300wsm reloading advice

[wind gypsy]

The data you have for RL 17 should work well for H4350 charges as they have basically the same burn rate. I'd start @ 60 grains and stop at 65 if you don't experience pressure signs at a lower charge.

 

[rootacres]

Hello everyone. I could use some help making sure I am going in the right direction here.
My rig - Tikka T3 in 300wsm with 24" barrel. Have 2 Hells Canyon Armory Tikka T3 Billet Mags so I can load bullets closer to the lands.
Reloading Barnes 175g LRX in front of either RL 17 or H4350.
Have 100 cartridges cleaned, sized, deburred, primed with CCI lg rifle primers.
Gonna load bullets .05 off the lands as Barnes suggest and work up powder load.
After I find the right powder load then play with jump.
For RL 17 Barnes has a range of 58.8 - 65.4 in powder weight. There is no data for H4350.
This will be a hunting load for elk/deer. Max range will be 500 yards or so.
Questions:
1 - Most importantly am I on the right track here?
2 - Where should I start with the RL 17? In what increments?
3 - How many cartridges should I load for each increment? Is 3 enough?
4 - What is your progression when at the range? Shoot a fouling round then shoot first 3 rounds one after the other or wait for barrel to cool between each round then move on to next 3 rounds of a different powder weight? Should I run a dry/wet patch through barrel after each round of 3?
3 - Any favorite loads for either RL 17 or H4350 would be greatly appreciated.
4 - Has anyone seen data for H4350 for this bullet?

I really appreciate any help I can get. Thanks in advance!!

Couple of things here and this is just what I figured out for my 300 WSM Ridgeline.

1.) I would load a minimum of 5 for each group to get a better representation.
2.) I haven't tried H4350 but I have tried RL-17. I started at 59gr worked up to 63gr I believe. My gun was happiest with 60gr loaded to 2.860 OAL pushing 180gr Accubonds. At 200yds on a muley they performed great this last season.
3.) After some more research and looking at the load data provided by Nosler, their most accurate load for 180gr Accubonds was with H100V and 64gr. So I went there, my gun preferred 63gr at 2.860 OAL again. The accuracy difference was marginally better BUT I picked up over 100 fps at the muzzle which was why I decided to mess with it in the first place. Im headed to NM on a very pricey Elk hunt this year I wanted to find the nastiest load I felt comfortable with. [180gr Accubond, 63 gr H100V, 2.860 OAL, 2952 avg fps]

 

[VAHunter01]

I used to hunt with Barnes exclusively, and loaded them for several cartridges. I often found them to be one of, if not the most accurate bullet in each rifle.

A little trick I heard a long time ago, and it's worked for me every time...seat the bullet so the top of the first driving band is just above the case mouth.

Reference:

I haven't measured COAL or distance to the lands when using Barnes for a long time. This method has worked for the 53, 80, 85, 130, both types of 120, both types of 140, and 165 grain TSX and TTSX.

Certainly not scientific and most won't agree, but it's worked great for me.

I always clean to bare metal with JBs/Kroil, and/or Wipeout depending on how bad, before starting load development.

I normally use Barnes loading data, and start well under their max listed load. I'll load 3-5 in 1 gr increments (talking WSMish capacity here) until I see the accuracy I want or hit pressure signs, and it's rare I've hit pressure before acceptable accuracy with Barnes.

I'll load 5 more and shoot them through the chrono, if I'm comfortable with the speed and the accuracy still looks good, I'll load 20 and shoot either two 10, or four 5 shot groups, preferably over the chrono here as well. If nothing weird is going on and no surprises, I'll double check the load in fired brass. Still looks good I'm done and will load the lot.

 

[NVVAHunt]

While it’s not the Barnes 175 bullet this may be a place to start




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Wrench]

I'd come at this a bit differently, I'd shoot a ladder to find my sweet spots and use that to guide me in. I like .2-.3 differences in my charges when hunting down the ladder.

Once you find the node, use that to determine the charge and if accuracy still looks like it can be improved, ladder the depth at your charge weight.

Or, just throw a bunch of charges and hope you get lucky.

17 is a great match for 300, but 4350 is going to treat you better if you shoot in big temp swings.