New to reloading . Advice needed on load development for 300wm

blupul

blupul

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I recently traded for an atrs built 300wm and started buying components to start reloading for it. Seems like everyone is using a 208 Amax/eld over h1000. So I picked up some h1000 and some 208's. I have some RWS brass and primers inbound . What is the starting point for a load and what is the grain difference between laddering it up ? Should I make 3,5 or 10 round batches ? What is the quickest, cheapest way to get to your optimal load. Im just borrowing a friends dies until I choose the ones I want . Should I be using the bushing type dies ? Any help would be great as this is my first attempt at any reloading .
 
I just sent through this. There are tonnes of opinions, but here's mine. I'm assume you're looking to do some sort of long range/ precision.

That powder/bullet will hopefully work for you, hopefully.

Get a hornady lock n load Over All Length gauge (50$) to set your bullet seating depth.

Get a good set of calipers. Starrett or Mitotoyu, and hornady Ogive comparators (1-200$) so you can measure base to ogive.

Get a full length bushing die, Redding is my preference. Get a micrometer seater. Redding is good, Forster seems good too. Get the carbide expander button for the Redding FL sizer. Get carbide bushings too. .335 ish will probably be a good start. X-reload is great for these.

A Lee or RCBS priming tool is fine. A 21st century reloading tool is even better, but 3x the cost.

If you can afford it, get a case prep station. I thought the Lyman was the best value at 180$. If you don't want to spend that much, get a hand chamfer/deburr tool.

If you can afford it, get a frankford wet tumbler kit.

You'll need a press. I got a Lee turret, but in all honesty is be fine with a single. The RCBS Rock chucker has been doing the job for decades.

Scale is your choice. RCBS Chargemaster Combo is the ticket if you wanna spend.

Get a kinetic bullet puller (the plastic hammer lookin thing).

If I did it again if start with that.

GGG
 
First , there is no "quick" in reloading, remove that from your vocabulary.There are no short cuts.

Get on google and do some reading and then if things are unclear come here to ask questions , we could write pages and pages on reloading , best is to get reading the already vast resources out there.

A loading manual will go through all the basics , get one , it will have everything you need to get started.Then you can go online to refine information.

Tools you require will be outlines in the manual, the basics will be there.

1.Read about seating depth , bullet shape, chamber dimensions and cartridge dimensions.



2.Read about bullet construction and what their use is.

3.Read about brass preparation and selection.

4.Read about components - primers and powders.

5.Read about pressures and the cartridges effect on it within varying parameters.

6.Read about and understand burn rates and understand how they work different with varying bullets weight, case capacities , barrel lengths.

Once you get a taste of those things then you can start.

Go on google and read up on OCW load testing, ladder testing and group testing.

You can get complete starter kits minus the dies and components for a decent price, learn to use the hand tools , this will give you the basics and understanding of what you got into.

Again, if you ask for quickest , then reloading may not be for you.

Patience and understanding.

If you are looking for the methods with the least steps, then that is a better question.

Don't worry about what cartridge you are loading for as the procedures are all the same.

Gunneegoogoo has touched on a few things that are a bit advanced and geared more towards precision and advanced loading.Personally I would stick with the basics for now until you have gotten a grasp on what all the steps and components and variances will do.

We all started somewhere.

What is your intended use for this load?
 
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Gunneegoogoo said:
I just sent through this. There are tonnes of opinions, but here's mine. I'm assume you're looking to do some sort of long range/ precision.

That powder/bullet will hopefully work for you, hopefully.

Get a hornady lock n load Over All Length gauge (50$) to set your bullet seating depth.

Get a good set of calipers. Starrett or Mitotoyu, and hornady Ogive comparators (1-200$) so you can measure base to ogive.

Get a full length bushing die, Redding is my preference. Get a micrometer seater. Redding is good, Forster seems good too. Get the carbide expander button for the Redding FL sizer. Get carbide bushings too. .335 ish will probably be a good start. X-reload is great for these.

A Lee or RCBS priming tool is fine. A 21st century reloading tool is even better, but 3x the cost.

If you can afford it, get a case prep station. I thought the Lyman was the best value at 180$. If you don't want to spend that much, get a hand chamfer/deburr tool.

If you can afford it, get a frankford wet tumbler kit.

You'll need a press. I got a Lee turret, but in all honesty is be fine with a single. The RCBS Rock chucker has been doing the job for decades.

Scale is your choice. RCBS Chargemaster Combo is the ticket if you wanna spend.

Get a kinetic bullet puller (the plastic hammer lookin thing).

If I did it again if start with that.

GGG
Click to expand...

