I’ve been trying to find a 200 - 210 grain bullet that will shoot well in my 300 Win Mag. I tried Accubond LR in both 190 and 210 grain, Barnes 200 grain LRX, Sierra Game King 200 grain, 200 grain ELD, with a variety of powder, primer and seating depths, and couldn’t get any of them to shoot well consistently. All have high BCs and maybe stabilize at long distance, but out to 250 yards in my rifle no go. My barrel is 1 in 10, maybe 1 in 9 would work better. 190 grain SMKs are half MOA or better from it though.
I decided to drop down to 180 grain to see how they would work. I had some 180 grain Barnes TSX sitting on the shelf which my 308 Win didn’t like so I gave them a try, and results were promising, but I didn’t have enough to work up a load. I picked up a box of 180 grain TTSXs and went out today to test them.
I had several powders on hand RL 17, 19, 22, H4831sc, and H4350, which were all listed in the Barnes manual. I was only interested in how these bullets shot at the top end of the load range so I backed off 1 grain from max loaded 3 then bumped it up to max and loaded 3. This is not something I’d do with a rifle I don’t have experience with, as well as powder or bullet I don’t have experience with. If that were the case, I’d start at the listed starting load and work up.
Anyway, it turns out this rifle likes 180 grain Barnes bullets. I didn’t experience any high pressure signs with any of these loads. Results as follows:
Test conditions: 72-80 deg, light winds, 2300 ft altitude. Distance 150 yds
Powder, Charge, Velocity Ave Group size (MOA)
RL17. 66.7. 3101. 1.4
RL17. 67.7 3151 0.3
RL19. 70.9. 3097. 1.4
RL19. 72.5. 3150. 1.0
RL22. 71.5. 3134. 2.0
RL22. 73.0. 3191. 1.3
H4831sc. 70.5. 2965. 1.8
H4831sc. 72.0. 3012. 0.2
I had already used this bullet with H4350 so I knew I could safely tweek the charge up a bit. This is above max. Do not use this data with your rifle. Start at listed starting load and work up.
H4350. 65.5. 3032. 1.6
H4350. 66.5. 3134. .86
H4350. 67.5. 3286. 0.26
Looks like I have 3 powders that will work pretty well. I’m not sure which is least temperature sensitive but I’ll research that and go with the one least sensitive.
