• Watch Out for Scammers!

    We've now added a color code for all accounts. Orange accounts are new members, Blue are full members, and Green are Supporters. If you get a message about a sale from an orange account, make sure you pay attention before sending any money!

300 PRC update

28" 1:9 Bartlein.....with ADG brass....I've pushed the 250's over 3000fps...but that was a little stupid of me....I may find a load at 2850 or so...but I think my loads at 2900+ fps are just too rough on the brass.

My 230gr loads are super happy at 2950fps though....I'm taking some of them along soon to test head to head with the 250's at 1 mile....to test them at the same range on the same day...in the same conditions.
I used to push my 7 saum kinda hard.
Has some heat sensitivity and vertical.
About 300-400 rounds ago I backed it down a bit and vertical and heat sensitivity went way down.
Same brass, bullets, powder and primers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mk32784 and b2lee
What is the preferred bullet seating die for the 230ish gr bullets?

I'm using a hornady match grade seating die and I'm not happy with the consistency it's giving me. When seating 230gr berger hybrids I get a length variation to the ogive of up to + or - .003 from my desired length. I'm finding myself having to adjust my depth for every bullet to achieve any kind of consistency at my desired length.
 
What is the preferred bullet seating die for the 230ish gr bullets?

I'm using a hornady match grade seating die and I'm not happy with the consistency it's giving me. When seating 230gr berger hybrids I get a length variation to the ogive of up to + or - .003 from my desired length. I'm finding myself having to adjust my depth for every bullet to achieve any kind of consistency at my desired length.
Is this variation overall length or base to ogive?
If it’s OAL it’s a non issue.
If it’s base to ogive you may want to investigate your brass or seating die.
 
Plus make sure the tip isn't bottoming out in the seating stem.
 
What is the preferred bullet seating die for the 230ish gr bullets?

I'm using a Sinclair version of the LE Wilson micrometer seating die for the 300PRC. Concentricity is amazing. OAL from one to the next is amazing as well. I load to fit in a magazine on the 230's....the 250's.... are way long...but they are single fed.

I have the Hornady Match set....with the A-Tip specific seating stem...which in my opinion is necessary..but I no longer use that die set....LE Wilson arbor press dies are my new kool-Aid.
 
  • Like
Reactions: m1ajunkie
I'm using a Sinclair version of the LE Wilson micrometer seating die for the 300PRC. Concentricity is amazing. OAL from one to the next is amazing as well. I load to fit in a magazine on the 230's....the 250's.... are way long...but they are single fed.

I have the Hornady Match set....with the A-Tip specific seating stem...which in my opinion is necessary..but I no longer use that die set....LE Wilson arbor press dies are my new kool-Aid.

Exactly this. I will never again use anything else.
 
Appreciate the replies from each of you. Now that I look into it I believe the bullet tip was bottoming out in the stem which would explain my inconsistencies. Looking online I see that hornady stem part# 397111 is what they suggest for their 225 ELDM so I'm going to order one of those to pair with the 230 bergers I'm loading.

This one feels like a rookie mistake but hopefully getting a new stem will clean up my inconsistencies.

The Sinclair LE wilson micrometer seater looks like an awesome tool but I'll have to save that for down the road as I don't have the press to pair it with.
 
The Sinclair LE wilson micrometer seater looks like an awesome tool but I'll have to save that for down the road as I don't have the press to pair it with.

The K&M press is relatively cheap and has the benefit of being portable. You can take it to the range with a portable scale and do load development on site, or initially seat a bunch of bullets at the lands and use the press/die to seat at various depths to do validation at the range. I put a foam cutout in an old Dewalt drill case and use that to keep it clean and safe.
 
The K&M press is relatively cheap and has the benefit of being portable. You can take it to the range with a portable scale and do load development on site, or initially seat a bunch of bullets at the lands and use the press/die to seat at various depths to do validation at the range. I put a foam cutout in an old Dewalt drill case and use that to keep it clean and safe.

