I've been looking for a load to take with me to South Africa in my 300 Win Mag using the Barnes 180 gr TSX.

I was at my gunsmith's place the other day looking for a few answers. I was getting 3 shot groups in the 1-1.5" range, which I was acceptable with, however, the groups were not consistent from one range trip to another. Many of the groups were in a vertical line, perhaps 2 touching, or near touching, with the 3rd off from 1" to 1.75". So, I was asking some questions about the gun, etc. He suggested I needed to use a faster burning powder versus the IMR7828ssc, RL22, Magnum and MagPro, I'd tried thus far. His suggestion was when getting vertical stringing, the fix is to try a faster burning powder.

He suggested a load that he uses with 180 gr bullets in all of the 300 Win Mag rifles he builds. He mainly shoots Hornady, Sierra and Speer bullets, but said he didn't see why the Barnes wouldn't do the same. His comment was, "If the rifle didn't shoot this load, then we need to work on it." He also stated the load should be shooting around 3100 fps.

I was a bit skeptical because the load he suggested is over current published recommendations. However, I worked up to the suggested load and here are the results. There were absolutely no over pressure signs, heavy bolt lift, etc.

Three shot group with Barnes 180 gr TSX average speed was 3096 fps with 22 fps deviation.

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Goofy aka graybird on other forums

"Make no mistake, it's not revenge he's after ... it's the reckoning"