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Winchester Staball HD Load Data

Book max with a 208 amax seated to factory length in Winchester brass is 81.1gr. I'm seated out well past that in Norma brass, which has more volume. Will we make it to 83 ? We bout to find out.

Conditions on the Texas gulf coast here this morning are 81 degrees, 86% humidity, 0 wind, da 1763. 43 above sea level.
20230923_084658.jpg
20230923_084710.jpg
 
We didn't make it.
79gr, 2851fps, impacted low and right, pretty sure it was my bad. Two cups of coffee this morning, nothing to eat and minimal water.

80gr, hit poa, 2892fps, slight ejector mark, bolt lift felt fine.

81gr, hit poa, 2941fps, stiff bolt, clicked on extraction.

Looks like 80gr max in my chamber.
20230923_090003.jpg

79gr, low right, 80gr took half the bull, 81gr in there with 80. Looks like it likes .080" jump.
20230923_090203.jpg

Top to bottom, 79,80,81.
 
Old rooster said:
Well done!So 80.0 is your load?
I too shoot a 300 win mag but have not developed anything yet.
Thanks for the detailed work-up
Click to expand...
80 was still a little warm. I think I'm going to load five at 75.5 and see what it does.

I'd recommend for anybody starting out that they probably start at 77 just to play it safe. Depending on how your chamber is set up. If its throated long, load 79 and see what happens.
 
DustThroughaFan said:
80 was still a little warm. I think I'm going to load five at 75.5 and see what it does.

I'd recommend for anybody starting out that they probably start at 77 just to play it safe. Depending on how your chamber is set up. If its throated long, load 79 and see what happens.
Click to expand...
What is case h2o for reference
 
Maybe the low shot at 79gr wasn't a fluke. I went in and loaded five at 79.5 to see how they did and this is how it went. I dialed 3 moa right and held center of target.
#1 went 2878, #2 went 2898 left an ejector mark, #3 was slow at 2862. With an es of 36 I quit. I'll pull the last two. I had hope. Thinking back I probably should have just burned the last two. 2862 may have just been the outlier. I may switch primers and see how it goes. These were loaded with cci 250's. I've got 210m's, 9½m and std. Cci 200, br2, and fed 215m.

I'll give it this, it's pretty temp stable. Last night I put everything outside so it wouldn't all fog up hen I went out this morning. When I came in and loaded the five at 79.5 I waited to shoot them until they could acclimate to the temp outside rather than shoot them at a cool 75 degrees as they were loaded. Well I screwed up and left them where the sun got on them.

Kestrel was laying right beside them and when I fired it up it said 103 degrees. After swinging it around it settled in at 93. 79gr went 2851. The 79.5 with a potential ammo temp of 103 or better went 2879 average for three shots. That's about what I would expect with a half gr more charge.
20230923_143444.jpg
 
I like the es with the Winchester LR but the combo just didn't group well. That's twice though that the standard Winchester LR has given the best es with a big charge of ball powder. I'm using them with magpro and a 212eldx. I'm going to buy a tuner brake so I can just pick the best load and tune it.

I need to try it with my can and see what it does. The can made my 212eldx load go plum crazy.
 
I have seen a can make a load way better and some were worse.The can sometimes disrupts the uniform vibrational wave patterns in the barrel steel creating a different POI or different group sizes or sometimes both.Yours may just need tuning loads that compliments the can you use.
All rifles are different so what worked for some may not work for you.
Keep trying brother!
 
Last edited:
DustThroughaFan said:
Back at it this morning. Tried a few different primers. Still have some others to try but it looks like the 215m is going to win out for now. I may load a box and shoot 1000 next weekend.
View attachment 496456
Click to expand...
Appreciate what you are doing, if you are looking for low ES then it's Win.
To test a change in your recipe, 3 shots is very little too work with.
Thanks for sharing, I appreciate it. 👍
 
K.E.C. said:
Appreciate what you are doing, if you are looking for low ES then it's Win.
To test a change in your recipe, 3 shots is very little too work with.
Thanks for sharing, I appreciate it. 👍
Click to expand...
Yeah it's a small sample for sure. Normally, if something shows promise, I'll load five to verify. In this case, I may have a chance to go shoot 1k next weekend so that should tell the tale if it's any good. I'll be sure to update if I get to shoot it.

I've got some 208gr eldm also. I had a load for them with magpro but I ran out of bullets. Picked up 300 mpre the other day. Barrel was new then though, probably close to 400 on it now so I'll probably have to start all over with them.

Previously with the 208's I started like I do with most everything at .020" jump and they didn't show much promise. I increased jump and they never really got any better. Friend of mine thst shoots them in a 300 Norma and a PRC said he starts them at .010" or jammed and they shoot good for him. I moved them out to .010" and they took off. I was comfortably over 2900 with the 208eldm and magpro. I'm hoping I can achieve that with the HD.

If it'll do that I'll probably order 8lbs. I've got a load with the 215 and N570 that is running 2920 now and showing no pressure at all but man, that powder is rough on a barrel. Five shots and that sucker will burn you. Sd's are single digits.
 
So, about that small sample. I loaded 15 with 79.5gr of staballHD with federal 215's, Norma brass, 215 hybrid at 3.650"/2.875"

Average for 15 shots was 2896fps. A little faster than it was at the house. Where I am now I'm about 400' higher in elavation. Not sure that's really enough to matter. Didn't record the da this morning but it's 2800 right now.

Es this morning was 45 !
Sd was 14.1

But, there is a but. I messed up and loaded these with 79.0gr of powder because I had some wires crossed and then I pulled them and reloaded with 75.5. Oops.

All in all I went 5 for 10 at 1061 yards. Missed my first three cause I suck at reading wind. Caught the last two left and high. Let the gun cool off a minute, took 1/4 moa out of the dope and put five more in the mag.

Hit two missed two and hit the last one. All in the orange. That's a 10" circle painted on the target.
20230930_101234.jpg
 

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