Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting .300WSM question

Do you think a 180 grain Sierra GameKing over 61 grains of IMR-4350 would be pretty good medicine for deer at long range?

bergers have a better BC.... the 190 VLD is pretty cool...

No, that's a very poor choice of bullet.

Craig Boddington recommended it for deer sized game.

210 Berger for 1K....

I don't have any experience with this cartridge, but everything I've read says it doesn't do well with bullets that weigh over 180 grains. Thanks for the suggestions.

178 Amax???

Swampy - the 180 Sierra Gameking is a pretty doggone good .30 cal bullet. I'm running H4350 in most of my .300 WSM loads. Good accuracy. Have also seen some surprisingly good results from 200 - 210 grain bullets, Nosler and Berger. 2800+ fps and stellar accuracy. Have yet to take game with the .300 WSM though - plenty with other .30's over the decades.

Guy

Bullets over 180grs arent for schitt.......laffin, Dont believe everything you read. This was the first load I shot in this rifle.

The guilty party...

What rifle is that?

Here's mine....

This is a load that I load for my son's Winchester model 70 300wsm.
Winchester cases
Winchester Large Rifle magnum Primer
68.0grs. of IMR 7828ssc powder
Nosler 200gr. Accubond bullet.
Average velosity is 2874fps.

GA Precision Non Typical.

Mine wont group that well at 100yards! Win 70 LH 300 WSM.
Need load suggestions. Have worked with RL 17, 22, H 4350
165 Hornady, 168 Barnes TSX, 165,180 & 200 Nosler Part.
& 190 Hornady Best loads around 1.5" at 100 yards.
Lots of 2 shots together with a flyer?

............After the 300 WSM first came out, there were some writers who "assumed" that because of the reduced case capacity of the 300 WSM, that it would fall well behind in the velocity dept to the full sized 300 Win when using bullets heavier than 180 grains.

They were not only full of crap back then, but since then, they have been proven very wrong. The 300 WSM is excellent with 185s, 190s and the 200s.

Quoting from my 49th Edition Lyman Manual from the 300 WSM intro on page #231.

Quote,,,,,,,"Ballistics of the 300 WSM averaged 30 to 50 fps below the full sized 300 Winchester Magnum while consuming around eight to ten percent less powder in our lab tests.",,,,,,,Unquote

Lyman lists 24" test barrels for both rounds.

There isn`t one damn thing that a 300 Win can do in the field that a 300 WSM could not also do just as well and visa versa. And I owned a 300 Win for 30+ years. Anyone who states otherwise, is sitting downwind from a burning pot farm and smoking their bong as well.

PS.....Don`t believe everything you read.

I didn't say I believed it, I am just trying to get an educated starting point.

Mine has a fairly short throat and I think that is a limiting factor in shooting longer heavy weight bullets.They take up a lot of powder space.But I like the 165gr Hornady Interbonds.It works just about right for the case and powder combo I use.My load is: 69.0grs of either Win. WXR or Reloader-22.

Not long range for you guys but I shot a mule deer buck 3 times this Fall at 420-435 yards.

300WSM loaded with 180 Partitions, dead calm evening and each impact was damn near as loud as shooting 3/8" steel at similiar range.
Boom...thwack, it was impressive.

I know the Partition has a poor BC(.474?) but inside of 500 yards it ain't gonna matter, especially shooting at a deer.

If a guy is gonna shoot past 500 or 600 yards then I imagine the slicker bullets fly better.

Hey Sammers, my stock for my 300 WSM showed today, can't wait to get it rocking. McMillan Hunters Edge, need to order some Talleys and some 168 NBT's. Have a 2-10 Leo Silver with M1 ready to rock and roll with it. Course need to cut/crown the tube to 23" first.

Dober

Sweet Dober, that's gonna be badass!


I have a bunch of 175 SMK's and 175 Nosler Custom Comps(seconds). If you wanna shoot a few let me know!


Still need to load up the 155 Scenars that Pat loaned me. Those little buggers will be fun to shoot.

would love to try em, let me know next time you're down and we'll sort it out. thinking of trying the 155 Scenars as well. I do know it likes the 155 Palmas so maybe the Scenars as well.

What you gonna burn for powder with them?

Dober

(and hey, I still need your address so pm it to me)

Don't believe it.....

Mark, If you want to try a few, I'll send you down a handful....I havent tried them in my WSM yet but a friend of mine has a rifle exactly the same as mine and he's getting 3300fps with them....pretty scary with a .508 bc.

hey I'd love it Pat, need to get this stick together and beat up on some yotes/bunnies

Dober

I'll get them out this week....I've got your addy tucked away somewhere around here..

What barrel are you going with? Twist?

Dober, R17 is stashed for the WSM's so that's what the Scenars get. Gonna add 2 grains, match ogive COL with the 175's and see what happens.

They are sleek, and like Pat said at 3300fps should be wicked!



I'll have to mail some 175's down your way.
Miles City this weekend for Christmas shopping is as close to Bozeman as we'll be until maybe next Summer.

PM on the way!

61 grains of IMR 4350 is going to be a pretty lame load in the 300 WSM... most rifles will take around 65 gr's IMR 4350 and 64 gr's H4350.

As far as the 180 Sierra, a perfect bullet for the 300 WSM IMO.

