Berger hunting VLD - 185 vs 190 in 300 WSM?

[RyeDaddy]

Got a new 300 WSM hunting rifle, and I plan to load Berger VLD's for it as I've had great accuracy with them in all my rifles, and performance on game has been stellar in my 260.

I like to have one load to do everything in my hunting rifles, rather than adjust for different laods for different purposes. This rifle will be mostly for whitetail and hogs, and the once a year exotic hunt at a ranch with my brother. We also go after larger mule deer in west TX, and may do an elk hunt in a couple years. I'm thinking of the 190 grain hunting VLD's, but I see they make a 185 hunting VLD also. They're so close I've gotta think there's an advantage to one over the other for some purpose. Searching didn't help at all although most people who hunt with 300 WSM's shooting VLD's seem to opt for the 185. I'd call and ask Berger, but I'm making a run up to Cabela's tomorrow to buy them and some Norma brass, and Berger won't be open until Monday. They look to be about the same length and ogive shape so the only difference I see is a slight BC advantage to the 190,and with them being so close I can't believe there'd be enough of a velocity difference between them to matter.

Anybody have any input on these, or experience to say I should choose one over the other? I'm pretty sure Cabela's by me only has the 185's and the 210's, and I don't need the recoil of the 210's, but if there's a good reason to go with the 190's over the 185's I'll order them instead.

Thanks for the help.

 

[ejd049]

Re: Berger hunting VLD - 185 vs 190 in 300 WSM?

TAG for info

Having a 300wsm built right now and looking for some insight on a load.

 

[Jig Stick]

Re: Berger hunting VLD - 185 vs 190 in 300 WSM?

Im shooting the Berger 210 VLD target and hunting bullets in my 300winmag. 71g of H4831SC produced 0.47 inch groups at 100yds. And that was with virgin brass and a 10mph crosswind. My rifle seems to like them jammed, or 0.005 off the lands

 

[tomt53]

Re: Berger hunting VLD - 185 vs 190 in 300 WSM?

I choose the 190 VLD simply because the reloding store only had the 190's. They had two boxes with the same lot number. Began a load workup the other day using IMR 4831. There seems to be a good node around the 64.0 - 64.3 range.
Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[RyeDaddy]

Re: Berger hunting VLD - 185 vs 190 in 300 WSM?

Went ahead and picked up the 185's because that's what they had at Cabela's. Nervous about loading them, even though I have had zero trouble getting VLD's to shoot in any rifle I've tried, they've always been better than anything else regardless of jump. I keep reading reviews by people that either have picky rifles or don't know what the hell they're talking about who say that Berger bullets have to be into the lands or won't group at all. I KNOW it's most likely these asswipes are just parroting what they've heard other people say, but I still have the nagging fear that one of these times I'm gonna find a rifle that won't like them. That's dumb I know, but whatever. I really like Bergers for hunting, and I'll report in the reloading section what my rifle does with them. This rifle is my first Winchester, and my first magnum, so I'm not sure what to expect.

As an aside, I was a little disappointed with the Norma brass I picked up. This is another example of how internet opinions and anecdotes may not prove to be true. This is my first batch of Norma brass ever, and I chose it over Winchester due to longevity in high pressure loads. Off the bat I'll say that the Norma cases are all ready to load right out of the bag, deburred, with PERFECT flash holes. All the same length and everything. No dinged necks or odd thickness rims. But... The extreme weight spread for the 50 cases I bought was 6.5 grains. That seems odd for something that costs this much. My Lapua brass I have for other calibers all weighs within a grain of each other. Reviews online had lead me to believe they'd have the same weight consistency as the Lapua I've come to love. This is more along the lines of the Remington brass I shoot in my 260. The 260 groups around a half inch at 100 yards even though I don't weight sort the cases, and it's an out of the box rifle so obviously I'm not too concerned, but I was surprised nonetheless.

 

[SWRichmond]

Re: Berger hunting VLD - 185 vs 190 in 300 WSM?

I shoot the 210 match VLDs in my 300WSM. 26" barrel, never chronoed the load but based on the ballistics I am getting I'm getting about 2750fps.

HOT load; if you try it work up.
Norma brass (I love it, no weight issues as you described)
Fed 210M
60.0 gr. H4350 (This is over what Berger recommended when I requested data from them, they said max 58.5 gr giving 2650 fps. They said that 58.5 gr would fill the case 94.5%. I am not compressing the load at 60.0. FWIW I would NOT jam this load into the lands. YMMV, your rifle definitely will.)

Seated for about 0.015" jump.

No sticky bolt lift. Back off a little on hot days, stickiness starts.

This shoots into half-inch groups for me at 100 (prone from a bipod) and I have used it with success out to 1000.

Berger is crafting a new "hybrid" line of bullets and if I understand it correctly the idea is to reduce or eliminate their sensitivity to minor variations in seating depth / jump. I do not sort ogives so this would be cool. +28.8 MOA from 100 to 1000 (proven numerous times; compensate for temperature, read the wind and shoot) and 69 inches in a 10mph full-value wind.

Just one other note: anyone who is loading for a magnum absolutely has to be very careful about case length. Chambering an over-long case will exert clamping force on the mouth of the case against the bullet and could raise pressure dramatically. I start measuring a batch of cases after sizing and if I run into any that are too long or within a few thousandths I stop measuring and trim the whole batch.

OK, another note: go to jbmballistics dot com and plug in your load and then vary only air temperature and watch the fun. I go up as much as an additional 2 MOA depending on air temp.

 

[wcsshooter]

Re: Berger hunting VLD - 185 vs 190 in 300 WSM?

I have a savage 26" Heavy Barreled 300WSM that I have been shooting the following loads:

Hot Load, please work up!
190 JLK
70gr H4831SC
Fed LRM Primers
2950 fps chrono 10'
.25 MOA 100 yds

Hot Load, please work up!
178 AMAX
69gr H4831SC
Fed LRM Primers
3004 fps Chrono 10'
.4 MOA 100 yds

I really like the 190 JLK's, they can be hard to get sometimes since they are only run when Swampy gets enough orders and he's really been moving towards his 185s.

My next project will be 185 Berger hunting vld's. I'll post as soon as I have info, probably sometime late Feb I hope.

 

[eagleskier]

Re: Berger hunting VLD - 185 vs 190 in 300 WSM?

I shoot a GAP in 300 WSM with 175 SMK's and 64.5 grains of H4350. While this is not a 185/190 VLD Berger, my point is that you might want to try H4350. It is relatively insensitive to temperature and shoots well under 1/2 MOA.

By the way, I am using Norma Brass. I did have quite a bit of weight variation in the cases but once sorted, it has performed great. I am up the my 7th loading on these cases with no sign of distress.