Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting 300 wsm long range hunting loads

Anyone using the 300 wsm for long range hunting and if so what are you using for handloads?

I recently got a custom 300 wsm with a Mack Bros TI action, m5 dbm and proof light sendero 1:9. Hoping to find a load using a 200 gr bullet that will mag feed for hunting.

Any advice is appreciated.

Sounds like a nice rifle. What do you consider "long range" hunting? What kind of optic are you putting on the rifle?

I’d probably try some 200 Accubonds myself with H4350, RL17, RL16 or RL26 and see what comes out. That 9 twist should keep them spinning pretty fast and expanding well to at least 700.

Sounds like a sweet rifle, congrats.

Scotty, honestly, would you pick the 200 accubond over something like the 175 LRX? From my experience, the 300WSM isn't a screamer. Sure, it will push a 200gr bullet, but its a known fact that the 200 really interferes with case capacity of the short bastid..

I always felt 160-180 was the sweet spot on WSM’s especially if mag feeding. I had a friend that was running them on a single shot with 200gr. Berger’s and had great accuracy, just not a lot of practicality for hunting.

That being said, you can run whatever you want and 200+ gr. Would be great medicine if on a hunt and you were worried about running into grizzlys or something. But your long range energy might suffer compared to a 165 gr. load that starts a few hundred fps faster.

It’s all a compromise.

Personally, I’ve always wanted to see if I could get those 110 gr. ttsx bullets to 4K in my WSM... (not going to try, just a pipe dream)

Put together a load for my late friend Don's 300 WSM over a decade ago. He asked for a high BC bullet. I had some 230 Bergers and gave them a try. The Browning A-bolt with a BOSS has a very short magazine length of 2.8". Worked up to 61 gr of RL17 which yielded 2735 fps. I watched Don shoot his last elk, a cow at 300 yds. She took a step then fell over like a falling tree.

At the time the 215 hybrid had not hit the market. The 215 might be the perfect LR bullet for a 300 WSM.

So much for the issue of a bullet sitting deeply into the case. Thinking 2735 fps is awesome for a 22" barrel. Here is a pic:

the WSM will handle 200 gr~+ slugs just fine ........if you use a M70 wsm action you are not nearly limited to 2.8 inch COL


even a 300 H&H will require deep seating of heavy bullets that eat up some capacity

I would probably limit shots on game to 650 yds but steel as far as I can for fun. The rifle has a 4-16 Atacr on it.

My accurate mags will allow me to seat out to about 2.97” so I hopefully should not eat up too much powder space.

Seems some guys have gotten 215 Berger’s into the 2950 FPS area with R26. Will probably settle on the 200 Accubond or 200.20x as soon as I find time to load for it and get out shooting.

Sadly my time the last 2 weeks has been spent trying to organize getting my dad from FL back home to WA as he was recently diagnosed with terminal lung cancer so researching loads has kept me sane.

200 gr eldx precision hunter factory out of 300 wsm, equals dead elk at 618 yards.

I've been shooting the 215 hybrid since it came out. My 300 wsm has an extra .100" Freeborn and is on a stiller predator action so I seat out to 2.95 or 2.97ish. Its a 10 twist brux that shoots most everything very well.

I've killed an antelope at 550, at least 3 mule deer bucks including a few bigger 4x4s, and a 5x5 bull elk with the same load of norma brass, cci 250, 67g H4831sc, and a 215 hybrid. Mv is 2800 fps. It left baseball size exits on the antelopes and deer but didn't exit the elk. The elks heart was gone though. Just a big gelatinous blob.

I have several rifles and keep using that 300 wsm the last few years. This year I made myself try something different and used my 6mm Creedmoor fieldcraft to take a buck and a 7-08 fieldcraft to take an elk. I kind of missed the power of the 215 hybrid on the elk hunt but got it done with the little 7-08 it just took 2 rounds which I'm not used to needing. First 7-08 round on a quartering away elk didn't seem to penetrate much just lightly damaging the first lung. A quick follow up near the neck body junction and it went down. That was 150 eldx's at 2650mv.

