Spectacular 300 win mag varmint type load suggestions

[Barry54]

I like extremes. Since people keep leaving 300 wm brass at my place, guess what?

So for fun. Blowing up 1 gallon water jugs or maybe the occasional unfortunate coyote that’s in the right place at the wrong time, what’s the limit? What is the optimum load with a fast explosive jacketed bullet with which powder for a full case? I’m not planning to burn up a barrel with these. I bet 20 would last me several years.

125-135 grain varmint or tipped bullets? Lighter 110s? Heavier?

What about the 30 to 22 caliber sabots EABCO sells. I’ve heard the accuracy isn’t stellar, but for extreme spray type fun at 100 yards, what’s the recipe?

[ShooterAZ]

The Nosler 125 grain Ballistic Tip will give explosive results on small critters. I have used IMR4831 powder to get to 3400fps in a 26" Barrel.

[country gent]

Ive used the 125 nosler ballistic tips with good results in my number 1 in 300 win mag. Fillets woodchucks out to 300 yds. I hunted wood chucks with this rifle getting ready for several hunts.
I had thought about swaging down 32 pistol bullets to try but was afraid they would handle velocity and rotation

I believe speer made a 110 hollow point that should be devastating.

[Barry54]

There’s a Sierra 110 grain Varminter. Speer and Hornady made a 110 grain spire point iirc and there’s a 110 grain Hornady V-max. I didn’t know if these would be too much of a good thing in 300wm, and would be better utilized in ‘06 or smaller cartridges? Man jacketed bullets have gotten expensive! There’s a 125 grain Speer varmint bullet that’s flat based and priced better than the Nosler ballistic tips. It’s in the running based on price alone.

What about those Sierra 135 grain varmint bullets with the big ugly hollow point? Has anyone tried those? Or do tipped bullets really perform better? Especially on bigger targets than prairie dogs.

[Idaho Mule]

Years ago I loaded some 130 gr. Speer hollowpoints in 300 Win. I can't remember, powder or charge weight, but they were clipping right along. Shot a few ground squirrels with them and they proved to be accurate, but I didn't use them all up. The next February, I was out looking for coyotes and found one at a very unlucky 100ish yards. Fresh snow that morning, bright and clear against the fresh snow I center punched that poor coyote... What a mess. It painted about a half acre with coyote parts. When I got home I pulled the rest of those bullets and never shot another one. Nothing needed killed that bad.

[Barry54]

Hmm. Those are at the more affordable end of the spectrum too! Odds are I’ll never shoot anything warmer or more furry than a jug of water with them while friends are over.

[steve urquell]

My buddy loaded some 110gr Speer Varminter HPs to 3,000fps and it did this to a watermelon:
https://youtu.be/7AKWWOOrUHg?feature=shared

[Recycled bullet]

I wonder what would happen if you take the barns ttsx bullet 110 grain designed for 300 Blackout at 2300 FPS and sent it from your rifle at significantly higher velocity 3000+ fps.

[steve urquell]

I wonder what would happen if you take the barns ttsx bullet 110 grain designed for 300 Blackout at 2300 FPS and sent it from your rifle at significantly higher velocity 3000+ fps.

Probably similar to me sending the 90gr Hornady XTP HP pistol bullet at 2400fps out of my .300BLK.
Blows jugs and armadillos into pieces.
https://youtu.be/DDsAUwZUNqM?feature=shared

[Recycled bullet]

Probably similar to me sending the 90gr Hornady XTP HP pistol bullet at 2400fps out of my .300BLK.
Blows jugs and armadillos into pieces.
https://youtu.be/DDsAUwZUNqM?feature=shared

I wonder how fast that 90 grain xtp can go out of it 300 Winchester Mag?

[Barry54]

I wonder how fast that 90 grain xtp can go out of it 300 Winchester Mag?

They will probably achieve infinity and not make it to the 100 yard target.
The 85 grain Sierra bullets for the 30 Luger say “for pistol use only”, right on the box.

