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Morning all!

I recently came across some Speer Deep Curl 300 grainers on the web for sale (for some reason they were out of stock for an extended period of time). Does anyone have load data for the 300 grain deep curls? H110 is the powder I currently have but other powder/charge suggestions would be welcomed too.

Thanks!

Welcome aboard Kevin!

I myself have had mixed results with the 300 DC in the past, but in my 20" Bartz upper, they shot pretty darn good over W296, which I'm led to believe is the same as H110. Start at 38gr with the bullet seated to almost burying the cannelure beneath the mouth (appx 2.06 COL), then taper crimp down into that cannelure to yield a case mouth diameter of .475 measured as close to the mouth as possible. Work up from there with an eye on your brass for pressure signs. Its getting hot out and ball powders can get feisty as the temp goes up.

Here's some 100yd 5-shot DC groups when it was 70-75 degrees out.



Hoot.

What kind of velocity where you able to push those 300gr bullets to?

mcb wrote:What kind of velocity where you able to push those 300gr bullets to?

In my 20" (non-carbine) barrel, the 40gr loads clocked at 2170fps average with a velocity SD of 19. That was fast enough. I would have pursued it further but there's nothing up here that needs 300gr bullets to hunt. The 38gr group averaged 2083fps with a higher velocity SD of 31.

Hoot

Thanks for the quick response Hoot! I will definitely work with the 38 grs and work around that. I'm using a 16" stainless Brownells barrel with the 1:20 twist so it will be interesting to see how the accuracy is.

cookkev7 wrote:Thanks for the quick response Hoot! I will definitely work with the 38 grs and work around that. I'm using a 16" stainless Brownells barrel with the 1:20 twist so it will be interesting to see how the accuracy is.

The barrel's accuracy is up to the challenge. Your precision will more of an influence on your groups. That and the particular load range that the barrel prefers. The ability to make a load that your rifle likes and not be dependent upon what some ammo manufacturer dictates what your choices will be, is the main payoff for reloading. I've posted some absolutely awful groups on occasion. Of course, they're never because of my lack of precision, they were just not the loads that my rifle wanted to see.


Hoot

Hoot,
How did the bullets perform? Did you recover any? I am interested in this bullet for deer hunting and I am wondering how well they expand and hold together at 2000+ fps.

Charlie U wrote:Hoot,
How did the bullets perform? Did you recover any? I am interested in this bullet for deer hunting and I am wondering how well they expand and hold together at 2000+ fps.

Welcome aboard Charlie!

No I never did a water shot with them. I hunt the thick Minnesota north woods and you don't need a 300gr bullet in this caliber for white tails. If you like gaping mouth hollow points in general, consider the 240gr XTP Mag bullet. If you don't like finding bits of lead in your venison, consider the Barnes 200gr XPB bullet. That's what I use now. Still a 45 caliber frontal area and boy do they mushroom.



Hoot