Need both Ruger No. 1 and .300 H&H advice

cam1936

cam1936

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I'm reloading for a brand new Ruger No. 1 in .300 H&H and have a few questions pertaining to each:

Ruger No. 1:
1) What should I look for when looking for high pressure? With my bolt actions usually a sticky bolt is a dead give away a load is too hot. I'll also look at the primer and look for flattening or cratering. Obviously I can't really tell how hard extraction is in a No. 1, what is the most reliable tell that you are reaching/have reached max pressure?
2) I keep on hearing how strong the Ruger No. 1 is. Can it take higher pressures than a modern bolt action? Or is it just on par with a modern bolt action?

.300 H&H:
1) I'm reloading 200 grain Accubonds. My Hornady, Nosler and Barnes books all say that a max load of H4831 is about 66 grains for 2700 fps. However, Hodgdon lists max load for that combo at 72 grains for 2900 fps. Why such a difference? I would assume the books are loading light to cover their ass because their are older rifles chambered in this cartridge. Or is the Hodgdon info really that hot? Obviously I'm going to work up to max load in stages, but which max should I go by?
2) Anyone have pet loads with the .300 H&H and 200+ grain bullets?
 
I have a No 1 in 300 win mag that I reload for. I've found with mine at least that full length re sizing is a must if I want the brass to eject on its own. Tried neck sizing and the fired cases were too tight in the chanber for the little ejector finger to pull them out and it just skipped out of the extractor groove in the brass. Other then that have always stayed within book listed loads and haven't had any issues or signs of over pressure.
 
in the late 90's i built a 45-120 on a ruger #1 ..... then proceded to work up smokeless loads for it by comparing case capacity of other rounds in 45 caliber and their loading info ..... i'm not going to get int exactly how i did this as a person can get themselves into big trouble very quickly .........

i would not have atempted doing this on any other action besides the ruger single shot .... to my knowledge it is the strongest comercial action out there ....

BUT just because it is very strong does NOT mean you can now start to overload your handloads ..... it just means you have a lot of safety margin in case things go bad .

looking for signs over over pressure is not much different than a bolt or lever action .

the action does get stickey when your getting hot .
the case heads do expand ( also look for loose primer pockets )

i had a system worked out with a torque wrench on the handle of my loading press where i measured how many inch pounds of torque it took to seat the primers before firing , and then again how much did it take to seat a new primer after firing ( same lot of primers ) and compare that too the diameter of the case head .

then finally look at the primers themselves ....it also helps to use the same primers in as many rifles as possible so you get a good feel for what they look like .

when i did this , there was no high pressure smokeless reloading info for the 45-120 / ruger #1 combination .... even now it it pretty slim to none .

i also only neck sized my brass ...... and only 1/8 of a inch of the neck at that .

the gun orignally was a 45-70 , and i found that after it was reworked to 45-120 i had to remove about a 1/16 of a inch off the top of the falling block to properly load and eject fired cases ( the rim was catching the lip of the block coming out , and going in the top of the block was forcing the round at a slight angle )

a shorter round wouldn't have had this problem .

differences in the reloading manuals with the 300 h&h could be nothig more than differences in overall length of the loaded rounds .

if a rifle can chamber a longer overal length , it will show less pressure when fired , which means you can add a bit more powder till you come up to the same pressure of the round with the shorter overall length .

lots of other things can also come into play too for differences between reloading manuals , like temp , tightness of barrel and chamber , actual case capacity , primers used ect.....
 
joe-nwt said:
I have a #1 in .303. I have no problems neck-sizing for it.
Click to expand...

Wonder if this is because the rim on a 303 case has more for the extractor to grab onto then the win mags groove in the belt. Never really worried too much about it on mine.

That is another nice thing about a no1. You are not restricted by the lenght of a magazine and can seat your bullets a little farther out then would cycle in a bolt gun.
 
Went to the range. got up to 71 grains and primers were getting flat and you can definitly feel when the extractor starts working. 3 dud winchester primers (big deep pin strike), never had a dud before. Back to CCI for my next visit.
 
I picked up an 1885 in 300H&H, have a bunch of brass ready to be loaded.
Will try IMR 4350 & IMR4831 in it, with 180 Accubonds and Partitions to start with. Factory Hornady 180 Interbonds ran around the 2975 mark in it, 28" barrel.
Strangely enough, I had trouble with the CCi250's in my 450-400NE last year.
Never had that with them before. Have some F215m to try out now.
 
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