[steve urquell]

I wonder how fast that 90 grain xtp can go out of it 300 Winchester Mag?

It is pretty danged awesome at 2400fps. I don't know if the twist on the .300mag would stabilize it. I will add this. Even though it's a pistol bullet it performs admirably at high velocity. I caught some fired into water bottles. The bottles shred because the nose cone of the bullet explodes on impact.

However the body and jacket of the core of the bullet remains intact and continues penetration like a wadcutter. Amazing considering it was never meant for this velocity.

They will probably achieve infinity and not make it to the 100 yard target.
The 85 grain Sierra bullets for the 30 Luger say “for pistol use only”, right on the box.

Yeah but where's the fun in that?

At 2400fps they turn themselves inside out and shed the jacket. Not as explosive as the XTP.

[BK7saum]

You run into diminishing returns with lighter amd lighter bullets where a 3006 will give almost the sme velocities as same bullet in 300 WM. I would consider the 110-125 grain bullets.

The 110 Vmax, 110 Varmegeddon, 110 30 carbine hollow points should give great velocities and explosive performace.
The 125 Nosler BT will also give great velocities, but is built as a much tougher bullet with a tapered jacket and thicker base. It should offer explosive performance and likely shed core/expand almost to base, but the base and portion of jacket will probably remain as a larger piece and not completely fragment.

[BK7saum]

I believe speer made a 110 hollow point that should be devastating.

Speer makes/made a 110 RN/HP for the 30 carbine with the exposed lead hollowpoint. They work well at subsonic velocities on varmints.

They should be explosive in the 300WM if they survive the speed and rotation. The HP is wider and deeper than the traditional rifle bullet hollowpoint and resembles a pistol bullet (which essentially they are in the 30 carbine.)

[Barry54]

I’ve got some 125 grain ballistic tip bullets, but I got them for hunting after the Sierra single shot pistol bullets were discontinued. They are out of stock at MidwayUSA currently and $0.72 per piece. The Speer bullets are twenty five to thirty cents per piece. 1/3 the cost should work well enough for killing water jugs.

On a different note, I bought the dies and had thought reloading with one of the fellas I got the brass from would spark his interest. But he still wasn’t interested. Bought some Berger bullets and was on track to cutting group sizes in half with his rifle. Was under 1 moa and then would get a flyer. Turns out the scope base wasn’t tight. Anyway. He’s in another state so it’s still another project for another day. In the meantime, I’ll be goofing around with the free brass and getting a few fireformed for my use to see if it makes any difference. It seems like the powders overlap with 25-06 but it’s my first official “magnum” rifle cartridge in my fleet.

[Barry54]

Probably similar to me sending the 90gr Hornady XTP HP pistol bullet at 2400fps out of my .300BLK.
Blows jugs and armadillos into pieces.
https://youtu.be/DDsAUwZUNqM?feature=shared

Great video for pure viewing pleasure!
What was used to rearrange the watermelon in your other video?

[steve urquell]

Great video for pure viewing pleasure!
What was used to rearrange the watermelon in your other video?

110gr Speer Varminter HPs at 3,000fps out of a .308

[country gent]

My reason for using them wasnt for the massive destruction. It was being in a some what populated area I wanted to cut down as much as possible on ricochets.this was a issue with the 180 grn nosler partitions hunting loads.

[steve urquell]

There are quite a few light bullet loads for .300mag on shootersreference.

https://shootersreference.com/reload...hester-magnum/

[Barry54]

I’ve got plenty of manuals to check for load data. I was more looking for warnings such as don’t push a V-max above 3,xxx or it would self destruct. Or the 110’s are too short and the jump to the leade tears them up and accuracy falls off, so use 125’s...

It’s sounding like this big new to me magnum is no big deal. Pick one and enjoy?

So one other question. Are magnum primers needed for summertime fun loads? With I’m assuming faster powder for light weight bullets, relative to more practical big game capable loads? I’d prefer to save my precious few LR Magnum primers for more serious loads. I don’t think I have any ball powder suitable for 300WM if that helps.