Reloading 208gr over H1000 for 300WM

bewsher500

Well-Known Member
Anyone using this combo?
would be interested to hear your success/failures

I have heard great things from the West about both the powder and the combination and finally managed to get a tub from a kind chap on here

Hodgsons says 71-78 gr for 2650-2850fps from a 24" barrel (was kind of hoping for more MV at the higher end but it seems the Max is conservative)

reading the online stuff I see people using everything from 72 to 81gr!

previous loads I have tried with N165, H4831sc (both average at best) and finally N160
The N160 loads were all fairly regular through the charges producing 3/4"- 1.5" groups with two obvious accuracy nodes at the lower and upper end that produced touching holes with a couple of stragglers to produce a 1/2"-2/3" group

Th H1000 loads I have worked up proved to be very odd

I started at 74gr and worked up to 79gr
calmish day, front bag, roof of car, out to 115yds
New Norma brass, FedGold mag primers, Hornady 208gr, H1000 - Tikka 685, PES mod.

First group was bang on 1", (outside edge to outside edge - triangular pattern, no touching)
Exactly the same zero as the N160 load I use (in fact the first time I have had a development load hit the same POI from the off!)
Here we go thinks I!!

next one 1.25" (strung horizontal)
then 1.5" (strung vertical,some touching)
~ 1.25" (strung vertical, some touching)
~1.75"! (strung vertical)
~2.75"! (strung diagonal)
~1.8"! (strung diagonal)
~3.25"! (triangle)

All the time groups growing in size dramatically and dropping down and right, last group by 6-8" from POA
I use a 2x4' board with 18 (6x3) shoot'n'see stickers,
lets me do it all at once and compare groups as well as giving some ladder indications

As I was working up one side of the board and down the other I had to tweak the scope to stay on the board!
At this point I was losing the will to live and wondering what the hell was going on or what I was doing wrong!

The next load level, first shot - on the right hand edge of the board, just to the right of the sticker,
2nd shot nothing! "Crap!" off the board and no data!
I moved to aim at the centre vertical row of stickers which I usually leave free
3rd shot bang in the same area as the first (but on a different sticker)...so I take a walk
First two shots had gone in same hole!

group ended up at about 7/8" total or 0.56" C2C!! Bang on 78gr H1000

next group ~2.5" (triangular!)
next ~1.25" (triangular!)

never had such a sudden drop of group size and quite so dramatic
Am obviously hoping that a tweak of small powder increments, OAL and some attention on my part can shrink that even more.

Hoping this will save my N160 supplies for the other calibre/loads!
 
Ed

Try Ramshot Magnum, I had a similar experience working up the 208gr with this powder, as soon as I went over 78.5 grains as I was being very cautious the group just shrank to less than 0.5 inch. This powder is not only reasonably priced, it is easier to obtain than the Hodgon powders.

What primers are you using?.

Tam
 
no one using H1000 in a 300WM then?

Tam, using Fed Gold at the moment
have some CCI200 magnums when they run out!

would like to try the ramshot but all the powders I want seem to be very hard to come by!
 
as your groups seem to gradually increase have you considered shooter fatigue ? it's onset can be gradual and is more pronounced with bigger calibres?

my 300rum was ok with H1000 but retumbo was far better in velocity and grouping ? I know it's not a 300WM but it's still a magnum 30 so might help ?

I use the 208 amax exclusively with 3250fps clocked out of my rifle.
 
The chrono is the most useful piece of equipment to an experimentally minded reloader apart from his press and dies.

I suspect if you measure the velocity you will find a high ES.

The reason I asked about the OAL is that I suspected that you had seated the bullets out long.

In my experiments with 208 grain Amax and the similar 200 grain Accubond, though in a 30.06, I found that deep seating and a light crimp ( lee factory for these bullets) reduced the initially 100fps ES and inconsistent groups.

Newer tech powders like RL17, Magpro and H1000 can be difficult to tune and do better at higher pressures.

Try reducing your OAL by 5mm or more and see where you go from there.
 
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as your groups seem to gradually increase have you considered shooter fatigue ? it's onset can be gradual and is more pronounced with bigger calibres?

I know what you mean
I don't mind the recoil, its not that bad. I'm a big lump and shooting standing using the car roof as a bench negates the full on recoil fatigue from a prone position.
Also doesn't explain a sudden drop from 3" down to 3/4"


The reason I asked about the OAL is that I suspected that you had seated the bullets out long.

In my experiments with 208 grain Amax and the similar 200 grain Accubond, though in a 30.06, I found that deep seating and a light crimp ( lee factory for these bullets) reduced the initially 100fps ES and inconsistent groups.

Try reducing your OAL by 5mm or more and see where you go from there.

I know what you mean and I am not normally a "land kisser"
problem with a bullet that measures 39mm in a case that measures 66mm is you have 15mm of bullet inside at my OAL, 7-8mm of which is past the base of the neck.
It is powder crunching at the higher end of the load table

I also crimp as a matter of course so pressures shouldn't be suffering as a result of OAL
will see what happens with changing OAL of the 78gr load
 
I know what you mean and I am not normally a "land kisser"
problem with a bullet that measures 39mm in a case that measures 66mm is you have 15mm of bullet inside at my OAL, 7-8mm of which is past the base of the neck.
It is powder crunching at the higher end of the load table

I also crimp as a matter of course so pressures shouldn't be suffering as a result of OAL
will see what happens with changing OAL of the 78gr load

which why I use RL17 in my 06 200 grain accubond load rather than say RL22 or H4831 which on the face is the appropriate burn rate. At 2650-2700 fps ( The most you can realistically wring out of the 06 case ) my powder is not compressed.

Deep seating with these long bullets and hunting rifle chambers seem to be the way forward.
 
Deep seating with these long bullets and hunting rifle chambers seem to be the way forward.

Interesting
certainly worth a shot.
30-06 has a much longer neck comparatively than the 300wm though (i load 270 too)

most of the data from the US sites of people shooting 300WM 200-220 bullets is real land jamming stuff
 
Interesting
certainly worth a shot.
30-06 has a much longer neck comparatively than the 300wm though (i load 270 too)

most of the data from the US sites of people shooting 300WM 200-220 bullets is real land jamming stuff

That's the trouble with research, it can occasionally sell you on an idea to the exclusion of the evidence in front of you.

I have posted this before but finding the load data on RL17 inadequate a mate and I came up with our loads and as he has a mate at ADI we had them tested.

If you log onto Accurate reloading and look at the reloading section, you can see the fruits of our enquiry.

If you do a search you will see that a chap called woods struggled with the same load in his 06 until he seated deeply.

If you have a tight neck and are using certain types of bullets, jamming in the lands is a good odea. Purely from a point of view of reliability a hunting rifle should have the bullets seated deeper. The long neck of the 06 is irrelevant to this discussion as we are talking about powder capacity. A longer neck in this case means a shorter case body section proportionally and the case body is the wide bit. ;)

Even in the 06 a 200 grain accubond seated to 3.4" has it's base below the shoulder.

What works in your rifle works, forget what the chattering classes say! :D
 
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