300 WSM and 185 Berger Help!

Hey guys. I'm picking up a new rifle in 300wsm on Monday and want to load up some 185 Bergers to see how they shoot to potentially use on an upcoming Barbary sheep hunt in NM. I'm not looking to find the perfect load for it yet, just one that will shoot well enough for this trip i.e. sub MOA. I'll do a ladder and full workup later when I have more time (the hunt is the second week of Feb). The powders I have to work with right now are IMR 4350 and H1000. Anyone have any luck with these powders and a Berger 185? I'm considering using data for the 190 Berger or 180 Barnes as a starting point if I can't find anything better using IMR 4350. Thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Hodgdon doesn't even list H-1000 as a choice for that cartridge.

H-4350 and a 180 gr.

The lowest of the low 59.0 gr.
The highest of the high 64.0

H-4350 and a 190 gr Siera HPBT.

57.5 to 61.0 gr.

So middle ground (might) be 58.0 to 62.5 gr. You can exceed that max, but ease into it. I stop when I see extractor swipes. And have even ran with a load for thousands of rounds that would occasionally make an extractor swipe. I just pulled these numbers from Hodgdon.com, since it's what I would do for a new (to me) cartridge, and no data for the bullet I wanted to run. I have not tested this myself.

If you're not doing a ladder test right now, what are you going to do?

Thanks for that info. I want to basically drop a couple grains lower than expected max load and do a small pressure test up to max to make sure it's safe, then just load a few different rounds at .5gr increments up to max and see which groups better, then go with that for the hunt if I have time to make that happen. After the hunt, I want to run a full ladder with the Berger, 168 tsx, 180 ttsx, and 180 Accubond to see how they all shoot. My recent reading has given me more faith in the penetration of a berger and I like the idea of DRT kills. I would ideally like to find a good load for the 185 Berger and a good load with a bonded or all copper for the very tough animals. Before this gun was rebarreled, I had a load built with a 168tsx for the rifle.

Mighty fine plan!

I sure hope so. Just trying to find a quick reasonably accurate load for those bergers.

Any others?

Berger has been very helpful in the past with just a phone call.

Played with the 185gr Berger VLD Hunting with Quickload an it appears to be very slow on Burn Rate for that cartridge and bullet.

Thanks for the PMs kmon1. I might give Berger a call or shoot them an email very soon to see what they recommend. It'll also help once i have the rifle in hand to see how far out I can seat the bullet before it won't fit in the magazine.

Try digging through the archives of reloading data at 24hourcampfire, and posting your question there.

Here is a link to the reloading forum there.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/forums/11/1/Big_Game_Rifles

Looking at the online Hodgdon data, it looks like Hybrid 100V might be a good choice. It falls between H4350 and H4831, both of which should work. I usually pick the slower powder choice that works well for a round, which tends to produce milder recoil, and also provides more cushion for pressure/safety. So, I would suggest trying 100V or H4831sc.

H1000 is too slow. Your IMR 4350 may not be the best choice, but it will work according the Hodgdon data.

http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/rifle

Agree with Jeff on powder choices 100V or H4831 could very well be great powders for that combination.

lts,

Here is data from the Berger manual for the 185 gr Berger.

Your IMR4350 will work. 62.0 is max, 2862 fps, 96% fill.

Hybrid 100V 61.8 max, 2867, 101% fill

IMR 4831 62.8 max, 2902, 101%

RL19 - 65.3 max, 2926, 100%

RL22 - 68.3, 2971, 104%

H4831 and H1000 are not listed. IMR4831 is a bit faster than its Hodgdon counterpart.

Thanks guys. I was just hoping someone out there had tried H1000 with this bullet. I'm also going to be shooting a 22 inch barrel so eventually I'll be trying to get as much velocity I can get out of the powder. I'll buy other powders in the future if I have to in order to do this. I'm hoping for 2850-2900 out of all the 180-185 gr bullets I try loading.

I am running this very combo in my 300wsm so here you go

Rem 700 300wsm 24" Krieger barrel 1:10twst

Berger 185vld hunting

IMR 4350 65grns

OAL 2.95"

3010fps

I would be thrilled with those results. I'm assuming I won't get quite those velocities but that makes me think I need to load more loads as I only loaded to 63.5 grains to try. I used 2.93OAL so I hope I'm close. Thanks for the info!

Double checked my numbers OAL is 2.91

Use the 4350 and skip the H-1000. The burn is too slow. I doubt you can cram enough powder in the case to end up over pressure, but your velocities are going to be less than desirable.

Thanks Single. I went ahead and loaded a few more groups up to 65 grains. Just going to work up slowly with groups starting at 61. Will be very happy if I don't get pressure signs up to 65. With a 22in barrel, I need to be as close to max as possible provided the gun still groups well.

Here's the new gun! http://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/5566580#Post5566580