.300 Win Mag for extreme long range

T

thesheepdog

New member
I an looking at a bolt action to go out to 1 mile + without having to get a .50 BMG or similar caliber (though I would not mind having one in case anyone would like to make a donation to me) :P
The one mile shot is one of my goals in life.

The .300 Win Mag loaded with 208 AMAX looks very promising. What kind of velocity could I expect from a 26" barrel?

Has anyone shot their .300WM to a mile/plus?

.338 Lapua is out of the question too because they are expensive.

What about any other magnum loads that are very capable and not too rare or difficult to load and aren't barrel burners?
 
I plan on doing this with my .300 Win Mag as well. I'm just waiting for warmer weather. Pushing that 208 grain AMAX at 2900fps you're looking at 2,441 inches of drop and 444 inches of wind drift with a 10mph wind. That's a 39 MIL holdover! The bullet will enter transonic flight at about 900 yards. My first interest in doing a mile shot started after I watched Magpul's video "Art of the Precision Rifle". After watching these guys hit a 16 inch plate at a mile with a 308 it really made me wanna see what my .300 could do. Good luck with it!
 
If you want to stick to .30 caliber bullets then the .300rum has a bit more power than the .300win.

If you want to move up to .338 there are win mag and rum versions of that.
You're looking at 50 bucks for 20 to start.
 
Rl 25 and a Berger 210 VLD coming out of a Savage Action 30 inch barrel will get you knocking on the 3000fps mark I used to be able to run over that but beat up brass really bad so I backed off. But it will maybe get to a mile depends on your elevation, optics, rails and skill set. I seem to peter out at 1450 ish but have chucked lead to the mile mark just not very accurately or consistently might get 5 out of 10 today and 0 out of 15 tomorrow.

If you go to snipershide forums there are guys who shoot 6.5X47 L to a mile they have a wealth of long range knowledge.
 
To make it, you need to keep the bullet super sonic.

Its have no problem keeping the 200 SMK @2850 FPS. (thats what my Model 70 300 WM 1000 yard rifle likes)

If you crunch the numbers that would be a hair over the speed of sound, so yes you can do it.

If your sights are bottomed out at 200, your gonna need about 72 min of elevation. Winds gonna be fun.

But heck yeah, why not. You can build and shoot a 300 Win a lot cheaper then a 338 L or 50 Cal rifle.
 
When you say the .338 LM is too expensive, are you referring to the rifle, or the ammo?

Savage has a long range hunter in .338 LM for a grand...
 
First thing your gonna need is a good spotting scope and a spotter who knows how to use it. The rifle, caliber, or the rest of the equipment won't matter if you can't see the impact and make adjustments. Shooting at a mile (successfully) is never going to be a cheap endeavor no matter how you look at it. Heck I wish I just had a place to even try to look at a target that far. Hope you get it done.
 
When you say the .338 LM is too expensive, are you referring to the rifle, or the ammo?

Savage has a long range hunter in .338 LM for a grand...



This, unless you are considering "inexpensive" as I already have a rifle chambered in .300WM.
 
As kraig said it's all about keeping it from going subsonic and becoming unstable. I would honestly look to .300 RUM and load some 220gr or 240gr SMKs, or berger 230gr Hybrid, i guess just my preference.

Here's some loads for the 240gr on a RUM pretty decent.

http://www.reloadersnest.com/query_bw.asp?CaliberID=62&BulletWeight=240

Ripnbst he's referring to ammo.. shooting a .338LM is like shooting 5$ bills. .338 RUM would be a more cost effective solution. You could easily have a .338LM made for much less than buying a AI or Sako. Both of which are known factory .338s that shoot lights out. But ammo like the .50 BMG would run you through the roof if you actually plan to shoot it alot.
 
Forgot to add sheep just throwing this out there unless your sold on .300WM,. 7WSM, .284 Winchester, or 7mm mag will all get there. The .284 180gr Berger VLD is something fierce when paired with those three cartridges. You'll burn less powder and have less recoil, and same if not better ballistics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5G13N3Yd3w
 
220 gr SMK's handle the transition from supersonic to subsonic quite well, the reason Crane chose them over the 210 VLD's on the market for their new 300 Win Mag sniper load. However they upped the operating pressure to 68K in order to get the long range performance they wanted, but the powder specified was H-1000.

All in all, the 300 is a good way to get into the long range game without too much pain.

Jimro
 
Thanks for all the replies guys.

Kraigwy, what elevation were you calculating your 200 SMKs for? I expect a higher elevation would get a 200 to a mile supersonic.

BlackOps 2: I have slightly considered the 338 RUM but that means I am slightly concerned about barrel life in one of those.
The 6.5x47 looks good but the 7mm is probably going to have a higher BC.

Here is the thing; I could have a barrel chambered for .338 LM but the brass is so darn expensive as BlackOps 2 mentioned.
I COULD get one but I would be burning holes in my wallet.

My plan is for PAC Nor to chamber me a chrome moly match barrel in the M24 contour either for 7mm or .300 WM with polygonal rifling, and then have that barrel shipped off to get melonite/QPQ treated to extend the barrel life even further than the polygonal rifling will.

So right now I am just getting ideas of what to chamber the barrel too.

Has anyone tried a .338 Win Mag and added heavy match bullets to it?
 
Just had a mate build a extreme longrange rifle in 338 edge (didn't want to spend the money on a 338 lapua either). IMHO you would be better off going for the 338edge or a 338rum. The reason he went with the 338edge was brass was around 1/4 of the price of the 338 lapua mag and you can build a rifle on a standard magnum action (plus some of the anti gun nuts are trying to get the 338 lapua mag outlawed). The 338 edge gives you 338 lapua performance for alot less $$$

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.338_Edge
http://www.longrangehunting.com/articles/338-edge-1.php
 
The 300WM will get out there. I've fired mine a few times at the + distance to see the difference between developed loads. Target we used was a small boulder across a wide canyon. Blm map verifies that it is just over a mile. Elevation was 7100ft. Location was in the Tahoe National Forrest. I must say that the 30-378 does the job a bit better though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top