending on what I got I would then look at adjusting the seating depth in .015" increments until I got my best results. From Barnes suggestion I think I just might start out at .050" off the lands and adjust from there if needed.

Thanks
400bull

 

[BobbyL]

.015 increments wont do it. It you REALLY want to fine tune it they need to be .002-.003 increments. If you do much more then that you are not gonna find out were it likes to shoot the best.

 

[BountyHunter]

If this is a factory barrel and chamber, fine tuning to .002 levels with standard dies is like saying you ar supercharging a Hugo.

You can say it, you can do it, but you will not get what you think you are paying for!

normal brass, with what is a clear "hunting grade bullet" with most factory dies won't hold that tolerance especially without sorting by ogive, weight an everything else and then the barrel will not give you the accuracy. you spend a lot of time and money for zip real return.

Now if this is a custom chamber and barrel, you sort bullets and you absolutely have to have that last .001 group size and you fire multiple groups to validate instead of relying on one 3 shot group, then go for it.

But the original question still applies. "What is your desired accuracy level?"

BH

 

[400bull]

This is a factory hunting rifle no more no less. I don't expect to get SUB .5 MOA groups out of it. I'll take it if I can get it. Anything below 1 1/4" to 1" groups would be acceptable. If I cannot get that with the Barnes bullets I'll go back to my Hornady IB or SST's where I am currently getting about 1" MOA groups @100 yards.

400bull

 

[Elkslayer1]

400Bull,

My 300 WSM factory Winchester with 24" barrel is shooting 190 VLd's to .5 MOA with 61 grains of IMR 4350 and they are 2.860 COAL ( .100 off the lands ) and 2.295 OG. I find this WSM likes most loads out around .100 off the lands.

This gun also shoots .5MOA with 66 grinas of RL19 with a 180 grain ballistic tip at 2.810 COAL.

Both of these guns will hold 1 MOA all the way out to 800 plus yards. This is a factory gun.

Start loads in the middle range of what the books say and work up towards max loads until you see pressure signs.

PS....my gun shot 180 TTSX at 1 MOA at 100 yards, but feel way off as the ranges got longer.