Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Running 165's in a 300 WSM?

Perhaps sooner 'pending on the bullets in each...

Velocity Wind Drift

That said, they are both great cartridges!

TakeEm: Cant download the graphs....I'll take your word for it....

A "step beyond"? No offense intended, but pardon me why I LOL. 37 feet per second over 3175 is just over .00l difference. Insignificant. I seriously doubt it will make any difference in accuracy (it could, I suppose, if the rifle is particularily twitchy) and certainly not to any game hit at any range... That small difference is likely within the variables of a single box of reloaded factory brass, once fired, unless sorted and all those other time-wasting things done. (I limit myself to cleaning, deburring the inside primer hole, trimming to length, and neck-sizing, then chamber checking each round for feed, whether bottleneck or belted magnums).

I must admit, I have never chronoed my loads - I'm more interested in accuracy. Shooting a few rounds at 100, 200, and 300 (occaisionally 400) yards gives me a pretty good idea of the ballistics involved for hunting purposes, to 500 yards- as far as I'm going to shoot on purpose.

................No offense intended back. You can laugh all you want.

Of course an additional 37 or even 100 fps won`t make any difference in the field on any game hunted.

The first part (A) of OP`s question, related to nothing more than maximum capable velocities when using a 165 grain bullet fired from a 24" barreled 300 WSM.

All I did was mention two listed or published loads that are capable of exceeding 3175 fps.

Using those loadings, any other issues where accuracy and brass life is concerned etc, is left up to the user`s discretion to make changes where necessary.

Working up loads carefully 1/2 grain at a time, I have taken my three rifles to their limits (until pressure signs are seen and then backing off a 1/2 grain) just to see what they are capable of doing. That does not mean that I always use max loadings and it should not imply that I use them for hunting. In my three rifles, reducing the charges anywhere from a 1 1/2 gr to 3 gr gives the better accuracy.

Now I suppose that IF you did have a chrony, it may be possible that your curiosity might take over a little and test the velocity limits of your rifles?.....Naaaaa!

I would look long and hard at the 168gr Ballistic Tip for this application.

Versus the 165 Accubond? I'm curious why.

Thanks.

Im shooting 165 gr nosler solid bases in one of mine.
Super accurate.
Now to shoot a critter with it and see how they perform.
Im running imr4350 in this one.

The 168 has a nice thick jacket. A bit beefier than the 165's.

b: I think a 165 in the 300WSM is a good match....you have a lot of different bullets of that weight to choose from, too....sort of splashy one's to tough penetrators.

A word of caution with the 300 WSM.Some of these rifles have freebore and some don't.Mine in particular is one that doesn't.There is no way I could get up to some the published max loads.One example,I tried to get up to Alliant's 68.0gr max with Reloader-17 using a 165gr bullet and quit when 65.0grs gave me 3160fps with poor grouping and 66.0grs gave me even poorer groups with the velocity of 3228fps.I don't even want to know what I would have got if I had went straight to 68.0grs.I usually have to stay about two grain below most manuals for most powders listed.What happens with the ones that have very little freebore is,the pressure shoots up quicker when the bullet makes contact with the lead of the lands unlike the longer tapered leads on the freebored rifles.My rifle shoots great,gets the velocity up there with less powder but,I have to be very careful with the seating depth.So my word of caution and I know mine is not the only one out there,is always start low and work your way up,every rifle is slightly different.

How far off the rifiling were you seating bullets?

Agree in general on freebore vs no freebore but have found guns with normal throating can reach most published max charges.

As to Re 17, I'm not entirely sure thats a freebore thing as much as it an Re 17 thing. I can't reach Alliant's max charge in many of my rifles. I think they're a bit optimistic.

I'm running.040 off the lands.

I used to run 165g interbonds at 3100 over H414. I killed a couple of different bucks with it and it worked great. I actually recovered one bullet and had a big wide mushroom and still had most of its weight. I found they penetrate better at longer range because they don't expand as wide and they can dig deeper when they hit going a little slower.

The 165 IB is an awesome bullet if you're rifle will shoot them. I've had mixed results accuracy wise in my rifles.

Bb

Mr Winters:

This ain't apples - apples because this is 300 Win Mag (aka real mag) I am NOT anti WSM, but I've been setup for the Win M so long there is nothing for me to gain and only added expense.

I posted this in the 1/2" gun thread. In the Rem 700 BDL, 24" bll, 73 gr IMR 4350 gave an 'average' of 3200 fps. In THIS gun it was NOT max. I wanted 3200 with the 165 and got it with ease.

As you can see accuracy was not too shabby altho not 1/2". Those HBTSP worked well on WT. Note - I don't shoot shoulders or hams or buttholes(on deer).

Last Fall I put a couple of 168 gr. Berger VLD hunting bullets into a moose at about 300 yards. No idea of the velocity but the load in use was nicely accurate. Actually I was just following up on an initial hit by a buddy with a 300 WM with 200 gr. Ptn. The moose didn't go down but was spraddle legged and follow up seemed desirable. Not sure whether the same load will be used this year or if something else will be tried.

Jim

165 Accubond
68.5 gr. H4350
CCI 250
2.308 oal
3050 fps

Makes one hole groups in my gun.

Very nice!

I've run a few WM's and 3200 is very doable with 165's. My last liked Re 22 under 168 TSX's for very similar groups and ran 3175. The only hesitation I have with the AB's is my experience with the 7mm 140 - they tend to cause a mess at close range and didn't exit. I haven't tried the 7mm 160 because my gun shoots 160 Partitions well.

I've also shot 2 elk with the 180 AB at 2900+. At close range they put a golfball size hole through both - and exited. Apparently, different size AB's have different jackets. I'm wondering where the 30 cal 165 lies on the jacket thickness scale.

Jim,probably the same as you I keep putting bullets into moose til' the legs go up in the air!I've never found a bull yet that ended up in a better place to process him than that at which he was first shot,and I don't mind losing some rib meat.I run the 168 TSX in my .300WSM. Cheers,Monashee

165's and 168's and even 150's have worked great for elk in my .30-06s. Can't think why a 165 wouldn't work even better in from WSM.

[Edited to add...]

The bullets I've used were 165g North Fork SS (2 elk), 168g TTSX (deer and antelope) and 150g AccuBond (1 elk). I wouldn't run standard cup and cores in a WSM due to concern about close range (high velocity) impacts and excessive fragmentation. YMMV.