Hi all Most all of you have been a great source of information when I needed help with my 10mm loads which were of huge value.Well now I could use help with starting some loads for my .300 Weatherby, the gun in question is a Remington Classic 700 with a 24" barrel and according to Remington has a 1 in 10"rate of twist with what Remington rep on phones says has same as Weatherby spec freebore.i have found through trial and error the only factory rounds it fires well are 180 grn of almost any manufacture,I've tried Federal premium Barnes x ,Federal premium 180 gr.accubonds and what it shoots the best are Remington 180 gr Corlokts.Ive tried all type of 150 grn ,so many I lost count and I may as well have shot a shot gun the way the groups average anything under 6"" was a good group,Remington Corlokts on the other hand ,my best 5 shot group was .66" 3" high at 100yards.So no my big question I just ordered from Titan my collet sizing .300 Weatherby dies along factory crimp die . I wanted to try some 165 or 168 grain rounds for two reasons 1)lighter recoil 2) higher velocity so does any one have powders they could recommend that would work with a 24"barrel ?Any info would be greatly appreciated!
I have a Remington 700 long action in 300 win mag. I have had good luck with Reloader 22, although the slower powders would probably offer a bit more velocity. Were I buying today I would get Reloader 25 and maybe some Hodgdon H1000.
I have been playing with lead bullets and surplus powder most recently. WC872 and a 210 grain cast bullet make a fun, cheap way to shoot the 300 win mag. The powder is a bit slow for the case volume, but I got it for $40/8lbs, so a reload is really quite cheap at about 8ยข a shot. The guys at the cast boolits website have been doing some duplex loads and getting similar results to Reloader 25 and H1000 from this powder, but I am chicken.
I have not shot the 300 Weatherby for over 5 years, so I am not up on the new powders.
I concur with sqlbullet on Reloader 22 as it gave good accuracy and the highest velocity for me.
Vihtavuori 165 gave me the best accuracy but a slight decrease in velocity out of my Mark V Weatherby.
I have found that the best accuracy always comes at maximum loads in the 300 Weatherby. Be careful, but don't be afraid to exceed book loads, at least not in my rifle.
I found that 180 grain bullets and heavier work the beat.
woulthanks so I can't shoot light loads ,and like I thought heavy or longer bullets How would the Barnes or similar all copper rounds work because they are long for weight ?Thanks for the input and I have an idea where to start with some powders.
Does anyone feel 165 or 168 bullets would fair well with the barrel twist rate I have especially with the longer copper lengthen projectiles?I would just hate to pay 40+ $ for a round that won't stabilize and throw rounds haphazardly downrange.
I don't have a 300 WM, but I do have a few suggestions...
1:10 is PLENTY of twist for 168s and at least up to 180s. Barnes specifies 1:11 and faster.
If you have properly set the neck ID with the collect die, then you won't gain accuracy by crimping, but you might mess up the good work from the nice neck sizing operation.
If you want to come "off the top" a bit, then you might consider going to a wee bit quicker powder like 4831. With the big overbores, it seems like the really slow burners pair better with heavy bullets and hot pressure. So a moderately quicker-burning powder might give more consistent ignition with a mid-weight bullet. But each rifle is different.
Thank Tater head, you know I was looking at some data I got from Lee and Nosler and like you said slow powders like 7828 don't fair a well with the mid weight .308" bullets and the only reason Iam crimping the neck is because of the recoil may move the bullet randomly around up or down in the case neck the lee neck sizing die instructions even mention it,
well it wasn't what I wanted but all the local GS had were reloader 17 and and imr 7828 so I chose the 7828 and I wanted nosler accubond which I couldn't find locally anywhere so I went with ballistic tips which I know have a tendency to blow up and turn venison into major hematoma but this is just for paper not for game and started by Lee's manual at 70 grains and worked up by 1/2 grain increments up to 82 max per book with 1x fired Remington and nosler brass I'll check for pressure signs as I go ,but Iam just very curious how my loads will shoot as I meticulously hand poured every round and tried to get dead zero and finally Caol was 3.5445 I had a friend help me measure with a rod through the front of the barrel for freebore and I don't remember how he came up with the number but he kept measuring with masking tape he assured me I should start there so now off to the range.
Well this a long time coming,but I finally fired all of my loads with absolutely no problems I started with 77.grains of 7827ssc ,then stepped up 1 grain at a rime and stopped at 82 grns,there were absolutely no cycling issues the brass looked fine and the primers did as well they were not crated or anything. It was an informal shootout our church has 3 xs a year so I can't give exact group sizes and the furthest range was only 250 yards but it fun and ore than anything a great confidence booster