Bergara Premier Highlander | .300 Win Mag Hand Loads Help

[dmossu]

Does anyone out there have a good starting point for a Bergara Premier Highlander in .300 Win Mag?

I was thinking Berger 215's and H1000 - has anyone used a similar load in their Highlander? Not sure where to start load development, Berger recommends starting .015 off the lands and working back into the case all with 70.5gr of H1000. 70.5gr kind of seems light to me to start with, but I could be wrong

 

[Northern Viking]

Brass?? what kind of brass, I used Winchester and Remington and ADG. The ADG stuff is excellent but definitely had to reduce the charge for the ADG brass. A pretty standard loading is 75.5 grains of H1000 Fed 215GM or CCI 250 primer and the 215 Berger. This has worked well as a node for many, but work up to it. I would start at 73 grains, find the max in your combo, then adjust COAL seating depth.

 

[918v]

Yes, brass?

 

[dmossu]

Brass is Norma. Still have not gotten great groups. I performed a velocity test on my chrono and found a node at 75gr (only 2,700 fps though). Still can't get these 215's to group in the Bergara though. Thinking about going to 210's or 205's

 

[918v]

In Norma brass you should end up around 80 grains at around 2950 FPS. You’re way too low on the charge weight.

 

[918v]

Do 77 to 80 in half grain increments. Watch for pressure. It will all come together on top.

 

[dmossu]

I went up to 77, not above though, see test below. No pressure signs at 77

 

[918v]

Don’t shoot groups until you know where the load maxes out. Save the bullets. They’re precious.

 

[dmossu]

Don’t shoot groups until you know where the load maxes out. Save the bullets. They’re precious.

Yeah I was mainly looking at finding a node here, which was the 75 - but I assume that there will be another node higher than 77 somewhere. Not a huge velocity change between 74 and 77 gr

 

[dmossu]

Don’t shoot groups until you know where the load maxes out. Save the bullets. They’re precious.

Also talked to some others and realized that the chrono could be wrong - which would explain how low the velocity is showing on this test. Many people have recommended I do an OCW test and look at the actual results on the target

 

[918v]

Also talked to some others and realized that the chrono could be wrong - which would explain how low the velocity is showing on this test. Many people have recommended I do an OCW test and look at the actual results on the target

I don’t think so. The velocity you reported makes sense. Norma is thin brass and you need a couple more grains of powder just to make published velocity.