Bergara Premier Highlander .300 Win Mag Reload Recipes

[wind gypsy]

Perfect, good to know.

I will adjust seating depth first, because I have already reloaded some shells .020 and .030 off the lands @ 70.5gr. May do another group of .010 off (not sure if these will feed through the magazine, so I will have to double check). I know those Bergers do not like much jump at all

Some bergers like jump quite well actually. A lot of people are moving to longer 0.050"+ jumps and finding the loads stay in tune longer as throat erosion occurs than with some of the shorter jumps.

 

[dmossu]

Some bergers like jump quite well actually. A lot of people are moving to longer 0.050"+ jumps and finding the loads stay in tune longer as throat erosion occurs than with some of the shorter jumps.

VERY TRUE. Never considered throat erosion- guessing closer to the lands increases the erosion?

 

[wind gypsy]

VERY TRUE. Never considered throat erosion- guessing closer to the lands increases the erosion?

I don't believe seating depth impacts the speed of throat erosion.

I've just read that further jumps are less sensitive to the continually changing jump distance that occurs because of throat erosion. Some good info:

Bullet Jump Research: Executive Summary & Load Development Tips

This is the last post in a series of articles focused on bullet jump research that has been conduct...

precisionrifleblog.com

 

[Trippy]

The fastest load in that chart is 2836 FPS, if going above that is dangerous maybe someone can advise me to why berger sold a pile of factory 215 300wm ammunition with an accurate advertised muzzle velocity of 2886.

Thought I've read that manufacturers aren't using reloading available powders in their loaded ammo hence differing speeds from book vs ammo boxes. Some might but if Hodgdon is to believed they don't sell powder to ammo companies.

 

[dmossu]

Thought I've read that manufacturers aren't using reloading available powders in their loaded ammo hence differing speeds from book vs ammo boxes. Some might but if Hodgdon is to believed they don't sell powder to ammo companies.

Interesting. I talked to a guy that called Berger and asked what powder was used in those 215's from the factory because he was trying to handload and couldn't get close to how well those shot and they told him it was either H1000 or mag pro

 

[wind gypsy]

Thought I've read that manufacturers aren't using reloading available powders in their loaded ammo hence differing speeds from book vs ammo boxes. Some might but if Hodgdon is to believed they don't sell powder to ammo companies.

Interesting. I talked to a guy that called Berger and asked what powder was used in those 215's from the factory because he was trying to handload and couldn't get close to how well those shot and they told him it was either H1000 or mag pro

I've heard the same. IIRC, the one I pulled down had 78+ grains.

Even if they had some wonder powder in their factory ammo, I have a hard time rectifying the choice to load factory 50 FPS faster than the fastest "Max" load in their book.

Basically i'm saying berger's 300wm book data sucks. With h1000, they say 74.0 is max but hodgon says 78 is max with a sierra 220 or 208 amax.. If the OP is happy with a 2700 FPS 300 wm, i'm sure it would work fine.

 

[dmossu]

I've heard the same. IIRC, the one I pulled down had 78+ grains.

Even if they had some wonder powder in their factory ammo, I have a hard time rectifying the choice to load factory 50 FPS faster than the fastest "Max" load in their book.

Basically i'm saying berger's 300wm book data sucks. With h1000, they say 74.0 is max but hodgon says 78 is max with a sierra 220 or 208 amax.. If the OP is happy with a 2700 FPS 300 wm, i'm sure it would work fine.

Nah not thrilled with 2700 fps .300 wm.

Hence why I created this post. The 70.5 seems WELL below what it should be. Talking like 10% powder variance.

I already have some loaded at the starting 70.5 grains seated at .020 and .030 to test. Even being this light, still should give me an idea of seating depth.

 

[dmossu]

Here's a group with the recommended 70.5g starting point and seated .020 off the lands - best group so far. Going to try to increase the powder charge to 73 or 74 to get closer to where it should be. But think I am getting closer to what I would expect from the Bergara.

 

[dmossu]

Thought I've read that manufacturers aren't using reloading available powders in their loaded ammo hence differing speeds from book vs ammo boxes. Some might but if Hodgdon is to believed they don't sell powder to ammo companies.

I've heard the same. IIRC, the one I pulled down had 78+ grains.

Even if they had some wonder powder in their factory ammo, I have a hard time rectifying the choice to load factory 50 FPS faster than the fastest "Max" load in their book.

Basically i'm saying berger's 300wm book data sucks. With h1000, they say 74.0 is max but hodgon says 78 is max with a sierra 220 or 208 amax.. If the OP is happy with a 2700 FPS 300 wm, i'm sure it would work fine.

Here is my group from today (same target as before). The circle in black is the best group from the seating depth test ( .030 off lands).

So I increased the powder to 74 gr of H1000 instead of 70.5 and it shot the group in red.

Where should I go from here? Zero pressure signs with 74gr. Should I keep increasing the charge and then fine tune the seating depth again?