Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 300 RCM First Outing

Finally, took my 300 RCM and some handloads to the range yesterday. I put an old 3-9 Vari X II on it and had some handloads with 57.0gr & 59.0gr of W760 with the 168 T-TSX. The first group with the lower charge looks promising but the velocities are way down. I think this is due to the freebore. The only data I had are Hodgdon's & they have a 24 inch barreled gun doing around 2950fps.

I will up the charge & see how she goes. But so far I'm liking the gun. Recoil is manageable, blast does not seem an issue, feeding is great. Trigger is crisp but at 5lbs a bit on the heavy side. Barrel cleans up real easy - I suppose there is not much of it!

Should make a great Sambar rifle!

regards,
JohnT

What do you mean about the "freebore?" Is it excessive in these new RCMs?

Are you planning on trying diferent powders? Zooming in I see you were in the 2760 fps range. Hodgdon's data shows a couple of other powders that look good.

Wow-that's 308 win range. Figured you would get 2900 easy.

Lots of room to work up, I suppose.

Nice shooting, though.

BMT

I see there is interest in the "RCM" but not a whole lot of people have taken the plunge because there is a dearth of info on them. Why I have not even been able to get a SAAMI drawing yet. Oh and good news I just got word that my factory ammo has arrived after about 9 months wait at the grand price of A$81 a box. And you guys complain about your ammo prices!!!

I will try to answer your questions about the 300 RCM the best I can.

Dakota: The claim of the RCM's is to match or beat the 300WSM or 338 Win Mag in velocity in a 20" barrel. Well they would lead you to beleive that they have an "efficient" case design; "special" powders etc. But fact of the matter is that its a smaller capacity case than the WSM. Smaller by how much-not really sure but from my searches/reading about 72 vs 79 grains water capacity. My guess & it is just that - is that even with the efficient case & special blend powder it was still hard to meet the advertising claims within accepted pressure limits so they resorted to plain old "Weatherby" freebore.

Sorry for the rant above but basically with my 168 T-TSX as an example it is impossible to seat the bullet in the case & touch the lands. And that's a long bullet. You'd need to lengthen the case neck (maybe 0.15"+) to do so. Now we all know the downside to "feebore" is loss of accuracy but it looks like perhaps they have cut the leade very close to bullet diameter to minimise effect on accuracy. I'm hoping that's so.

Gerry: Yes, I'm going to try H4350 and slightly higher charges of W760. The water capacity of the 300RCM matches the water capacity of my 30MC (sort of like a 30 Gibbs)to within 0.1 grain. W760 is excellent in my 30MC but I understand W760 does not perform well in rifles with a lot of freebore.

BMT: Don't know about being in the 308 range as I don't go above 150gr in them but certainly 30-06 range. The Hodgdon data is supposed to be in a 24" barrel so I would expect to loose about 100fps going to 20". They are quoting just shy of 3000fps so my max vel would be around 2900fps. So I am not that far away.

My own WSM with 24" barrel maxes out at 3150fps with the 168 TSX but it prefers to operate at just under 3000fps with that bullet. My 30-06 ULA with 22" barrel operates right at those velocities with 2850fps being max. for that rifle.

Will post further resulsts as I go.

regards,
JohnT

Thanks for the info. I guess cubic inches (or centimeters) still rules!

I took the RCM out again last week and an increased charge of W760 was able to give me about 2,850fps with the 168gr T-TSX. Not too shabby for a 20' barrel. From the primers it looks like I can go even higher yet but really I just want to get accuracy at these velocity levels & I'll be happy.

Target is below. I'll have to look at bedding as to why shots 4&5 dispersed so much.

regards
JohnT

Have you tried H4350 or Hunter Yet?

Shag,

Yes but so far accuracy has been terrible.

Don't have the charge weights with me but the velocities were really low. I think W760 may be the better powder because of the limited case capacity due to having to seat the bullet so deep. I have an idea to try W760 again but with magnum primers ( I was using WLR which I always use with ball powders) but because of the freebore the Magnum primer may help keep the powder burn more consistent. I will drop the charges & work up again.

Plus W760 is a dream to throw on the measure. Pity we don't get the clean burning Ramshot line here.

Reloader 17 (not avail. in Oz yet) may be the go but as I said I'd be happy at 2850fps with better accuracy than at present.

