Talk to me about the .300 Winchester Mag - 12/03/12
I finally have a .300 win mag on order. It's a heavy barrel Savage that will be used mostly at the range, also for some stand hunting for whitetails. I have done a ton of shooting and reloading with the .308 and the .300 sav, but I am completely new to the .300 mag.
What I want to do is develop a mid-range load that will work for my purposes and will not work the brass overly hard. My plan, and ya'll stop me if I'm wrong, is to get some regular ol' FL sizing dies (probably RCBS), and set them where the shoulder is only pushed back ever so slightly on resizing. I want the cartridges to headspace on the shoulder, not the band. It's basically what I do with my other cartridges anyway, but I'm reading that the .300 mag is especially hard on brass if you aren't a little selective in your reloading techniques. My plan is to shoot 180-190 g. bullets at around 2900-3000 fps.
I have on hand H4831SC and H4350. I also have H4895 and IMR4895, but thinking these are gonna be a little fast burning for the caliber. I have Federal 210M primers that work wonderfully in the .308, but I'm thinking I should step up to 215M for this caliber.
Can you give me some specific advice on loads with these general parameters? I am open to all experience/suggestions. My main observation is that I'm not trying to push the .300 mag to the limits of its potential. Even loaded weakly, it looks like it will smoke the .308 in terms of performance.
Of course, I also note that there is so much case capacity, it probably will not be particularly accurate with light charges. I want something middle of the road that is going to be tackdriving accurate, but easy on the brass and easy (as a .300 mag can be) on me. In fact, I'd say that accuracy is probably gonna be my primary consideration.
As always, thanks much in advance.
What I want to do is develop a mid-range load that will work for my purposes and will not work the brass overly hard. My plan, and ya'll stop me if I'm wrong, is to get some regular ol' FL sizing dies (probably RCBS), and set them where the shoulder is only pushed back ever so slightly on resizing. I want the cartridges to headspace on the shoulder, not the band. It's basically what I do with my other cartridges anyway, but I'm reading that the .300 mag is especially hard on brass if you aren't a little selective in your reloading techniques. My plan is to shoot 180-190 g. bullets at around 2900-3000 fps.
I have on hand H4831SC and H4350. I also have H4895 and IMR4895, but thinking these are gonna be a little fast burning for the caliber. I have Federal 210M primers that work wonderfully in the .308, but I'm thinking I should step up to 215M for this caliber.
Can you give me some specific advice on loads with these general parameters? I am open to all experience/suggestions. My main observation is that I'm not trying to push the .300 mag to the limits of its potential. Even loaded weakly, it looks like it will smoke the .308 in terms of performance.
Of course, I also note that there is so much case capacity, it probably will not be particularly accurate with light charges. I want something middle of the road that is going to be tackdriving accurate, but easy on the brass and easy (as a .300 mag can be) on me. In fact, I'd say that accuracy is probably gonna be my primary consideration.
As always, thanks much in advance.