Kennebeckid

Hi there, I was wondering if anyone that has a 110/116/111/114 etc. in 300 win mag could help me narrow down the most accurate factory hunting load for my new rifle. It has a 1:10 twist, 24” barrel. I know I will need to try a few different loads but I am hoping to narrow it down a little. There is a lot of factory ammo for the 300. I will be mostly hunting our large bodied Maine whitetails with it on clearcuts and power lines but I will also use it for a moose the next time I am drawn. Thanks in advance for your help.

flags

Buy a box of each and shoot them. That will tell you which one your rifle likes. Every rifle is unique and what groups well in someone else's rifle may not shoot well in yours. There is no magic formula, get ammo, go to range, shoot ammo, compare groups. Problem solved.

Oldtimr

What he said above.

Kennebeckid

I was hoping to save some money and start where someone else has found a similarly configured gun to shoot well.

Oldtimr

You asked and the best method to take has been given to you. It is up to you to decide if you want to get the most you can from your rifle, or if you want to save money. One of the choices helps you when you hunt, one of them does not.

hunters_life

As the other 2 stated, there really is no answer to your question. My old man tested ammo for factories for years. And relatively few rifles, of which he had many, would shoot the same factory loads the same. That is the main reason he got into reloading so many years ago. Each and every rifle, even those of the same brand and even some with the barrels bored and rifled right after each other will most of the time have a slightly different personality and while one factory load may shoot fantastic from one, it may look like a shotgun pattern in an identical rifle. As to what you plan to hunt, I myself would not use the same thing for whitetails as I would for moose. I load a 220gr hornady interlock for moose in my .300wm but that's a pretty stout bullet and would more than likely not open well in a whitetail. Even those big bodied bruisers you have in Maine. I'd give those 150gr American Whitetail from Hornady a spin and see how they shoot. They are relatively cheap for as good as they are performance wise and seem to perform well from many rifles. At least well enough for hunting standards as far as accuracy goes. For moose I wouldn't recommend lighter than 180gr. Yes a lighter tougher bullet can kill a moose but most places you see a moose you really don't want it going far so you want to hit it with the biggest, hardest hitting chunk of lead you can get into it. Yes there have been many killed with rifles such as the .30-30 but you can bet a lot of those moose were recovered after a fairly long trailing job and some made it to deeper water where recovery is a severe pain in the ass. So again, anchoring that animal pretty much where you hit it is something you should really think about. That's a very large body and you will want to do as much internal damage as possible if you aren't lucky enough to have a good spinal shot.

REM_7600

I second the Hornady factory ammo recommendation. Federal Fusion, and even the Green and Yellow box Core-Lokt or Core-Lokt Bonded.

Look at the SST in the Hornady, Fusion have a proprietary bonded, and core-lokt have killed forever (bonded or not).

You don't need the premium bullets for whitetail but if you're gonna take another(?) moose. Look at the bonded bullets.

My recommendation would be a 180gr. I have an old box of Silvertips (from the 70's) that are accurate as all getup but the bullets have changed since then.

Start small - Hornady, Federal, Remington Green/Yellow Basic.

Reloading is an entirely different ballgame and way longer conversation.

REM7600
Grew up in Northern Maine.


PS: you don't need a win mag to kill a whitetail even in the scenarios you provided. But RUN whatcha BRUNG!