Bb

My old 300 WSM would do over 2900 with the 200 AB and Partitions with a few powders. I’d pick the 200 AB simply cause it has a really great track record by me and others I hunt with. I know it’ll expand at longer ranges and it’ll also hold up on closer range hits as well. No fly’s on the LRX either, it might be a better bullet, but I’ve seen the 200 AB in action many times and it’s worked really well.

Federal 200 grain TLR or whatever they call it would be another I’d rank pretty high.

Thanks Scotty. I never could get those speeds from 3 different 300wsm's. They were damn accurate, but not nearly as fast as a 300wm... I never tried RL17 since accuracy was always very good with H4350. I need to get some RL17 for my 7mm08 as well...Its almost impossible to find around here though..

If you can get them over 2800 anything else is gravy in my opinion. Those 200 ABs, like the Partitions work great from 2500 on up through the fast movers. My 300 RUM shoots them beautiful at 3150.

Good info buddy. If you can get that accubond to shoot accurately, it sure would be a great pill. When they first came out, I was not getting good results with it. I was hand loading for a 300wm at the time and really tried to get it to shoot. Later I found out the accubond likes more jump to the lands than the partiton. Partitons were always sub moa in my rifles, as were ballistic tips. The accubond left a bad taste in my mouth. The only time I actually liked it was when I had to slow the load down for a local offhand shoot I participated in. Rules were the bullets had to be running 2,700fps or less. The targets were 4" steel plates and you also got more points if you hit an egg. Offhand at 100 yards. Hitting an egg is pretty hard to do. I developed a "slow" load for the 300wm that was surprisingly accurate off the bench. That was the only time I had good luck with that pill. As for longrange shooting at game animals (since we are talking in the longrange forum here), one of my furthest shots on a mule deer buck was with the Hornady 165 btsp out of my FN PBR XP 300WSM. I'm not going to suggest that bullet though, because now days there are a whole lot better bullets out there to be had. The shot on that buck was 600 yards,1 shot through the heart is all it took. I didn't load that one super hot either, as I also used that at a local clubs 100 yard matches. Didn't need much to compete in that event there with the country bumpkins:


I know the op is wanting to use a 200gr bullet, but a good bullet from 165-200 will work just fine in a good 300wsm. I'd probably buy a few boxes of bullets, start load development and let the rifle tell me which bullet it likes best. For my 300wby, I am going to use the 175LRX and not mess around with anything else...:

My Tikka 300WSM pretty much sits and collects dust, until I find what bullet it likes...

I just look at the intended animal hunted and work backwards most of the time. Since I hunt elk and deer I tend to shoot heavier for caliber bullets since the added BC helps with my crap wind calls and if I’m not using a blazing fast rifle like my 300 RUM Hornady ELD, or similar have been working well.

The 200 grain Accubond is a wicked beast though. It isn’t real high in BC but it ain’t bad. If I could make Noslers ABLR shoot, their 210 would be really danged nice for an added jump in aero’s.. unfortunately I must suck cause I can’t make them reliably print like I can with others.

Ha ha... I know the feeling...I learned a long time ago, Its best to use what works best for you and your rifles.

How times have changed 6-7 yes ago the 200gr AB was the cats ass when it came to it’s at the time high BC..

The 30 cal guys had to do something to compete with the higher bc pills the man bun wearing guys were shooting... One thing I know about the 30 cal magnum shooters is they are a tenacious bunch. It takes a pretty good azz whipping to convince them of something. And then even then, they still keep trying to compete.... The only real way for them to do it is super heavy rifles, muzzle brakes, and 230+gr bullets... They just like getting azz whippings I guess... I gave in. I wear a man bun now...

It’s hard to beat as an all arounder. The 220 Scenar was pretty good as well but I never got to put on in an elk.

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Well im not all that sure about the azz kicking part.
Im of the opinion that the 10 shot heavy gun 1000 yd group record set at Williamsport a decade ago with a 300 WSM still stands.
And i think you might find it was set with a 210 Berger.
Certainly the 6 mm Dashers are the favorite there today, except when the wind is blowing pretty well.