Finally!!! Getting good accuracy with Hornady 208gr Amax in 300 win mag

If you have been following this blog, you have seen me struggle to make the 208gr amax work in my rifle.  I had all but written it off but I had 5 more bullets left from a box of 100 and decided, hey, what the heck, lets give it one last try.  I loaded them up at .005 (JAM)  at put 80gr of H1000 behind it.  The next time at the range, while testing some Berger loads I finished up by shooting these into a 1.18" group at 200yards!  I thought to myself,  "No freaking way! This must be a fluke".  But now I couldn't get it out of my head and just had to order another box to see how deep this rabbit hole goes. I am glad I did!

DISCLAIMER/WARNING FOR NEW RELOADERS:  This load data should be worked up to and is for ONE particular rifle (mine).  If you try this load in your gun, it may not feed and worse, it may feed but blow up your rifle causing injury or death. Be very carefull when extending your Cartridge Length over the reloading book published values as there can be dangerously huge increases in pressure. 

Here is the load data:

Bullet: 208gr Amax
Primer: CCI #250
Powder: 80gr H1000
Brass: Federal GMM  Full Length Resized.
COAL: 3.632 (.005 from lands)


I headed out to the range with 20 of these shiney new reloads just hoping that my previous experience wasn't a fluke!

I fired all twenty rounds alternating between two  2" orange spots @ 200 yards.  This provided me with two 10 shot groups.   Time between shots was between 1 and 3 minutes depending on how distracted I was with the 50BMG set up in the spot next to me and the lady on the other side of me swearing about how loud my muzzle brake was. I think we took a couple 10 minutes breaks in there for target change as well.  This is to say that the barrel was all over the place heat wise but it didn't seem to affect the outcome much.

The end result was that I ended up with two 10 shot groups which were well under MOA.

The group on the left was 1.625" and the one on the right was 1.7".
Average velocity was 3010FPS. I am super happy about this.  Ballistic calcs say this load is supersonic out to around 1 mile. Not sure that I need to shoot that far but still very cool to know!

Reloading 300 Win Mag with Berger 190gr VLD - UPDATE

In my previous post, I mentioned an article from the Berger website regarding how to get the best accuracy from a Berger VLD.  I decided to give it a shot (pun intended) since I wasn't having any success with them thus far. Basically the idea is to start at the maximum COAL (cartridge overall length) also referred to as JAM (because the bullet is jammed into the lands) and work backward from there in .040" increments.  Here is the link to that article: http://www.bergerbullets.com/getting-the-best-precision-and-accuracy-from-vld-bullets-in-your-rifle/

This blog covers two range sessions.

Based on the article, I loaded up 3 loads for my 300 win mag. The article shows 4 but I already had data on one of the lengths so I didn't need to do that one again. Also I deviated from the article in that instead of doing two 3 shot groups, I did one 5 shot group for each load.

DISCLAIMER/WARNING FOR NEW RELOADERS:  This load data should be worked up to and is for ONE particular rifle (mine).  If you try this load in your gun, it may not feed and worse, it may feed but blow up your rifle causing injury or death. Be very carefull when extending your Cartridge Length over the reloading book published values as there can be dangerously huge increases in pressure. 


Here are the COALS  I loaded.

Group A.  3.596 (JAM)
Group B.  3.556  (.040 JUMP)
Group C.  3.466 (.120 JUMP)

I previously had tried some loads at around 3.500 so I excluded the 3.510" load.

All loads were same minus COAL:

Bullet:  Berger 190VLD
Powder: H1000  78gr
Primer: CCI #250
Brass:  Full length resized federal.  300 WM

First Range Session

All groups were fired at 200 yards. I setup 3 targets and alternated shots between the 3 targets. In other words, I fired one bullet from group A at target 1, then fired 1 bullet from group B at target 2, etc.  This is to ensure that there is a fair accuracy comparison between the three loads. It also rules out changes in temperature of the barrel and external conditions (weather).

Results:
Group A:  3" group   Avg 2970FPS.
Group B:  1.625" group  Avg 2960FPS.
Group C:  4" group Avg 2950FPS.

Notes:
Two things I noted, one which I didn't expect. The velocity went down slightly as the COAL was decreased. I expected the opposite to happen. I will have to read up on this a bit. The second was the drastic difference in accuracy between Group B & C. I was very happy with group B as it was roughly .8 MOA and a good starting point.


2nd Range Session

Working off of the best group from the previous session and with basically the same load I came up with these lengths to test:

Group A.  3.545 COAL (.051 JUMP)
Group B.  3.550 COAL (.046 JUMP)
Group C.  3.560 COAL (.036 JUMP)
Group D.  3.567 COAL (.029 JUMP)

Results:
Group A.  2.3" group (5 shots @200yards)
Group B.  1.25" group  (5 shots @200yards)
Group C.  2.15" group  (5 shots @200yards)
Group D.  2.0" group  (5 shots @200yards)

Notes:
I am very pleased with 1.25" group at 200yards.  I don't see the need for any more expirementation at this point.  All that is left for me to do is "prove" the load.  What I mean by this is that I need to shoot a bunch more of this load to see what the actual accuracy average is.  I do this by shooting a few 10 shot groups. I find a 10 shot group is much more telling about the accuracy of a load than a 5 shot group.  Several 10 shot groups provide really good proof that the load is as accurate as I claim and not just a fluke or stroke of luck.

