300wm reduced loads

Read the cautionary notes about such things in your reloading manuals.

Also read about H4895 in Hodgdon's literature.
 
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IMR 4759 will do a midrange practice load, with or without cast bullets.

Something that I've found is that if you use IMR 4350 recoil drops way down compared to H1000 and others that have a burn rate just slightly faster than oily rags. Speeds drop some, but recoil changes all out of proportion. It's like shooting a different rifle, the effect is that noticeable. If you play around near the starting loads recoil will be like a 30-06.

On a related note I was experimenting with 4350 in my 300 rum the last few days, mostly to see if Noslers claim of accuracy with that powder had a basis in reality. The jury is still out out the benchrest accuracy claim, but I couldn't help noticing that recoil was in the powder puff category. Turns out using 15 grains less powder kicks less. A feller almost shouldn't need to be told that
 
Dogleg said:
IMR 4759 will do a midrange practice load, with or without cast bullets.

Something that I've found is that if you use IMR 4350 recoil drops way down compared to H1000 and others that have a burn rate just slightly faster than oily rags. Speeds drop some, but recoil changes all out of proportion. It's like shooting a different rifle, the effect is that noticeable. If you play around near the starting loads recoil will be like a 30-06.



On a related note I was experimenting with 4350 in my 300 rum the last few days, mostly to see if Noslers claim of accuracy with that powder had a basis in reality. The jury is still out out the benchrest accuracy claim, but I couldn't help noticing that recoil was in the powder puff category. Turns out using 15 grains less powder kicks less. A feller almost shouldn't need to be told that
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4759 is now discontinued.
 
If you are happy with 308 Winchester ballistics in your 300 Win Mag, try 50 grains of IMR 3031 behind the 180.

I have successfully used this as a "light" load in the 300 Win, the 300 H&H and the 308 Norma Mag.

Regards, Dave.
 
Don't know how reduced you want but the Speer manual no 10 lists from29.0-33.0 gr of imr 4198 with a 180 gr bullet as a reduced load with a velocity of 1650 to 2000fps. I have used 28.5 gr with a 180 in a 30-06 for a young family friend to get used to his rifle. This is a very accurate load.
He did not enjoy shooting his 30-06 with heavy factory loads and was going to save it for hunting. I thus loaded these up for him and when he gets the brass back to me I will load some 165 gr bullets a tad warmer for him.

Neil
 
Read as much as you can and then contact Eagleye. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Very helpful. Best of luck.
 
I've played around with a Rem 700 in 300WM quite a bit. I kind of wanted to steal the idea of the 300RUM ammo where there are 3 different power levels except I just wanted 2 power levels.

I tried cast data for jacketed, 60% rule, published reduced loads, tiny amounts of shotgun powders, Trail Boss, and in the end the best shooting loads are when I use 308 Win data (at max loads) in a 300WM. So long as you aren't using a slow powder there is no risk of a SEE or secondary explosive effect (read Norma's publications on their tests to try to verify/recreate SEE's; they're the only ballistic lab to publish anything about it based on science and not hearsay and rumour) so anything like 3031, 4064, 4895, Varget, Benchmark, etc. will work fine. My rifle likes H4895 with a 180gr bullet. I used the max published load on the Hodgdon data site for 308 Win and it shot MoA in my Rem 700 in 300WM.

The issue I had with the 60% rule was I couldn't find data for H4895 and 180gr bullets in the 300WM so the 60% rule would only work for the lighter bullets which don't shoot well in my 700. I wanted heavier bullets, at least 180gr, but reduced loads with slow magnum powders like H4831 can be dangerous (again, check the Norma document). Cast loads with jacketed bullets worked but I wasn't happy with the accuracy or the drop at 100yds compared to my 300WM zero. 308 data in a 300WM is going to give lower velocities than in a 308 due to the larger case capacity; it's kind of like the upper end of the 30-30 spectrum. The best part was my PoI was maintained out to 100yds compared to my regular 300WM loads (this may be different in your rifle).

Now all I have to do is keep clearly marked cases and I can pick the velocity depending on the game while knowing my PoI remains the same to 100yds.
 
samcan said:
I got an idea ......get a .308 or a 30/06
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I've never understood statements like these. Why is wanting more flexible ammo choices seen as so odd to some people? If someone only ever shoots reduced loads, sure, it might be worthwhile to trade in for a rifle in a cartridge closer to what you want, but if someone wants the ability to fire regular power ammo and also wants reduced loads for some fun/plinking/different type of game while still using the same rifle, what's the problem? Not everyone wants to drop a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars for an entirely new rifle just for some once-in-a-while recreational shooting.
 
LUTNIT said:
I've never understood statements like these. Why is wanting more flexible ammo choices seen as so odd to some people? If someone only ever shoots reduced loads, sure, it might be worthwhile to trade in for a rifle in a cartridge closer to what you want, but if someone wants the ability to fire regular power ammo and also wants reduced loads for some fun/plinking/different type of game while still using the same rifle, what's the problem? Not everyone wants to drop a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars for an entirely new rifle just for some once-in-a-while recreational shooting.
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Thanks for that. I agree I love shooting my 300wm but honestly just shooting of the bench by 10 rounds or so I don't get the same enjoyment out of it. Sure I could get out tricked out with a brake but it's my hunting rifle. Shooting reduced loads means I can get more fun out of it.
 
samcan said:
I got an idea ......get a .308 or a 30/06
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Why? We are ammunition tailors, why buy another $1000 rifle when we can just use less powder and enjoy the same gun more.


Try the 110gr Hornady Vmax, you can push them really hard from a magnum with mild recoil as I found with my .308 Norma and .300WM
 
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