The farthest I've taken a BG animal was a bedded antelope buck at 547 yards. Took him with 1 shot from the 300 WSM with a 180 Partition. He never got up...

The 300 WSM is all about 165-200 gr. bullets... Conventional 180's are perfect, or 165 X-Type bullets.

I knew that was a pretty light load but our deer are pretty small.

Chances are the rifle will shoot better with more powder.

I'm running 168 TTSXs in front of H4350 in my A7 with stunning results for what that's worth. I'm loaded with 65 grains if memory serves correct, at 3100.

Thanks again to Sam for the recommendation.

After the 308 Win, the 300 WSM has been the easiest cartridge to load for IME. Have had only six 300 WSM's as opposed to eight 308's to compare with though...

Sako barrels sure are consistant!

Just don't see Sako's around here, which is too bad. I'd love to mess with one.

Swampman,

I don't know diddly about the bullet you mention but Sierra have shot about every time I've tried them. Worth a run! Accuracy trumps all... if your rifle bugholes those then there's a perfectly good mid-range load there.

What I'd load, were I you, is the 200-gn Accubond. I shoot those from my 300WM at 2860 fps (accuracy load). The do very well in wind with their relatively high BC and aren't gonna liquify a shoulder on a close shot like many of the high-BC bullets might.

200 gr Accubond for Pennsylvania whitetails?

Certainly will work. But of course I can't see the need for a 300 WSM anywhere in PA or for deer only... just me.

Me either but at less than $300.00 I couldn't pass this rifle up.

Exactly!! Everything I've done proves the 300 WSM loves 180 gr & up.

I'll second that.

Lol, it'd sure way overpenetrate, wouldn't it?

If he's really gonna build a LR load, happiness likely resides in high-BC bullets. Most of those are very frangible. It'd be just my luck, I'd end up popping a deer up close... and you could really mess up some meat with those really frangible bullets.

So I like the accuracy and BC on the big Accubond but I like other things as well.

But I'm DAMN sure there's about 1000 ways to skin this cat!

Pat-it's a factory tube, thinking it's 10 but really have no idea. It appears to like the 155 Palmas so I spect the Scenars should perk well.

Dober

Entry or exit under the leather?
300WSM's work really, really well on deer....(grin)

Hot dang bud, where'd you get that Rock Star nickle brass..?

Dober

Dober, it feeds like greased lightning in the Sako's.

73lb whitetails don't know what hit 'em....(grin)

Gotta love those jockey box whitey's...grin

Dober

Especially when you're short a tag......(laughin')

I hear Playmate coolers work well 2

I tried some of the common powders R-22,25; IMR-4350. All with poor accuracy. Then i went to 75gr Magpro under 180 Sierra pro hunter. Shoots bug holes @ 2960fps. So I take it on a New Mexico Ibex hunt. 2 180gr bullets from 190 yards into a 90 pound goat and it just stands there looking at me. So now i use 168 TSX over 68.5gr of Ramshot Hunter for 3122fps. That load has killed over a dozen elk, a few deer and coyotes, most in one shot from 50 to 400 yards.

Get outta town, no way...

I couldn't believe it either! It did eventually fall. If I remember right the bullets didn't expand.

Shot 300 WSM today and 2 loads were under 1".

70.5 GR RL 22 WW Case CCI Mag Pr, 180gr Nosler Part around 2940FPS. & 190 gr Horn. BT 63gr RL 17, 2820 FPS.

24" Win 70 LH 300 WSM in Factory wood stock.

You haven't tried 69.0 of RL17 behind a 155 grain Lapua Scenar for 3,330 mv.

I won't shoot anything else now.

Just ordered 300 more bullets from Powder Valley.

Did I mention it has a .508 BC?

Litz has it at .459

Did Litz shoot them out to 1000?

Because I did and they came out right on the number according to the adjustment that JBM and my M1's told me they would using a .508 BC.
( I walked them out at 450, 750 and 1000 with
adjustments dead on with published BC)

I compared them to some 155 Nosler's .450 BC.

At 1000 yards there was 5' of difference in elevation adjustment, the Nosler's shooting 5' lower.

And 6' of difference with the 150 Accubond .435 BC

3,000 ft elevation and 65 degrees.

Litz's is wrong and while I do have a great deal of respect for him he's been proven to make BC mistakes in the past.
I meet him at an NRA convention and he's a great guy.


edited to add to post

I've also found that the 6.5 Scenars also had correct BC as advertised. 123 grain and 139 grain.

He is not wrong. What he does is much more accurate at measuring BC's than what you described.

His data for the Scenars matches very closely with Lapua's own CD data which was measured via Doppler Radar. It doesn't get any more accurate than that. Lapua themselves say if you want accurate results at long range, use their CD data not their old single advertised G1 BC.

If you're getting accurate results using those numbers, it's because there is another error somewhere in the system canceling it out. Most common are MV errors, 100 yd zero errors and scope click value being off. Most don't ever bother measuring the last one. They should.

Hogwash, 210 bullets, H4350 or MRP powder and F210 primers are a top 1k BR competition load. Running 2850-3050 depending on the gun and length of barrel.

BH

Mine shoots 208 Amax very well just that the 175 SMKs are better.

Roger that, mine shoots 210 Bergers & H4350 like they were made for each other.