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. 

300 Win Mag Reloading with Superformance and 175gr Sierra TMK (tipped match king)

DISCLAIMER/WARNING FOR NEW RELOADERS:  Any load data in this article 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. 

I finally received a box of 175 TMK direct from Sierra and couldn't wait to do some more experimentation in my 300 win mag. I know these were mostly made to be a 308 match bullet but I figured the 300wm might like it just as well.    If you have been following this blog,  I bought a Savage 110 FCP in 300 Win mag and have experimenting to find a good load for this rifle.  I have more than 10lbs of Superformance on hand and have been trying to see if I can come up with a long range load using it.  There is little load data on the Superformance still and I think a lot of people are afraid to experiment with reloading.  I have yet to use magnum primers with the superformance but those experiments will be coming soon as well. For now, i have been using CCI #34 and CCI 200 primers. I switched from the #34 to the 200's because I think the #34s tend to hide the early signs of overpressure.  For example, I was seeing ejector marks before I was seeing primer cratering or flattening. This is because the 34 is a much harder primer designed for Semi-autos. I digress.

After determining my max OAL  for this cartridge which wsa 3.612 (on the lands), I decided to start with some longer bullets and some max "magazine" length loads (the longest load that fits in my magazine.

RANGE REPORT

The following were shot in 5rd groups at 100yds.

COAL	POWERCHARGE	AVG FPS	AVG GROUP SIZE
3.595	74gr	3120	.937"
3.575	74gr	3100	1.25"
3.500	74gr	3090	1.25"
3.500	75gr	3115	.625"

These bullets seem to have a lot of potential in the rifle. I only loaded 5rds of each so the data is really only a starting point. One thing I noticed is that really all loads worked well. The speed was consistent and I believe the rifle cooling in between groups is why we didn't see much change between the 74gr load and the 75gr.

I was happy to finally have an accurate load which actually fits in the magazine. These TMKs  have a sufficiently high BC at .545 and I believe I could load these quite a bit hotter. I would actually like to see how these do around 3200fps. According to the Hodgdon Ballistic Calculator at 3200fps we would see a ballistic chart like the following:

The chart doesn't differ much if you input 3100fps as velocity.  At 1500 yards, the velocity is 1128 vs 1164.  I really don't plan on shooting much past 1000 yards with this rifle so really this is quite good.  The next step for me is to load up a bunch and shoot some 10 and 20rd groups to see if this is really the load I want to settle in on.

More to come!