.300 Winchester Magnum - "light" magnum loads?

Haven’t done so myself yet, but this is where I’m heading.

175 grain TMKs.

Does this fit the bill?

If you're after a little less recoil, I'd look at lighter (~150 - 165gr) bullets. Your slower burning powders (RL-22/23, H1000, Retumbo etc...) should still get you close enough to the 90% case fill you're after.

I am hunting black bear this year with this load.

3.355 COAL
68gr of VV N160
Hornady 165gr CX
CCI 250 Primer
Hornady 4x fired brass, annealed after first firing.

CZ 600 alpha, 300 WM. Vortex DBT 4-16X, Bedded, and the stock is braced with carbon fibre rods and epoxy. It weighs about 11 lbs. 6 ounces.

AVG velocity of 3057
SD of 9
ES of 23

Hangs around 1 moa 5 shot groups. which is fine for bear hunting. max range is ~475 yards before I lose the required velocity of ~2k FPS. Depending on the conditions, I am very unlikely to take a shot past 400 on a black bear due to my level of marksmanship.

Compared to full-bore 300 WM it's nice shooting. It's slightly less recoil than factory ammo. and you get that nice flat trajectory. I run a Sako radial brake, which also helps a lot.

diggler1833 said:

If you're after a little less recoil, I'd look at lighter (~150 - 165gr) bullets. Your slower burning powders (RL-22/23, H1000, Retumbo etc...) should still get you close enough to the 90% case fill you're after.

Click to expand...

I agree with this way of thinking. 150's loaded a few grains below max will be about like a full power '06 heavy load.

if you get exit/muzzle pressure at 10k or less, all bullet weights will yield less recoil. then again lighter and faster bullets will yield less recoil than slower and heavier bullets. faster burning powders can help, but case fill might be less than desired?

I experimented with this years ago, wanting a 150 grain bullet @ 30/06 velocities. I tried Winchester 760 ball powder at reduced charges and got hang fires.

I switched to IMR 4895 at reduced charges and found a perfect, accurate, milder 150 grain load.

Ball powders can get weird if reduced.