I hear ya, Howler. Guess it is the sniper training in me that makes me comfortable (cocky?) in my ability and firearm. The bullet is fine if placed in the right spot. Actually I usually take head shots on whitetail does so not to mess up meat if I can keep shots under 150 yards.

Sorry noway, my error on SD-meant ft-lbs. Thinking one but typing another. Mavbe the sexual density Beaverjack was talking about got me flustered.

Didn' t mean to get everyone pissed on this. Yes I realize a heavier bullet of quality construction is better than a lighter bullet of quality construction. It still gets down to bullet placement. Confidence in your equipment, abilities, and extreme accuracy are what gets this done.

It' s not in stone that the 150 is the load going on the hunt. I may still load something else HEAVIER. Just a convenience and comfort knowing what works in my gun.

SPD,
nobodys pissed, we are just knocking the ball back and forth.
In the end you make up your own mind and do as you like.

Thats whats great about these forums is you get lots of input, some good, some not so good. Then you decide for yourself.

Like I said previously as long as you don' t attempt shots from bad angles you will be fine. But it is easy to think you won' t and then after hunting for 5 days and the only shot you get is an elk moving away from you in the timber it can be real tough to just watch it walk away.
Good luck.

I' d say BJ (not too gently) put one near the 10 ring.

=====================
Consider:

The Ph D. measures it with a micrometer,
The foreman marks it with a grease pencil,
The workman cuts it with an axe!

Or similarly,

The match shooter hand weighs his loads to a one fourth of 1/10th of a grain,
The bench rester measures his groups to a tenth of an inch,
The old elk hunter hits the " pie plate size" kill zone on the elk with a bullet that was up to the toughest task foreseeable.

In each case, while the others sweated the trivia, the workman and the old elk hunter are the ones that focused on the end result, out in the field, under sometimes trying " non-laboratory" conditions.
=====================

I recommend going heavy for caliber for elk; 150 to 160gr for a 270 IS heavy for caliber while 150gr in a 300WinMag ISN' T heavy for caliber. Penetration is KEY --magnum or no magnum. Consider giving up a little in your bench group for many inches of increased penetration through thick and thin, hard or soft, square or raking. Then, when you are back from elk hunting, put away your " heavies" and go back to poking paper with 150' s -- paper and light weight animals penetrate very easily, elk less so.

Just wanna see you win in the field where there is no 10 ring.

EKM

Why shoot a 300 Win Mag if you are going to shot 150 gr.How bad dose it shoot 200gr and 180' s I' m sure it is not as bad as you say.

I have tried 200 gr Sierras. Very tight groups at 100 yards but some voodoo occurs beyond that. Missed everything I shot at with them except one coyote at 165 yds. I checked on a 300 yard target and they were all over the place.

Rechecked sight in and it hadn' t moved. So I switched back to my 150 Noslers, readjusted the scope, and went back hunting. 3 coyotes with the closest at 215 yards and two deer- one at 447 yards.

180s in Sierras will shoot about 1.5 @ 100. But I haven' t checked to see if they do the same as the 200s beyond that. I know the Sierras are not an ideal elk bullet either.

I do have a supply of the Barnes 180 XBTs but don' t have load data. My prefered powder is IMR-4350.

Open to suggestions......

I understand the voodoo,it just happens.Have you looked into nosler 180,200 and 220.They shoot good in about every rifle,also try 200 yard sightins.Also try hornadys,I have .338 that will only shoot 250 gr hornadys.

According to my " Barnes Bullets Reloading Manual Number 1" they don' t have a load using IMR-4350. Their fastest load is:

Caliber: .300 Win. Mag.; Bullet: 180 gr. Barnes XFB or XBT; Case: Win.; Primer: Rem. 9-1/2 Mag. Primers; Barrel: 26" ; Powder: RL-22; Min.: 72.0 grs. Velocity: 2933 f/s; Max.: 75.5 grs. Vel.: 3153 f/s.

Good luck.

Thanks for the Barnes info. I obtained the 4350 info and will try it first.

Barnes XBT and XFB 180 gr for 300 Win Mag
Start load IMR 4350- 65.5 gr
Max load IMR 4350- 70.5 gr Velocity 2993

I will try this and see if I can get it to work in my gun. Thanks to all for the suggestions and advice.

Update:

Due to the overwelming advice that I get heavy with my 300,
I loaded a bunch of Barnes 180 XBT with varying amounts of IMR4350. I chronographed them to find something worth working with further.

I decided upon 70.3 gr of IMR4350 with an average velocity of 2943. Wasn' t the fastest load but with a spread in velocity of only 12 fps, I figured it had the best chance for accuracy.

Popped a few rounds into a target at 100 yards. Seemed to hover around 1 inch. I have a Que Muzzle Brake on my 300 (adjustable like a BOSS) and will do some more tweaking. If it turns out to be as accurate as it is consistant, I will forgo the 150 Nosler Partitions and take the 180 Barnes XBT as elk medicine instead.

Figures show ME of 3305 for the Noslers and 3462 for the Barnes.

spd,

I hope that one works out for you, because if it does, then....

That will be elk medicene extraordinaire -- Barnes X bullets are awesome if they work reasonably well in your rifle.

EKM