When using a bushing die, a carbide expander isn't a real advantage, in fact , you don't need to even use an expander. I use an expander, but I polish it down so that it only removes dents in the neck, and doesn't really expand the neck. As such, I don't usually bother with lubing the neck. As to the bushings, they are not carbide, they are titanium nitride. As to a bullet puller, I would recommend a collet type puller, rather than a kinetic puller.
 
I like the collet pullers as well. The lee collet die is good for belted cases as well ( accuracy and brass life ) but you would need to full size after a few loadings when you feel it chamber tighter (4-5 loadings )
 
stubblejumper said:
When using a bushing die, a carbide expander isn't a real advantage, in fact , you don't need to even use an expander. I use an expander, but I polish it down so that it only removes dents in the neck, and doesn't really expand the neck. As such, I don't usually bother with lubing the neck. As to the bushings, they are not carbide, they are titanium nitride. As to a bullet puller, I would recommend a collet type puller, rather than a kinetic puller.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I get tiN and carbide confused.... "The stuff that helps by not needing lube"....
 
Thanks for all the input . Got some reading material and have been reading all I can . As far as quickest it was in reference to laddering up to my most accurate charge . I have a friend close and instead of borrowing his dies and powder measure / scale . I'll probably just head over to his place and he can walk me though the process. Then I'll dive in a little harder buying some more of my own equipment . I'm sure I'll be reloading every rifle caliber I have eventually so I might just load up some 223 as practice before the 300wm. Using his equipment will give me a chance to slowly buy once cry once or some nicer reloading gear . And thanks to Bob for passing on a years worth of reads . Half way through the ABC's
 
I say READ, READ, READ!!
In my own case, I started reloading for rifle when I bought a .300 winmag. I bought a Lee 50th anniversary kit and a Lee reloading book to start with. I read all kinds of recommendations on multiple sites and got a basic idea on what I wanted. I then bought components and used the Lee book, starting with a load in the low-mid range of powder capacity. The load I ended up enjoying for accuracy and speed was Reloder 22 under Speer 165 Deep Curl bullets. I don't have the data anymore because I can't get those bullets anymore. Have fun, experiment sanely and document everything. My 2 cents
 
With all the difference that small, uncontrolable changes make, it feels more like witchcraft and black magic than science.
 
blupul said:
I recently traded for an atrs built 300wm and started buying components to start reloading for it. Seems like everyone is using a 208 Amax/eld over h1000. So I picked up some h1000 and some 208's. I have some RWS brass and primers inbound . What is the starting point for a load and what is the grain difference between laddering it up ? Should I make 3,5 or 10 round batches ? What is the quickest, cheapest way to get to your optimal load. Im just borrowing a friends dies until I choose the ones I want . Should I be using the bushing type dies ? Any help would be great as this is my first attempt at any reloading .
Click to expand...

What is the twist of the barrel? Is this for shooting long range targets or just hunting with? Seeing as how it's a custom what kind of reamer and throat specs are they?
I can tell you that me and friend just built a couple of 300 win mags. One is a stiller action the other is a Borden both with Brux barrels. And were cut with a reamer with a little extra free bore so the bullets can be seated out further.
These things both shoot a ragged hole at 100 yards and hold under 1/2 moa out to 900 yards. This is with a 215 Berger and H1000.
One ended up at 78 grains max and the other was at 77 gr. The biggest diffenence is in the brass. One is nosler the other is ppu
So the most important thing is the weight of the brass for loading. The RWS brass is quite heavy and will not require as much powder to reach max. The load development for both of these guns took under 15 rounds. Basically loaded a couple and shot over the chronograph to see the speed they basically shot one ragged hole. The speed was good and they were sighted in. Off the long range to verify the drops. All was good. When you have all good stuff it isn t that hard. Lol
Send me a pm if you want anymore info ir I can help you out. You could even give me a call.
 
Best advice I was given: go and buy Sierra Reloading Manual. Read it and understand it. Find a mentor who is trustworthy, let him/her explain basics and question them on everything. Chances are if they have nice reloading room with correct tools and nice setup, they know what's going on. If they are shooting f class or br even better.

Learn from them and then start loading.

Or you can take a short cut and realy do a number on your gun and possibly your health...
 
Kelly Timoffee said:
Physics and Chemistry my friend.
Click to expand...

You're confusing that all things in shooting can be explained with science, and that all things in shooting have been explained with it.

Your morning coffee can be explained with science, as can the wear on your tires.

97% of what we do is based on anecdote, conjecture, hearsay, and witchcraft. I'm sure there are a few others, but Brian Litz is about the only one doing real science in this game that I can think of. There's not reason why properly powered and controlled experiments couldn't be going on.

I'd like to get some going though. I think that as a group we could offer a lot if we started some well designed studies. Things like - neck vs. FL, cleaning regimens, effect of CBTO length, etc, etc, etc.....
 
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