300 Norma is .585 case head. It's a bigger deal than a new die set and barrel. At that point why not 338 Lapua?
300 WM brass destroyed.
- Thread starter r3volut1oner
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Same as why I have stuck with the 300WM. I have the stuff. Enough 215 Bergers to shoot out a few barrels. .585 is not a big deal depending on your platform. I shoot DTA's so 300WM to norma is change barrels when the first is shot out and switch bolt heads so easy. At some point you factor in cost per round and ranges. I have only a mile max to shoot so 300WM is perfect and 300 Norma is perfecter and 338 lapua is no real benefit at much higher cost per round. Either way I am not arguing or trying to convince, they are all good rounds to shoot. I am just relaying why I shoot what I shoot for my uses. Anyway bolt head is moot since I was clearly talking about if I was choosing now....meaning from scratch.
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I have had a couple of 300wm rifles but have never had any of the issues that are being thrown against the wall like spaghetti to see what sticks.
Maybe I'm just dumb not dumb enough to make the cartridge a problem child.
If I return to a 30cal magnum chambering that isn't a short mag it most likely will be the 300wm or the Norma if there is a reason to step up the performance a bit.
I have a 300wm that has been through a couple barrels. I have a LW collet die. If you want the performance a lot of people online tout. You're gonna need something to address it. It's not hard to push a 200eld 3000 in a 26" barrel. I have only used the LW die once on my brass. Some of it went 15x and some 8x before I used it. Same load was responsible for all the secondary belt problems proabaly.
Moreitis might get me and I go 300 norma at some point. But, 300WM is very good at a mile, easy button at 1000 and better barrel life as well as cheaper per round than the Norma. I am weak sometimes tough when it comes to this hobby. Hell often.....
Mine were always used for hunting and I settled on the 200gr accubond at 2860fps for that purpose.
Not super fast but very effective,I actually got better performance accuracy wise with the 180gr accubond and 180 Ballistic silver tip but couldn't see the slight accuracy improvement over terminal performance compared to the 200 gr.
They both shot 1/2 moa or better but the 180 gr I had shot better than 1/4 moa at 200 yards on several occasions with factory ammo.
Nosler Custom 180 accubond and Winchester 180 Ballistic silver tip.
Because it's not as accurate and requires a whole new set of equipment changes if using a suppressor or other equipment like action length and bolt face changes.
The 30 Cals can do pretty much all of that with less changes and cheaper than the Lqpua Mag unless someone wants to step it up to 375 or larger at a much bigger expense and barrel life expectancy.
The 30 caliber is still king unless someone wants to sacrifice those variables for minimal gains, if it were me it would be 375 caliber or ahove.
Your load might be a bit warm. Especially with Hornady brass. Hodgdon load data uses Winchester brass. And based on your listed charge, I'm guessing you used Hodgdon data. I did too when I started testing StaBall HD. Not much choice.
I have two 300 WM rifles. One for hunting. One for target. I use Hornady brass in the hunting rig. I checked the Hornady case capacity against the Lapua brass I run in my target rifle... The Hornady brass holds more water so it should (in theory) be able to handle a bit more powder... But Hornady brass just doesn't seem to handle "hot rod" loads very well. That's also comparing brass used in 2 different rifles... Also a consideration.
In my target rifle, I'm getting 2950 from a 30" barrel with 208 Berger LRHT, Lapua brass, and the minimum 78.3 gr charge of StaBall HD. And I'm running a 3.64ish COAL (about .060 off my lands)
In my own experience, using Hodgdon load data in Hornady brass... Keep loads near the lower end of the scale.
Verify your shoulder bump isn't excessive. Check your surviving cases for signs of pending case head separation... And strongly consider backing off your load.
My $.02
Mike
300 Norma uses the same bolt face as 338 lapua.
30 cal is not king of anything.
More accurate.
Please just stop making up stories. Thats as bad as pretending the belt isn't a useless hang nail.
300 Norma uses the same bolt face as 338 lapua.
30 cal is not king of anything.
More accurate.
Thats as bad as pretending the belt isn't a useless hang nail.
You got it CORNDOG I admitt the 30 cal is total crap and the 300wm is completely useless because of the belt.
