Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting 155 grain amax for 300 win mag?

lookin at working up a load for my ruger 77 mkii 300 win mag with a soon to be wearing nikon monarch 4-16 mil dot with turret scope for a 600 yard+/- deer hunting load and am looking at the 155 grain hornady amax as an option..anyone have any experience trying out this bullet combo out of the 300 wm? if you have used it with success can you give me your load data for it to have a good starting point? it seems like it would be a good bullet for a beanfield rifle and some longer range steel shooting in the summertime, just havent heard much of it bein usedi n the 300..any experience with this set up is appreciated
Brian

Others are using the 155 Berger 'Hunting' and a Sencar.

The Berger is now made to work for hunting. Is it certain that the Hornady amax is made for hunting?


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From the left:
6mm 60 gr. Sierra HP, 6mm 85 gr. Sierra BTHP, 6.5mm 120 Nosler Ballistic Tip, 6.5mm 130 gr. Nosler Accubond, 6.5mm 140 gr. Sierra Gameking, .308" 125 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip, .308" 155 gr. Lapua Scenar, .308" 165 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip.

The amax isnt listed as a hunting bullet, but ive read lots of reviews of people having great results with them on game, just nothing yet of the 155s and 300 win mag combo

Navy, I have not used the Hornady bullet you mention...but over the years have shot much game with 150's out of a .300 mag...my favorite bullet for long range deer shooting up to around 600 yards is the Nosler 150 grain BTBT..my favorite poweder has always be IMR 4350, with a top load it is easy to get over 3400 fps. with it...sighted in three inches high at 100 you have less than a 2 foot drop at 500 and plenty of power for killing deer..while I would not select it for the job, it has killed more than a couple elk for me..

thanks for hte info! i have been looking at the nbt 150 for it as well..im going to be playin with spinning turrets to as long as i know the range the hold over isnt a big deal, but it is nice to know how flat it does shoot..was also looking at using 4350 for whatever bullet i chose from other things ive heard about how well it works in the 300..this gun is going to be used only on whitetails for the most part, but i might break it out to do some long range woodchuck sniping or crows in the summertime...guns too heavy for me to want to carry around out west for elk

I'm guessing it will look like a bomb went off!

AMAX'x are phenomenal killers, but a 300WM is too much for the 155's. At 3,300-3,400 fps it's nothing but a varmint bullet. The 178gr is where you want to be in a Win Mag and AMAX's.

def make a good point there....im sure id have more than plenty flat shooting with the 178s...will think about that when i get my reloading equipment...i want something flat and accurate...so i can shoot out further than i prolly shoot on steel

also have been looking at the 150 or 165 grain sst or nbt for this gun...any opinions are welcome

Alot of guys swear they are having success in their 308's but It looks very fragile to me. I may get a chance to run them myself so we'll see....

I personally feel that the 155 does not offer quite enough penetration out of a 308win for general use on deer. Pure rib shots are no problem, but any angle and it becomes iffy. The 168gr AMAX has been ideal for deer. The 168 offers enough penetration on even sharply quartering shots.

been eying up the 168s also...but my 300 will have a lil more oomph than the 308 does haha

With a frangible bullet, that additional oomph may result in less penetration, rather than more.

thats one thing that ive been considering as well, dont want the bullet to just explode on impact..the 150 or 165 sst might be a lil better suited, or possibily the same weight nbt(and can interchange w/ accubond for bigger game if i chose)

The 155 and 168gr are a no go in the 300WM. Even the 178gr will probably make you nauseous if you hit bone. If you can live with some meat loss if you strike bone then the 178gr AMAX is splendid. If not, go with something else. If I was going light I would lean towards the 155gr Scenar, or I would go straight to the 180gr NBT.

im lookin for something in the 150-165 range, but i ill check out the scenars..never shot them before myself

Been playing in the longrange game for close to 10 yrs. now. I can tell you from personal experience that light and fast is not the ticket. Getting to 500 yds. is easy, getting to 600 and beyond is another story. I wouldn't look at anything below the 180 grain class of bullets for my 300 WM. If you're going to spin turrets, then adding a few clicks for elevation is easy. But, dealing with varying wind and gusts is a different story. A heavier, higher B.C. bullet will buck the wind better. Been using Bergers for a few years and so far I really like them, but I try to stay off the shoulder just in case. I wish I knew 10 yrs. ago what I know now. It would have saved me a ton of money building fast rifles shooting light bullets. Speed can also make bullets do unpredictable things. I'm very content shooting a +.600 B.C. bullet chugging along at 2800-2900 fps.

Care to share your reloading recipe for the 300?

Also considering Bergers for my 300

thanks for the info! def sound like youve been aorund the block a time or 2 with this one..but i dont think ill ever be seeing the range your talking of...id prolly be hard pressed to do anything shooting over 500 probably at tops besides at the occasional crow or woodchuck that i see on a day with the rifle(when i move back to wny that is)...the 180s im sure are the ticket for the real far range stuff..but i would think id be able to get good results out to around 500 if i get the real estate to shoot that far out of lighter...but im def gonna play around whhen i get access to some reloading stuff and let the gun decide what she likes best

I agree with everything jumpalot2 said. I have been shooting a 300WM for more than 30 years and have tried almost every combo in one, my current favorite combo is the 210gr BergerVLD with H1000 behind it. IMHO 180gr and up is where the 300WM shines, if I just wanted to shoot 150-165 grain bullet's I would shoot them out of a 308 or a 30-06 to save on recoil and the barrel life of my 300WM.