300 Weatherby advice

apu

apu

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Ok, I having been dinking with my new to me Sauer 202 in 300 Wby and am curious what folks are using as pet loads? So far I have come to realize that with the nearly 1/4 inch free bore even after I load my rounds to max magazine length I was experiencing terrible accuracy using VLDs like Hornady's ELD-X 178 and 200 grain projectiles. It was giving me 3-4 inch groups regardless if I used whatever variations of RL25 or H1000. Was starting to think it was me until I tried some 180 grain Nosler partitions loaded with 84 grain of 7828 and then all sudden boom MOA. Anything else work well with these free bore bruisers(literally). Thanks
 
I've found the same thing with the Weatherby cartridges, the free-bore is going to eliminate a lot of bullets particularly the higher BC VLD styles. That's unless you get lucky, but it doesn't look like you have. If you had to bet, bet on flat-bases.

Bullets that thrive on a long run are the 180 Partition as you already found and it's 200 grain sibling. If it shoots a Partition it'll shoot a Interlock for practice and deer sized game. The Swift A-Frame is a good bet in sturdy bullets. The Scircoco has a fighting chance, and although I don't care for them much anymore the TSX likes the leap of faith too.

That's basically my list of Weatherby friendly bullets regardless of caliber. I've also had decent luck with the Ballistic Tip and Accubond; but you sure wouldn't guess that by the way my current 300 Bee hates them.
 
Thank you gentleman for the kind replies, very helpful. I am going to try some interlocks and I think I have some Sierra spitzer flat based prohunter bullets I can try as well.
I really like this gun/caliber and despite what I hate to admit the couple of Weatherby eyebrows it has given me... note to self keep the muzzle brake on during practice :)
 
i have been loading for weatherby's for 40+ years i own a few for my experience is they don't like boat tails. i'm guessing i might have something to do with the freebore
 
I’ve had good luck with IMR 4831 over the years but have been using RL 25 and getting a bit more velocity.

Also have tried a bunch of different 180’s but my Mark V seems to like the old Speer 200 SP Flat bases the most.

Regards, KC
 
I got steady 3/4 moa out of my father's MarkV with 200 accubound and H1000. 3120 fps. may looks li not optimal speed for a wby, but it the accurate load I god using the powder I have for my rifle and figured its more than adequate for the job to do

the 300 WBY usualy have a very long throat jump. check it and your magazine capacity is probably what will tell you your mar col. if not keep minimum 0,050 clearance before contact to riflings. I would avoid very long bullet ogive like VLDs
 
Flat base, short ogive bullets have more bearing surface than long tapered boat tail bullets. Bullets with more bearing surface tend to stay in alignment in freebore better than a bullet with less bearing surface.
 
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As mentioned, flat base bullets like the Partition and Hornady Spire Point always shot well for me. Tried Berger's and never got them to shoot well.
 
qtip said:
Do you think that crimping the bullet might help when dealing with freebore? Or am I out to lunch ?
Click to expand...

I have had improvements in accuracy when crimping loads that are forced to deal with a lot of freebore. From a 300 Wby to even a long throated Rem 700 308 police.
Try it!
 
I'm getting good accuracy with 168gr TSX bullet and 80.5 gr of IMR 4350 from my Blaser R8. I've tried 200gr ELD-X with IMR 7828, but wasn't getting consistent grouping, 3 shots would group nicely and there was always 1-2 that opened up group to 1.5-2".
It also shots well with 200gr NAB and 77gr of RL-22, but not as tight as TSX.
 
dany19176 said:
I've tried 200gr ELD-X with IMR 7828, but wasn't getting consistent grouping, 3 shots would group nicely and there was always 1-2 that opened up group to 1.5-2".
Click to expand...

This was exactly my experience I would get a couple to stack on top of each other and the next 2 shots would seem to randomly print 2-3 inches apart,frustrating as heck. All is not lost as I suspect they will shoot real nice out of my 3006 maybe even the K31.
 
Buckmastr said:
I have had improvements in accuracy when crimping loads that are forced to deal with a lot of freebore. From a 300 Wby to even a long throated Rem 700 308 police.
Try it!
Click to expand...

I crimp all my rounds and in this case it did not really seem to overcome the Weatherby free bore. Today I shot the previously trialed 178 and 200 grain ELD-X bullets in my 3006 Sauer 101 just short of the rifling and they shot perfectly moa without much effort so it's clear that free bore is the issue not the bullet. As suggested I also tried 150 grain interlocks in the 300 bee and they shot moa. Hornady SSTs were ok at 2 inch groups and possibly could be tuned a bit more but it seems the obvious winner in my rifle is 180 grains partitions with 7828 powder ( 200 grain would probably be fine too). Dang I wish these projectiles were not so pricey... I guess its like the guy with a fancy pants car complaining about the price of premium unleaded. It is what it is or maybe not, I still have not tried some hard cast gas checked bullets I made a while back. Assuming it does not lead the barrel up too bad and if I could get at least 3 inch groups it I might consider this a decent plinking round. Hmm, stay tuned this might be fun trying to push a cast gas checked bullet at 2000+ ft per second. 3000 ft per sec is probably unreasonable to expect but I will probably try it and see :)
 
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