A few months ago it seemed the 150grgr btsp bullet with 25.1gr of CFE BLK was unusually accurate. So I took off the hunting scope and put my 15X target scope on the gun. The build has an 18" 300 Ham'r barrel. Brass is Starline. Primers are CCI-450. MV is about 2200 fps. There is nothing special about these reloads.

Today was the day to give this a try. To be fair, I am an on demand 1.5-2.0 MOA shooter unless there has been a lot of practice. There has not. It was 50 degrees with 10-15 mph winds. (I have more excuses if you think the groups are too large) The 4 pictures show the warm up at 200 yards and the best results from 3 5 shot groups after sighting in for each distance. This was repeated at 300 and 500 yards. I think if you take me and the wind out, the groups are mostly 1 to 1.5 MOA.

It was strange waiting to hear the bullet hit the paper. Took a while. For a cheat sheet I used Bill Wilson's estimate of BC. It was very close. Probably would have been spot on if it were 20 degrees warmer. And yes... at 500 yards it was a lot like shooting artillery. It was a good day.

OOPS.... The load is actually 25.2gr of CFE BLK. [u][/u][color:#990000][/color]

Big Sam those are not bad groups for the distance and existing weather conditions but I am curious about a couple things. How many rounds does your barrel have thru it and did you clean the barrel or let it cool between groups?

The barrel has between 500 and 800 rounds through it. Well... the barrel has been cleaned. Might have been in the spring which was hundreds of rounds ago. I was in no hurry and would wait for the wind to lay down a bit before shooting. The barrel never heated to speak of. But when I saw all the bullets landing together at 300 yards, I shot as fast as possible while retaining accuracy. My guess is the wind behaved for a short time so I took advantage of it.

Anyone else have a little play in their upper/lower? I just bought a brand new 300 HAMR Protector Elite and the upper/lower has a little wiggle and play in it. Enough that it rattles slightly. Is this normal?

A bit of movement is nothing really big. On the Wilson rifles I have gotten there is a piece of rubber undneath the rear take-down pin that applies pressure to the upper to take care of excessive movement. More than once that piece has fallen out when I wasn't paying attention while opening up the action. If the "plug" isn't therte you should see a bored hole where it would fit,

Anyone here develop a load using H4895? I have plenty of 130GR Speer Hot Cor bullets. Curious if I can load with something I already have 8 lbs of setting on the shelf.

Way too slow burn rate and too bulky, a NO GO

Great powder to have around though, one of the most versitle powders for reduced loads and full power loads.

I can understand why there's no load listed because you would never get the desired velocity but it's a shame because it's one of my favorite powders for reduced loads which are low noise, low recoil, and perfect for introducing new shooters to the sport.

For those unfamiliar, what Hodgdon does is determine the max safe load for a bullet/powder combination and then take 10% of that and use it for the starting load. They rarely explore on the bottom end because I guess they assume every reloader is a speed freak but for some reason they played with H4895 and determined you could safely reduce the max load by 60% so if you are looking for a nice shooting reduced load find the max H4895 load data and multiply it by .6 and using that for a minimum work up from there until you get the velocity/accuracy you're seeking.

Sorry for the typo but that should read 10% off the max load. In almost all of Hodgdon's data the starting load is 90% of the max load.

Thanks for the reply. I have CFEBLK in storage somewhere just can't put my hands on it right this second. But here at the bench, I have H4895, Lil Gin, and Trail Boss. Was hoping that maybe the H4895 would work.

[img][img]https://i.imgur.com/VO8rBwf.gif[/img][/img]

My last hog of 2022 was also my first with my 300 Ham'r.

[img][img]https://i.imgur.com/OrlB59P.jpg[/img][/img]

Let me try for a little higher resolution.

[img][img]https://i.imgur.com/vnsjb6h.jpg[/img][/img]

And on 01 January, first Ham'r coyote.

Both dog and hog with 135gr Varmint HP, Starlline cases, 25.0 gr CFEBLK, and CCI 400 primers (CCI 450s appear to be very rare critters).

Ham'r barrel is a 16" fluted 1 in 13 ( I ordered the parts for assembly before finding this thread or it would probably be a 1 in 15).
).

If you're looking for a reduced load the Trail Boss would work. You can see how to determine the proper load on the Hodgdon website. I suspect it won't be powerful enough to cycle the bolt and it will have the ballistics of a girls team slow pitch softball but it will be fun to shoot and with a suppressor so quiet it's scary.

LatetotheParty I fixed your pics

We've spent quite a bit of time and I've done a LOT of accuracy and terminal performance testing of the new Lehigh Defense 115gr ME (Maximum Expansion) bullet specifically designed for the 300 HAM'R. We learned in order to optimize the terminal performance we had to have a design specific to 1-12/1-13 twist barrels and another one for 1-15 twist barrels due to the rotational speed of the bullet in flight.

SKU #s are:
01-308-115-SP12 (1-12/1-13 twist)
01-308-115-SP15 (1-15 twist)
Price will probably be the same as the current 125gr Control Chaos and I estimate availability in mid March.


Here's a photo of the performance of the final design.

Forgot to mention, muzzle velocity was 2550fps

Bill,

I am wondering if this 115gr ME bullet is sensitive between 1:13 and 1:15, will it also be sensitive to barrel length? MV certainly affects the bullet spin rate and, of course, velocity. Will these bullets also be rated to a specific velocity which means a specific barrel length?

Thank you.

They are nowhere close to being that sensitive, here are examples:

2550fps from a 16" is 141,231rpm out of a 1-13 and 122,400rpm out of a 1-15
Out of a 18" velocity will be in the 2610fps range for 144,554rpm and 125,280rpm which is pretty insignificant like variations from barrel to barrel is

The formula is: velocity x 720 divided by twist (2550 x 720 divided by 15 = 122,400rpm)

Our goal was to optimize these bullets for terminal performance. You could use the 1-15 version in a 1-12/1-13 and it would kill game well, but you might get pedal separation at 100yds and closer, but you would also extend the range of where it would expand well. Basically you would have a controlled chaos out to 100yds and a full weight retention expanding bullet out past 300yds. The 1-12/1-13 version will not perform well in a 1-15 twist barrel.

My next build was going to use a 11.3" pistol 300 HAM'R to complement my 18" rifle that I love. With the new Pistol brace restrictions coming down from the ATF, does WC have any plans to build 14.5" barrels?

I recently joined and after reading this thread, my next firearms purchase will be a WC Tactical Hunter. I don't see the Tactical Hunter available as an in stock model, is it a special order only item?

We have models/prints for 14.7" which will become a legal 16" if you weld any of the WC brand muzzle devices on it. We used to stock these, but when we got super busy during the scamdemic we dropped them.

If not in stock, we can build you one within 7 business days, just call customer service, ask for Jessica and she will take care of you

Bill... this may be too much but... If there is a sudden need for 14.7" barrels with WC brand muzzle devices, how nice it would be if WC welded and pinned the muzzle device on and installed the gas block. I know it would cost extra but likely much less than sending it to a gunsmith to have the same thing done. Just a thought.