Tnx. Hornady is what I can get now for a good price, moment I can get Lapua gonna have it. Now there are some can sell for it for $3 piece
switching to some other brass my first priority.I seen pressure with. 80.8 grain of StaBALL HD load, so I took 1.4 grains off to 79.4. how much you would take off from the pressure?
I loaded now 78.8 gn as I seen good ES in between 78.0 to 80.4, I expect to get around 2900 fps, out of it and hope gonna see good results of ES and tune it for a good group.
I am building the load for match.
And now I know how to check pending case separation!
So I should to tell story behind this gun, why I get it.
I wanted 300 PRC or 300 norma, but available for me only $10K guns or left handed Savage 110 Elite precision, shame it's left handed I would take it.
For 300 Norma I need to get .338 action, that gonna be expensive and barrel life make it even more expensive to shoot.
So I decided to get some long action gun and rechamber it to 300 PRC. And only option it's actually get 300 WM.
I was lucky to find a good deal for this Rem 700 with almost new 26" SS barrel, decided to go and try it out, finish the barrel first. And I like it, good speed and precision.
Still not fill 100% comfortable with it, but getting 1/2 MOA groups with no chassis and bad bipods.
Hopefully gonna get chassis and a good bipods this month and next months a good brass.
If I can get out of it 1/3 MOA it's gonna be perfect.
And after this barrel finished, blueprint and get 300 PRC or longer 300 WM barrel ( folks here probably want to hear that ).
I wanted 300 PRC or 300 norma, but available for me only $10K guns or left handed Savage 110 Elite precision, shame it's left handed I would take it.
For 300 Norma I need to get .338 action, that gonna be expensive and barrel life make it even more expensive to shoot.
So I decided to get some long action gun and rechamber it to 300 PRC. And only option it's actually get 300 WM.
I was lucky to find a good deal for this Rem 700 with almost new 26" SS barrel, decided to go and try it out, finish the barrel first. And I like it, good speed and precision.
Still not fill 100% comfortable with it, but getting 1/2 MOA groups with no chassis and bad bipods.
Hopefully gonna get chassis and a good bipods this month and next months a good brass.
If I can get out of it 1/3 MOA it's gonna be perfect.
And after this barrel finished, blueprint and get 300 PRC or longer 300 WM barrel ( folks here probably want to hear that
).
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So I should to tell story behind this gun, why I get it.
I wanted 300 PRC or 300 norma, but available for me only $10K guns or left handed Savage 110 Elite precision, shame it's left handed I would take it.
For 300 Norma I need to get .338 action, that gonna be expensive and barrel life make it even more expensive to shoot.
So I decided to get some long action gun and rebarrel it to 300 PRC. And only option it's actually get 300 WM.
I was lucky to find a good deal for this Rem 700 with almost new 26" SS barrel, decided to go and try it out, finish the barrel first. And I like it, good speed and precision.
Still not fill 100% comfortable with it, but getting 1/2 MOA groups with no chassis and bad bipods.
Hopefully gonna get chassis and a good bipods this month and next months a good brass.
If I can get out of it 1/3 MOA it's gonna be perfect.
And after this barrel finished, blueprint and get 300 PRC or longer 300 WM barrel ( folks here probably want to hear that
I like to hear that. 300wm is great if it has a military chamber and fast twist. It’s equal to the PRC and easier to source brass.
Tnx. Hornady is what I can get now for a good price, moment I can get Lapua gonna have it. Now there are some can sell for it for $3 piece
I seen pressure with. 80.8 grain of StaBALL HD load, so I took 1.4 grains off to 79.4. how much you would take off from the pressure?
I loaded now 78.8 gn as I seen good ES in between 78.0 to 80.4, I expect to get around 2900 fps, out of it and hope gonna see good results of ES and tune it for a good group.
I am building the load for match.
And now I know how to check pending case separation!
If Hornady is what you have (and it's still usable) then use it. No shame in it. It doesn't matter how good any other brand is if they can't put it in your hands when you're waving money at them.
Just out of curiosity... How many rounds have you shot through this barrel?
Mike
What 300wm brass are you using? Last time i tried to get some it was pretty tough to find any good brass. I ended up with some fc17 pull down. I see quite a bit of available brass for 300prc and 300wm.