Yes I looked into it more this afternoon. I'm going to order a press and LE Wilson bullet seater. Appears to be a very consistent way to seat bullets and would totally remove that inconsistency from my process.
 
Yes I looked into it more this afternoon. I'm going to order a press and LE Wilson bullet seater. Appears to be a very consistent way to seat bullets and would totally remove that inconsistency from my process.

My concentricities are amazingly consistent. I recently measured some of my 6 BRA rounds and they were all within .001"
 
Anyone shooting the Sierra 230 SMK? Browsing back through this thread I'm not seeing much discussion around it even though it appears to have an attractive BC.
I shoot this bullet often (#2251), very consistent and good value for banging steel out to a mile. I seat them to a 2.825" CBTO which gives a me a .155" jump and still allows feeding from a magazine. These are very pointy bullets, so I use a Hornady Match seating die and A-Tip stem. For my rifle, 73.3 gn of RE26 gets me in the 2825-2830 with ES in the teens and SD in single digits. I use BR-2 primers. When RE26 is unobtanium, N565 is my other goto powder.
 
  • Like
Reactions: m1ajunkie
When RE26 is unobtanium, N565 is my other goto powder.

....and I'm getting low on N565....now what do we go to?...heh...still not going to use H1000...you guys can have that stuff. I'm out of Retumbo as well.
 
....and I'm getting low on N565....now what do we go to?...heh...still not going to use H1000...you guys can have that stuff. I'm out of Retumbo as well.
7977
8133
N165

I’m hoping a new round of R26 comes around soon.
 
7977
8133
N165

I’m hoping a new round of R26 comes around soon.

Yea....RL-26 will come out for a few hours when I have no money. About to get my email to pay the $900 remainder on the CE Autotrickler V3....Just spent over $500 on some Inline Fabrication stuff to complete my 6 station work bench....spent $400 on a batch of A-Tips....about to order another 100 ADG brass....ordered another Barrel.......chambered and threaded and Cerakoted....

Yep...the week I'm broke and eating off brand peanut butter....will be the week that the one batch of RL-26 hits the shelves and sold out in mere hours. I need atleast 2 8lb'ers to get me through and not be worried.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BCX
Is H1000 that bad? Just slower?
Waiting on a 300 PRC and stocked up on 20#s before realizing RL-26 is presumably the new preferred powder. (And VVN565)
 
some people think it is great...but H1000 is done burning and not doing me any good 2/3'rds of a way down my 28" barrel.
 
I just love h1000. Run it in just about everything
B0B5227B-DA92-427B-A0A1-0F5F5D9BF0BF.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Steel head
Yea....RL-26 will come out for a few hours when I have no money. About to get my email to pay the $900 remainder on the CE Autotrickler V3....Just spent over $500 on some Inline Fabrication stuff to complete my 6 station work bench....spent $400 on a batch of A-Tips....about to order another 100 ADG brass....ordered another Barrel.......chambered and threaded and Cerakoted....

Yep...the week I'm broke and eating off brand peanut butter....will be the week that the one batch of RL-26 hits the shelves and sold out in mere hours. I need atleast 2 8lb'ers to get me through and not be worried.
I have some N165 on the way.
Looking forward to trying it.
 
Tell me how temp stable it is.... interested in shooting at 70F in the morning and 90F in the afternoon.
Some interesting things I found with R26 in my current application.
Push it hard and it’s a bit temp sensitive but not bad.
Push it moderately and it gets noticeably better with temp changes.
 
Some interesting things I found with R26 in my current application.
Push it hard and it’s a bit temp sensitive but not bad.
Push it moderately and it gets noticeably better with temp changes.

Is moderately ...say...pushing a 250 A-Tip at 3000fps? ;)
 
And on another note....I'm very new to the paper side of the rifle sport. I love banging steel...but I've taken quite a shining to 1 mile paper matches. Trying to get my Extreme Spreads down because a big gap in ES will have you off target on a single shot...and thus...a DQ's target. All shots have to be on paper to get a score.

