Hello the campfire:
As I get older and lose some weight I find tha the .300 Wby Mag. that I love is geting to be a little more than I enjoy for more than an occasional shooting session. Does anyone have some light loads to share? I have a pretty good hunting load of 78 grains of RL 19 with a 150 grain Interbond over a Fed Mag Rifle Primer. This prints 1.5 inches or less at 100 yards, but more than 5 shots will start me flinching and I develop a headache. I enjoy my 1989 Mod 70 with its good wood amd GREAT checkering, but the rilfe is going back into the safe if I don't find something less punishing. I would like a play with load that is about a good 3006 equivalant. Help please!!
JUdge Sharpe.

I have found IMR's 4064 to be excellent in magnums.

The old Sierra manuals have the loads you want.

From thier #2

Starting loads for IMR 4064 in the 300 Wby.
150 gr 66.6 gr 3000 fps, 70.4 gr 3200 fps max
165 gr 63.9 gr 2800 fps, 68.9 gr 3000 fps max
180 gr 63.0 gr 2700 fps, 67.0 gr 2900 fps max

Everyone should check out any load you read anywhere against another source.

I like the idea of a large chamber for a bore. You can always load them down but you can't load the small chambers up.

I went to Hodgdon.com and they list a 150 grain load at 62.3 for h4895 amd a 150 grain bullet. This was supposed to do about 3098 fps. You might want to e-mail hodgdon and see how much you could reduce that. I'm thinking you're gonna be able to safely drop to the upper 50 grain range but being such a big case magnum I would sure rather they make the call.

4064 or even 4350 in the 63-66 grs of powder with your 150s. Pressure in the 45-48000psi range velocity is 3000-3070.

I got home and found my notes. A guy that I talked to a while back said he was using 55.0 of h4895 at 2700 fps with a 150 grain. When I run this idea past quick load it says a 64% fill ration, 34,000psi, and 2659 fps.

I would still try and e-mail hogdon for a confirmation that this load might be safe. Or at the very least I would point my gun straight up in the air and then level it off on the sandbags to be sure I had the powder around the primer. If it was to be a hunting load and hogdon gave the ok for it I might still do a little testing to see if powder postion affected speed/accuracy.

I just spotted a load in the hodgdon manual showing a minimum of 58.0 h4895 under a 150 grain. quickload guesses this to produce 38000psi, 68% fill, and 2775 fps. --I'd say if that isn't "soft enough" time to look at other recoil reducing idea.

Some years ago I did tests in my 300 Weatherby (a Remington 700 Classic with a 24 inch barrel) attempting to get 30-06-like or lower velocities for various bullets. Here are some of my results:

1. 150 grain Sierra BT, 64 gr IMR4064, Remington case, Fed 215, 2800 f.p.s. (I do not have the accuracy results from this load.)

2. 150 gr Speer BT, 68 gr. H-414, Rem case, Rem 9 ½ M, 2935 f.p.s. (Accuracy unknown.)

3. 180 Sierra Bt, 62.7 gr. IMR 4320, Rem case, 9 ½ M, 2655 f.p.s. (Accuracy unknown.)

4. 180 grain Hornady spire point, 79 grains H 4831, Rem case, Fed 215, 2815 f.p.s. (Accuracy unknown)

I used some other powders too – I remember using IMR 3031 and Varget. If I can find my records from those, I will post them too.

I remember that Varget gave me very good accuracy in such a reduced load, but it also gave me the dirtiest cases I’ve ever gotten from any shooting.

nThaks everybody I will try the sugestwhat happens.
Judge Sharpe