Just came from the Hornady site. I've been trying the 45 cal 300 XTP's as they come from Walmart. The Hornady site shows them with BC of .18. The 44 cal 300's show a BC of .245. Seems if I want to shoot an inexpensive 300 grain jacketed HP I'd been crazy not to use the 44's. Am I missing something here? I did go to MMP to order sabots for them, and see the green .429-.430's suggest a maximum bullet weight of 260. Think I have a problem shooting the .430 300's in the green sabots in my GM barrel?

While I was at Hornady, I ordered some 390 HB-HP conicals to de-virginize the 54 cal barrel which came on my old Cabela Hawken and is now (thanks to Sabotloader) interchangeable with the 50 GM barrel. I'll be boring you with the results from these soon enough!

Look at the HPH sabots. 300 gr. is a recomended bullet in it.


50 Cal Rifle .429 - .430 Bullet Green HPH/12
Possibilities: 240 - 400 Grains
Recomended: 240 - 300 Grains

Good Golly Wolfhound, guess I should have turned the page! Got them ordered.

Has anyone shot the 44 cal 300's? Results?

I've got some here. Mine are Hornady branded with whatever sabot they use. I've got some green HPH's though.My father in law tried them once and gave them to me with a bunch of other stuff. I haven't tried them yet. I have shot the 45/300'sduring sabot testing. I'm not a fan of 300 grain bulletsso I'm not in much hurry.

yeoman

I use to shoot them for the same reason better BC, but I could never get them to be consistent -seems like I would get one or two flyers every once in awhile - never knew when it was going to happen.

That is also one of the reasons that I went to the Speer .452/300 grain Gold Dot - BC .232

Better have a short starter the top ring is .548 and tuff to get into the barrel...

I just called Dan @ Bull Shop and ordered some of his 54 cal slip fitconicals in various sizes from .540 to .546 to see what fits the best. I did get some .540 No-Excuse conicals from Dave but they slid right down the barrel of my Renegades and the Lyman Trade Rifle... turn them upside down and they would slide right back out....

Wolfhound - why don't you like 300 grainers?

Sabotloader - how does the .452 300 Speer get to .232 while the .452 300 Hornady only .18? Are the nose profiles that different?

I ran the ballistics on the .245 BC 44-300's using 1700 fps versus the .199 BC 10mm/200's @ 2000 and there was oly a 4" drop differential out at 200 yds. I'm thinking the 300's might reduce the effects of wind out thar. Your thoughts?

yeoman

It really is in the nose of the bullet - 1) it's shape and the other 2) is the HP on the Speer is very shallow and somewhat areodynamic. and another advantage I keep repeating is the lead is bonded to the copper... no leaving the copper behind just under the skin...

I am pulling this of the top of my head because I am on the wrong computer - I can not run the numbers here. But, i am really thinking it might be somewhat a wash.... the velocity of the 200 may overide the effects of the cross winds about the same as the slower but heavier 300 grain bullet.

I really believe it would be easier to shoot the 300 grain Gold dot out to 200 than it is the 250 grain... but - I prefer to hunt deer with the 250 so I make do - but, i can not imagine shooting a deer @ 200 with a ML -it would have to be an out of this world trophy buck for me to even consider it....

I think 240-260 gr. bullets are the optimum weight for Whitetail. Deer are easy to kill and don't require massive bullets to do the job. If I were hunting larger game I might try a 300 gr. bullet but it's overkill on a deer.

Go to http://sav10ml.com/pages/load_data/traj_basic_dat.html
and do it on the Web instead of in a Windows Program.

Example:
300g for Bullet weight
BC is .232 for Speer Gold Dot
Muzzle Vol is 1700 fps
zero range is 100 yard
Then click go. I can't get the table to show up with this editor, but put it in and you will see
-5.4 inches low at 150 yards with this bullet and 1700 fps load. Chap

Sabotloader - the Hornady ballistics calculator confirms your recollection; very little wind drift difference between them.

Would you attempt a "peeper" out thar? (forget about the bullet choice)

Wolfhound - I cut my teeth with slug guns and admit to being a little hung up on heavy bullets. I've seen Whitetails carry hits from shotgun slugs I never would have dreamed they could handle. I'm afraid there is a tendancy to overestimate what a heavy bullet can do.