So...here I am at the last event...all nervous about running my mouth and now it is go time....you can only jack your jaws so much before you have to actually show people you can remotely do what you claim you can do....so I'm worried about wind....mirage....bullet velocity consistency........and when it is time to Shooters Insert Bolts....I hit the bolt and it clicks over....no go into the receiver. I had to quickly do the boot string yank to pull the cocking piece on the 700 style bolt back and twist it over....for those that have never done this...it ain't fun when you have all the time in the world...it sucks donkey balls when you are suddenly on the clock.

So...today I finally got my package of a Kleinendorst Bolt Disassembly Tool...that makes this task...and the task of actually taking your bolt apart for cleaning...very very easy. I went with the USA made Kleinendorst instead of the much much cheaper chinese version. It will stay in my range bag and near the bench from now on.
 
Have 1.5 pounds of H1000 to fireform my Sherman Mag with 215s

Then maybe a few jugs of N570 just showed up to really push the limits with the fireformed cases
 
Have 1.5 pounds of H1000 to fireform my Sherman Mag with 215s

Then maybe a few jugs of N570 just showed up to really push the limits with the fireformed cases

If you could let me know some data on the N570. I've equated N570 to RL-33...and RL-33 failed for my needs. Really enjoying the N565...when I can find it. Currently in the workshop today loading some 230 A-Tips with N565.... for the July 18th 1 mile GBA event at TVP.

With the K&M Arbor Press and Sinclair LE Wilson Seater die....I did find a piece of brass that had a different feel in seating....a slight pop.....pulled the bullet...and deduced it was a piece that missed a VLD Chamfer. Something so small...but had a very noticeable difference in feel....when you know what to look for.
 
If you could let me know some data on the N570. I've equated N570 to RL-33...and RL-33 failed for my needs. Really enjoying the N565...when I can find it. Currently in the workshop today loading some 230 A-Tips with N565.... for the July 18th 1 mile GBA event at TVP.

With the K&M Arbor Press and Sinclair LE Wilson Seater die....I did find a piece of brass that had a different feel in seating....a slight pop.....pulled the bullet...and deduced it was a piece that missed a VLD Chamfer. Something so small...but had a very noticeable difference in feel....when you know what to look for.
I've seen a lot of failed data with N570/RL33 with a regular 300PRC but the Sherman case seems to work very very well with them
 
If you could let me know some data on the N570. I've equated N570 to RL-33...and RL-33 failed for my needs. Really enjoying the N565...when I can find it. Currently in the workshop today loading some 230 A-Tips with N565.... for the July 18th 1 mile GBA event at TVP.

With the K&M Arbor Press and Sinclair LE Wilson Seater die....I did find a piece of brass that had a different feel in seating....a slight pop.....pulled the bullet...and deduced it was a piece that missed a VLD Chamfer. Something so small...but had a very noticeable difference in feel....when you know what to look for.
Shoot me a message with your email and the specifics for your rifle/load and I'll do a QuickLOAD run for you on the N570.

For what it's worth, RL33 and VV N570 are the best/most optimized burn rate for the PRC, both of them actually. They "should" give the best speeds and full case fill.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BCX and b2lee
Shoot me a message with your email and the specifics for your rifle/load and I'll do a QuickLOAD run for you on the N570.

For what it's worth, RL33 and VV N570 are the best/most optimized burn rate for the PRC, both of them actually. They "should" give the best speeds and full case fill.

I'll send my email in a PM...but let's throw some numbers out here in public...so people can ridicule me ...heh

Brass is ADG
Bullet is 230gr Hornady A-Tip
Brass Trim Length is 2.565 ( I stay away from that Max length of 2.580) My brass never grows...even after 6 firings.
Case H20 Volume of a fired case: 95.60 grains
COL is 3.8070
Barrel is a 28" 1:9tw Bartlein
Rifle weight is ~22lbs...depending on configuration.
 
That's fine. I don't mind posting stuff but a few times guys have taken this for more than it is in some threads. I get tired of posting all the disclaimers on the "data" that is there. I am in the process of building some 300 PRC up so I don't have any first hand on that particular round...yet.
 