BTW you do know that its gone off at that velocity. Recoil is brisk but does not hurt you. Gunweight is 7lb 15 oz with the Leup 3-9 x 40 scope & the Burris Weaver bases and Warne QD rings.

Regards,
JohnT

John
I have had three Ruger Hawkeyes in the last year, including one in 300 RCM.
First of all, I would look at the bedding of your rifle, as the last Hawkeye I had exhibited the same type of "patterns" until I corrected the bedding.
The fact that a change in powder charge leads to erratic groups leads me to believe you have a rifle problem such as locking lugs not bearing well or bedding issues. It's pretty unusual in my experience to have a Ruger rifle with a serious problem. When you ferret out that problem and resolve it, you can probably shoot good groups with more powders.
My last Hawkeye was a wood stocked 30/06 and bedding it changed the accuracy from 3 inch groups to about an inch without any load developement.
Fred
The techs at Hornady told me that they got their best velocities with Hunter and H 4350 powder in the 300 RCM. I

Hi Royce,

Checked the lug contact last night and that seems fine.

What did you do with the bedding in yours? Free float barrel & bed the lugs? Should I bed the chamber or leave it?

Did you go back to the 30-06 after the 300RCM or some other calibre?

regards,
JohnT

I totally dig the feel of that lil rifle, just wish it was a bit more than a short actioned .06. Not that that's a bad thing or anything but I do wish it had more gas to it.

Silly Q here but could the RCM be punched out to WSM?

Thx
Dober

Hi Mark,

I suppose you could but if you were going to all that trouble why not start with a WSM action anyway. I'm probably thinking an M70 in the CRF type. with the 3.1 inch mag length is probably better.

If you are talking a 300WSM in the Ruger Compact Magnum package 20" barrel & all I'm thinking it could be too much of a good thing.

Regards,
JohnT

With my learning curve and neophyteness I have learned thru 2 77's, one Hawkeye and one MKII that freefloating worked real well!!!

JohnT
On the 30/06 Hawkeye, it seemed as though the wood had warped a great deal. The recoil lug was bottoming out and the barrel was touching the stock in various places throughout the channel.
When I had it bedded, I had the barrel totally free floated, without even the chamber being bedded. The action is bearing right behind the front action screw and at the rear tang. Also, the recoil lug was bedded to make sure it had a firm and even bearing.Shoots great now.
People in the know tell me that the best starting place for bedding the Rugers is to totally free float the barrel, chamber and all.
That 300 RCM Hawkeye is the sweetest handling factory rifle I have ever picked up.
Oh, yea, I did go back to the 06.

Fred

Fred, how long is the barrel on an RCM?

20"?

John- good question, and here's my reasoning. The wood stock on the lil RCM is physcially a bit smaller than the stock on the regular wood M77, and that is what is so seductive to me.

Dober

Hi Mark,

Well then can't see why not. Before the WSM patent thing blew up my gunsmith was buying up any Ruger WSM's and rebarrelling to his "Australian Stalker" series and selling them as a set with modified dies and cases. He made them in 375, 404 & 458.

In fact, when I bought the 300 RCM he told me if it didn't work out then he would just make it a WSM for me. So the Ruger action will work with the WSM but I don't know if in a 20" barrel you will gain enough extra velocity to be happy with it.

Having played with both the WSM & RCM , case design wise I like the RCM a lot better. It just feeds & extracts so much nicer than the WSM with that rebated rim.

Also bear in mind that although you can get the 30-06 to the same velocities in my case anyway the accuracy node for my 30-06 ULA was about 100fps below the velocities I am getting with the 300RCM and that in a 22" tube.

Personally, I don't want any more velocity in this "package" because it is quite nicely shootable at these levels. I suppose I am just a recoil wimp!

Royce, thanks for the bedding hints. I bedded up to the chamber in my rebarrelled 25-06 Ruger 77 Mk1 and after lots of experimentation I had to remove it again. The inletting for the RCM's is quite neat & tight so I was hoping to leave it alone but I may not have a choice if it does not shoot better.

regards
JohnT

Sam
Yup

Fred

Geez guys,I hate to be a wet blanket,but a 30/06 FW with 22" barrel will handily do 2900 with a 165 anything and 57-59 gr of powder,so I gotta say that I can't fall in love with 2950 for 2" less barrel and a slightly shorter bolt throw.

The whole RCM thing may be "progress"but I think it's more like a "slight-of-hand". What is this thing for shorter actions anyway?