Take your pick fellas. Best availability I've seen in a while... I didn't make it to Bruno's, Mile High, or Drifter's... Might check them too.
Mike
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Mike
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I personally shot around 140 and probably 100-200 before me, barrel looks like pretty new Remington factory barrel.
I have FC, RP, Win range pickup, Norma, and ADG. I have one Hornady 300 PRC case that I found just lying there weathered and lonely. I took it home with me.
Fire formed today a bunch of remaining Hornady brass. With StaBALL HD 78.8 grain charge. Got good ES/SD less then 30/10 fts.
Still having average if 900 m/s (2952fts) probably gonna keep it as I love the result.
Tuned with barrel tuner the group to get touching group, believe can be tuned even more after fire forming and more effort. 100 meter.
Then went to 720 m (787 yd) range and confirmed the groups on paper, having really stable vertical and horizontal deviations.
( We use bullseye camera to record each shot )
With this results so far, gonna keep this charge just find some brass can handle the load for more cycles.
Still having average if 900 m/s (2952fts) probably gonna keep it as I love the result.
Tuned with barrel tuner the group to get touching group, believe can be tuned even more after fire forming and more effort. 100 meter.
Then went to 720 m (787 yd) range and confirmed the groups on paper, having really stable vertical and horizontal deviations.
( We use bullseye camera to record each shot )
With this results so far, gonna keep this charge just find some brass can handle the load for more cycles.
OK... When you started having issues and wrecking brass you had a round count of 200-300 on a new barrel?
Was this a pet load that had been doing good before the brass issues?
Mike
Yes
This is a new load development I was doing.
Never shot 300 wm or this gun before.
Just purchased the gun from reliable consignment shopю
1st brass cycle was fired from other gun
2nd I did 30 loads by OCW from
3rd also 30 to find where is the pressure and measure the speed on max loads 80+
4th 30 loads did already with load that felt good for me 79gn with 2950 speed, shot on range etc.
5th load of 30 with 79.4gn on first 5 shots each 2nd have outer signs of pending CHS and 6th one was the brass almost full CHS photos on the first mesagge in thread. De-bulleted rest 24 loads.
Decided to write here to ask what went wrong there, how it's called etc. as people on the range seen the dents for the first time.
yeah you just need some new brass.
First issue brass fired in another rifle. That is a huge issue considering there are 2 different 300 wm chambers in circulation. From remington and winchester. A modified variant reamer was introduced by pacific tool and gage years ago and many rifles were chambered before it was caught.
2nd issue it's a belted round and belted rounds are prone to growing in the neck .010 on the first shot. So that can be a issue as well.
3rd issue if your chamber is oversized when sizing bumping shoulder more to chamber round causes issues of sepperation. If chamber is to deep it allows for a headspacing issue. Causing sepperation. And compound that with sizing aginst the belt and it causes issues as well. Can't properly size up aginst a expanded belt. Did I tell you I hate belted rounds
I say get new brass shoot it take measurements of datum with comparison gages before and after first firing. This will tell you if you have a issue with chamber. Reload bump shoulder .002 only check for chamber fit. Check over all case length after each shot you will need to trim after 2 reloads if not before. But before you do anything clean barrel very well make sure you have no carbon ring. And keep it clean clean at least every 50 rounds. If you can't chamber the once fired brass after sizing and bumping only .002 you eather have a bad chamber or bad dies. .
2nd issue it's a belted round and belted rounds are prone to growing in the neck .010 on the first shot. So that can be a issue as well.
3rd issue if your chamber is oversized when sizing bumping shoulder more to chamber round causes issues of sepperation. If chamber is to deep it allows for a headspacing issue. Causing sepperation. And compound that with sizing aginst the belt and it causes issues as well. Can't properly size up aginst a expanded belt. Did I tell you I hate belted rounds
I say get new brass shoot it take measurements of datum with comparison gages before and after first firing. This will tell you if you have a issue with chamber. Reload bump shoulder .002 only check for chamber fit. Check over all case length after each shot you will need to trim after 2 reloads if not before. But before you do anything clean barrel very well make sure you have no carbon ring. And keep it clean clean at least every 50 rounds. If you can't chamber the once fired brass after sizing and bumping only .002 you eather have a bad chamber or bad dies. .