Sorry if this has already been posted, what would be a good start load for 245 Berger’s and n570? Finally got some on the way!
 
Sorry if this has already been posted, what would be a good start load for 245 Berger’s and n570? Finally got some on the way!

Haven't done a load for that...but let me know how your testing goes....I may be getting some 245 Bergers soon...but will most likely use N565
 
Anyone got any high round counts and accuracy reports? I'm only sitting at about 800 rounds...accuracy is still sub 1/2 MOA. I've slowed down on shooting the 300PRC....no need for further load testing...on current loads....and only shooting low round count events.
 
Anyone got any high round counts and accuracy reports? I'm only sitting at about 800 rounds...accuracy is still sub 1/2 MOA. I've slowed down on shooting the 300PRC....no need for further load testing...on current loads....and only shooting low round count events.


I am only at 560. Mostly virgin brass waiting for a custom made die from whidden to come in before I start reloading the brass.

For next year's NF ELR match... I'm debating if I wanna keep the barrel fresh for or burn it out and replace it....
 
I am only at 560. Mostly virgin brass waiting for a custom made die from whidden to come in before I start reloading the brass.

For next year's NF ELR match... I'm debating if I wanna keep the barrel fresh for or burn it out and replace it....

I vote....drive it like you stole it...and get you a new barrel for next year. I'm hoping I can make it through until about Mid October before replacing mine....I'll keep an eye on muzzle velocities and relative accuracy. If I can keep 5 on target at 1mile with both vertical and horizontal keeping me there...I'll keep shooting it.
 
I agree with b2. May as well get comfortable with it and learn what you may want different with the next barrel
 
I think its a good idea to have 2 barrels spun up at the same time and use a barrel vise when it goes south! I hate waiting on a re barrel job.
 
  • Like
Reactions: high right
I think its a good idea to have 2 barrels spun up at the same time and use a barrel vise when it goes south! I hate waiting on a re barrel job.

Heh...my barrels aren't cheap...two at a time may be a little steep for some.

but I got a deposit on one....it will be ready with about a week turn around when I need it.
 
I vote....drive it like you stole it...and get you a new barrel for next year. I'm hoping I can make it through until about Mid October before replacing mine....I'll keep an eye on muzzle velocities and relative accuracy. If I can keep 5 on target at 1mile with both vertical and horizontal keeping me there...I'll keep shooting it.

Sounds probably like the right thing to do.... I don't know if it was going to let go at 1000 rounds or 20000 rounds? And that's worrying to me.

I am going to work out a load for the 220 Bergers since I am done with Hornady
 
  • Like
Reactions: BCX
I know all about barrel cost lol. Wish i had a connection for a one week turn around.
 
I'm not done with Hornady bullets yet...the 230 and 250 A Tips are treating me really nice. When I go from not being able to hit the side of a barn at a mile...to winning a match...I'll stay on the Hornady train for a little longer.
 
I vote....drive it like you stole it...and get you a new barrel for next year. I'm hoping I can make it through until about Mid October before replacing mine....I'll keep an eye on muzzle velocities and relative accuracy. If I can keep 5 on target at 1mile with both vertical and horizontal keeping me there...I'll keep shooting it.
I agree.
Experiment and learn with the First barrel then you have data and experience for the next barrel to make changes if needed.
 
I still can’t get on the hornady train. Seen too much bs to accept it. I know you guys been bragging on the Atips but I’ve heard that same song for years and every single batch of hornady bullets I ever got had to be sorted
 
I still can’t get on the hornady train. Seen too much bs to accept it. I know you guys been bragging on the Atips but I’ve heard that same song for years and every single batch of hornady bullets I ever got had to be sorted

It's not that I want them to be so good....I really wish they sucked...because the price is just stupid compared to the Berger EOL's......but they work for me...so I'll stay on the train until it runs off the track at the next curve. I was never on the Hornady Brass train though...I think that went off the rails in Kiddie Land.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jasent
I think if I were hunting with the 300PRC...I'd be running the Berger 245 EOL....seems that expansion would be much better on an Elk.