Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles R17 and the 300 WSM

LC, my last 24" 300 WSM went 3,035 with 180's and a 64.5 gr. load of RL17... My latest 23" will get to 3,000 but I won't push for more and might be content at 2,980.

Wish spring were here... snowing like the dickens right now with 5" new stuff overnight.

Yeah one of the places I'm showing today just called, said to drive your 4wd as they have a foot of snow in the drive..

More white = more water come dry fly time July/August...grin

Dober

Because of this thread, got my first can of RL17, I will find out next weekend if this will get my .300 WSM to 3100 with 165s (not that 3050 is not good enough). Probably will try in the .270 also.

DMD-R17 has done well for me in my 300 WSM, .270, 7/08, 338/06. Want to try it in my 375 Wby and 7 Mashburn Super with 140 Bergers.

Dober

Got around to trying R17 in my .300 WSM with great results. With a 168 NBT, Alliant's top load was producing about 3205 (Alliant lists 3217) with no pressure signs. Two grains off max gave the best accuracy (about 1/2"). Didn't get a good reading on that one, but would guess 3100. Other powders in that rifle only get to about 3050 before showing pressure. Also, strangely, RL17 seems to recoil noticeably more than 4350 or Hunter, even with my starting load for RL17, which was giving 3000 fps.

I think this may be THE powder for the .300 WSM.

I loaded up some 168 NBT's today, stuck 67 of R17 in. Is that about what you used DMD?

Thx
Dober

Mark,

I used 65, 66, 67 & 68 with Win brass and F215s and 24" barrel. Seated everything to 2.950." Velocities were 3025 for 65, no reading for 66, 3150 for 67 and 3205 for 68. The Alliant max of 68 for the 165 speer was just starting to crater the primer a little, but bolt lift was good and edges were round.

66 shot the best by far and should be 3100ish if I had to guess, so is probably what I will stick with.

Thx, I hope to give mine a go soon.

Dober

did something stupid and worked up some nosler 165 partitions in 1 grain increments, 67g gave me 3185, had one loaded at 68 and thought I'd just try it for curiosity sake. Velocity with 68gr r17 read 3289. Bolt was fairly stiff to open. Won't go that high again. Almost 3300 with a 165 is way too hot in my mind. Next time I won't be too lazy to pull a bullet and wont allow curiosity to let me push beyond what I know is a max load. Be careful about starting near the high side with this powder. Just my 2 cents.

Hello everyone
I started reloading few months ago. First with .223 and now I'm playing with .300WSM. Started with 68gr and worked up to 71gr with 1gr increasments. So far I only tested Superformance Powder in my .300WSM and it looks like 70gr of Superformance using Winchester Brass, CCI 250 primers and Barnes TTSX 168gr was ok. The group looked like this: width was .38" and the height 1.43"(this could be my fault since I don't go to range often). Using same components and powder charges I also tested Hornady GMX 165gr and didn't like it at all. They were all over the place.
I must say I had hard time seating TTSX and GMX bullets in new Win brass. What am I doing wrong?

Rifle: Winchester M70 Featherweight
Scope: Burris Ballistic Plex 3-9x40mm
I shot 50 factory rounds when I got this rifle just to see how it shoots and that was it. It's brand new. I tried Win XP3 180gr and Swift Scirocco A frame 180gr and Win Power Max Bonded 150gr. I was not impressed. The best group I had was with XP3 1.2"at 100m.

FWIW..did some work with a buddies browning 300 wsm last year. I think it's a 24" barrel. Factory fed premium with 165 partitions didn't shoot good, Clocked 3130 fps and sometimes showed light extractor marks.
We targeted the 168ttsx as a bullet we wanted to use. Worked up to 65.7 RE17 and got 3120 with no extractor marks and great accuracy. Some brass is now on the 6th loading with no signs of primer pocket loosening. This was an ez work up for us.....just like it's "supposed" to be!!

preliminary results show 66.5g of R17 to be on the money for me, yeilding 3" 3 shot groups at 300 yards. Now to play with COL...

Primers started cratering a bit more that I like at 68g. I was hugging the lands pretty close, so we'll see where backing off gets me. Happy customer so far though. Glad I tried 17 and scenars.

I tested some loads on weekend and got awesome results with Winchester 760 powder.

65.0gr Winchester 760
CCI 250
TTSX 168gr
Winchester brass
2.208" to ogive
I got 0.662" grup of 3 shots at 100m. First two were almost touching and the third one was few mm to the right (probably my fault). All three holes were in the same line.
Didn't bring chrony with me that day.

To all-

Has anyone here experienced the temp sensitivity with R17 that scenarshooter mentioned in other threads? I see that most posts here were made in March or before yet the velocities seem pretty good.

I'll have to look up the test I did, can't recall the temps but I don't recall seeing what Pat did. As I recall from my tests it appeared to be very workable to me. But, as I recall mine was a one time test with one lot. I'm thinking I saw about 70 or so in a drop.

Dober

Seems to me I wrote about it about 2 winters ago if anyone has time to search,find and bump the thread..?

Dober

Just found and bumped it, my shooting was @ 4 below and it seems
to me that Pats was @ 35 below. He's a lot tougher than me...grin

Dober

Yea, -35. I won't be out then either but the question arises, what is the vel loss at say 5-20 degrees which can certainly occur on about any NA game hunt. Apparently, you didn't see much change-- 70 fps won't change POI any more than "O" will lower taxes.

300 WSM , Rl-17 , 208 A-max

Went out yesterday evening and set up the chrono and IR screens. I brought 15 rounds to test 3 at each charge weight from 63-65 grains in .5 increments. I shot all round robin style and came out with some interesting results that I'll need another trip to verify. This test was done with CCI-Br-2's instead of the WLRM primers.

RL-17 & 208 A-max. 300WSM , 28" Kreiger barrel , 85 degrees F

63 grn, Average 2912 fps , ES- 47
63.5 grn, Average 2936 fps , ES- 43
64 grn, Average 2980 fps , ES- 33
64.5 grn, Average 2988 fps , ES- 37
65 grn, Average 3026 fps , ES- 21

I saw no pressure signs at all on the brass and primers. Bolt lift was normal. I believe these readings reliable since I was set up in the evening shade and had the IR screens in operation.

The extreme spread is still crappy but seems to tighten up a little as you get better case fill. More testing to follow but so far I feel this powder / bullet combo might get me where I want to be if I can control the ES.

I have done a little more testing and I am going with the 63.5 grain charge. I loaded 20 rounds yesterday to fine tune seating depth. I averaged 2951 fps with a 26 fps ES. POI was very consistent at .020 off the lands.

hi jon. looks like the lights have been turned off over there eh.