Amax 208, Berger 190VLD and Sierra 175TMK another day of reloading

I am going to skip the long story this time and just give the details and results of each load. For those who havn't read previous posts, these were shot using a Savage 110FCP 300 Win Mag

DISCLAIMER/WARNING FOR NEW RELOADERS:  This load data should be worked up to and is for ONE particular rifle (mine).  If you try this load in your gun, it may not feed and worse, it may feed but blow up your rifle causing injury or death. Be very carefull when extending your Cartridge Length over the reloading book published values as there can be dangerously huge increases in pressure. 

Hornady 208gr AMAX

Bullet: 208gr Amax
Brass: PPU full length resized
Powder: H1000  - 78gr  & 79gr
Primer: CCI #250
COAL: 3.605 & 3.485

I only loaded 5 rounds of each this time since that was the last of my 208gr amax. My results in the past have been dismal at best so just wanted to finish them off and maybe get one last stab at success. I had tried two different charges at the longer COAL and they actually performed well.

Results
My first group was with the 3.605 COAL and 78gr charge. @200 yards this grouped at 2.25 inches. Not terrible but not great either. My next group was with the same length but increase in powder charge to 79gr.  This time my 200yd group was  exactly 2" with a mean radius of .685".  This is actually pretty good.  The other thing I noticed is that the group tighted up considerably with the increase in velocity. There was a little sign of cratering on the primer but I think I could push this load a bit more and maybe tighten the groups even further.  Unfortunantly I only have 5 bullets left of the 208gr amax.  I guess I may have to order some more.

190gr Berger VLD

Bullet: 190gr Berger VLD
Brass: PPU full length resized
Powder: H1000  - 78gr
Primer: CCI #250
COAL: 3.580 & 3.495

Results
I loaded these to have a jump of  .017. I wanted to see if I could get a bit more consistency out of these loads.  I loaded 15 rounds again and shot 3 groups of 5. My best group @200yds was 2.25". Actually I shot 2 groups which were 2.25 and a third which was 2.85".  I had plenty of time and was waiting 3-4 minutes between shots to allow for barrel cooling. Conditions were great and temps were in mid 80's. I am a little depressed with these bullets so far but came across this article from Berger which gives me hope.   Getting the Best Accuracy from VLD .

Quote from that Article:

Trying to find the COAL that puts you in the sweet spot by moving .002 to .010 will take so long the barrel may be worn out by the time you sort it out if you don’t give up first. Since the sweet spot is .030 to .040 wide we recommend that you conduct the following test to find your rifles VLD sweet spot.

Load 24 rounds at the following COAL if you are a target competition shooter who does not worry about jamming a bullet:
1. .010 into (touching) the lands (jam) 6 rounds
2. .040 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
3. .080 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
4. .120 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds

Load 24 rounds at the following COAL if you are a hunter (pulling a bullet out of the case with your rifling while in the field can be a hunt ending event which must be avoided) or a competition shooter who worries about pulling a bullet during a match:
1. .010 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
2. .050 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
3. .090 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
4. .130 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds

 I am going to give this a try and post my results in a few weeks (hopefully). But hunting season is coming on and I probably won't do much shooting during this time.

Best Group of Day

Bullet: 175gr Sierra TMK
Brass: PPU full length resized
Powder: IMR 4350  - 72gr
Primer: CCI #250
COAL: 3.495

This rifle seems to love the lighter bullets like the 155 and the 175 MatchKing.  This load has worked pretty well in my rifle and I would love to find a heavier load which groups like this!

I only loaded 5 of these and it was the very last group I fired for the day. The group @ 200yds was 1.25".

Federal Gold Medal 190gr SMK 300 Win Mag in Savage 110 FCP

This last weekend I decided to try some different loads including a factory loaded box of Federal Gold Medal Match 190GR SMK. My chronograph wasn't working correctly (maybe finally time for that MagnetoSpeed  chrono! (http://www.magnetospeed.com)) so no FPS data this time.

I started with the federal match ammo and right out of the gate things looked good! My first 5 shot group measured .650 center to center.  The next 15 proved to be very similar although each group was consecutively larger. I noticed that as the barrel gun heated up, the groups elongated vertically. After burning up that $52 box of ammo, I decided to try some new reloads out at the 200 yard range.

Federal 190gr GMM @ 100yds 5 shot group  .650"

I had loaded up some more of the 175gr Sierra TMK and wanted to try those with a different powder. I had some success with the Superformance in the past but decided to try some H4350 this time. 

I was using full length resized PPU brass with CCI 250 mag primers with a 73gr powder charge and overall length of 3.6".  I estimated velocity on these around 3100FPS. 

My first 5 shots at 200 yards measured just over 1.8".  Not terrible but I think had I waited longer in between shots this group may have been even tighter.  

It was a hot day 104F and the barrel seemed to heat up quickly and cool down slowly. Again my next groups begin to string vertically, almost predictably such that I could aim lower each shot and get them to land in the same place. I wasn't really waiting in between shots and was probably firing about a round every 20-30 seconds. 

My gun seems to like this 175gr TMK so I plan on doing a lot more experimentation with this load in the future.  

I also shot some 2" groups at 200yd with 190gr VLD bergers with 75gr H1000.  This was with the hot barrel too.  So next time around will be trying that load with cold bore to see what we can do.