The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Rifles Medium Bore Rifles Anyone tried a 300 RCM (Ruger Compact Magnum) yet?Go | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
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I won a Ruger 300 RCM rifle at our local RMEF dinner this year and am just wondering if any of you AR riflemen have fired and reloaded this cartridge yet? It was the best dinner I had for a few years, as my 6 year old won a 22-250 as well. -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | ||
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Congratulations on you and your child’s win. I don’t know anything about the RCM though. | |||
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Congratulations on both wins! The RCM's are pretty new but, they should be good cartridges to have in the arsenal. Best Regards, Sid All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it. Alexis de Tocqueville The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money. Alexis de Tocqueville | |||
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It's a 30-06 +P... | |||
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...or 300wsm -P  | |||
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TH, I have one and it is damn accurate. The 150 gr ammo did a lot better than the 168 stuff for me, but both were definitely sub MOA at 100 aqnd 200 yards in my testing/break in period, and slightly better since. The downside on loading the cartridge is that with the load data (which I got from Hornady) the best you're going to get is within about 150 fps of the factory stuff. The guy I spoke to at Hornady said 'they just aren't gonna let us handloaders duplicate the factory special powders you know'. Makes sense, I guess they would prefer to sell ammo anyway. The best two powders I have used were Win 760 and one of the VV powders, I don't recall which off of the top of my head it is one of their 5 series [high energy series] powders. These both with the 150 grain pills. I will say that the factory stuff in 150 shoots so good, that if you can live with an SST bullet--it probably is worth just shooting the factory stuff. I suspect they are pushing pressure envelopes using whatever powders they are using, but I won't go there with my handloads so alas..... It is a great rifle and a good cartridge, I think you will enjoy it. | |||
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Thanks for the response. I hunt deer in the "lead-free" zone here in California, which also happens to be black bear country (which I'm also hunting this fall). I'm hoping to develop a nice 180 gr tsx load for the fall. I have a nice CZ 375 h&h, but I don't feel like lugging it around in the heat. 30-06 power will do nicely for me, I think. I'm aiming for a happy medium between my 270 and my 375. Hodgdon has a 165 gr tsx load listed, maybe I'll start with that. -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | |||
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Damn I never win anything! Congratulations. I'm just starting load development on my 300RCM. In Australia factory ammo is pretty scarce. After being on order for about 7 months some 180gr ammo is waiting for me at the gun dealer but they are the SST's not a great big game bullet. I have some 300RCM hornady brass & this is the result I got first time out:  Hopefully you can see the velocities in the photos, they are a bit low. The main reason I think is that there is a huge freebore. The only reloading data I found was on the Hodgdon site. With the long for bullet weight 168 T-TSX you just cannot seat the bullet in the neck and touch the lands. Irrelevant anyway as the magazine is too short to have the bullet seated out much. On mine the bullet is seated to the last barrel band. I have more loads to try with an increase in powder charge weight & also will try H4350. Heard ball powders don't like the sudden pressure drop when the bullet hits the freebore. Will see what happens. Hornady claim they get just over 3000fps with the 165gr bullet. I'll be happy if I get 2900fps or slightly less. I really like the rifle and looks like it may shoot OK. Trigger is crisp but heavy at 5lbs I think the 300RCM has a few plusses over the 300WSM. The case is not so fat you can use your old reloading block and the like. It feeds much better than my WSM. No rebated rim. The reduced case capacity (about 5 grains less) I think is a plus especially in these lightweight rifles. Less recoil. I expected muzzle blast to be really bad in a 20inch barrel but its not any worse that I can detect than a 24inch 300WSM. The rifle feels great in your hands and that is what prompted me to buy it. I currently have a leupold Varix X II 3-9 x 40 on it but when I finish load development I've got a Fixed 4x conquest from Alex at Europtic that I will put on it. Should make a great Sambar rifle. regards JohnT | |||
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Thanks JT - good information. -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | |||
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The 2009 printed Hodgdon Reloading Manual has the lead article in it with Lane Pearce tasked to try and duplicate the factory loads for 300 RCM and 338 RCM using Hodgdon cannister powders. On page 12 are the tables. Here is the closest he got. Factory 300 RCM 150 gr bullet, 3070 fps, SD 15, 1.6" group w/W760, WLRM primer, 62.5gr, 2971 fps, SD 18, 1.9" group w/Hybrid 100V, WLRM primer, 62.0gr, 3033 fps, SD 16, 1.3" group w/IMR4007SSC, WLRM primer, 61.5gr, 2983 fps, SD 7, 2.1" group Factory 300 RCM, 165gr bullet, 2926 fps, SD 14, 1.5" group W760, WLRM primer, 59.5r, 2807 fps, SD 15, 0.8" group Hybrid 100V,WLRM primer, 61.0gr, 2828 fps, SD 11, 1.5" group IMR4007SSC, WLRM primer, 60.5gr, 2871 fps, SD 9, 1.5" group Factory 300 RCM, 180gr bullet, 2845 fps, SD 20, 1.3" group W760, WLRM primer, 58.0gr, 2765 fps, SD 16, 1.5" group Hybrid 100V, WLRM primer, 60.0gr, 2855 fps, SD 15, 1.3" group IMR4007SSC, WLRM primer, 59.3gr, 2795 fps, SD 12, 0.95" group So...it's possible to get close to the factory speeds but not quite (except for the 180gr bullet where he slightly exceeded the factory load). N. Colorado | |||
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The target is upside down, or is that just you being from Australia? Write hard and clear about what hurts -E. Hemingway | |||
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freelunch, those are similar, but not exact [interesting] to the numbers Hornady sent me, but the ones I got didn't include 4007 ssc. I can't get to the same velocities they show over my chronograph, except with the factory stuff. So far I am seeing best velocity with W 760 | |||
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Hey they don't call this place downunder for nothing you know!!! What else did you expect??? Actually, at my range we staple our targets to corfluitt boards. Unbeknownst to me they changed the hights of the racks holding the targets. So I had to reverse them or the cross bar of the target rack would be across the top target. We are "Downunder" but I still have not mastered reading upside down! I just loaded up 60.5gr of W760 with the 168gr T-TSX and was getting 2850fps which is very good in a 20 inch barrel. Primers didn't look flattened or anthing like that. Accuracy was over 1 inch for 3 shots but 5 shots made it look like a shotgun so more work required here. regards, JohnT Here is the target at the 60.5gr Charge.  | |||
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Hey JohnT, What is your COL? -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | |||
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I load to 2.860 cause my magazine length is only 2.90" regards JohnT | |||
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John T, you are probably already dialed into this, but with TSX's, tipped or not, I usually have to be well back off the lands--I don't know what your 'to the lands' OAL is, but mine had to be well short of just clearing the magazine in order to be far enough back to shoot well. I also saw no pressure signs at similar charge weights to what you are running, even a few grains above that, but my OAL is at least 40 Thou shorter than yours. At that length, I was getting compressed loads at near max charges, nothing too crunchy, and no growth over 5 days in COL, but there nonetheless. Good Luck--Don | |||
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Thanks Don. I can't tell you what my OAL to the lands is but the bullet is outside of the neck by then. So my only choice is to seat shorter. I will try seating deeper into the case but at the moment my next test is for the same seating depth but with Magnum primers & W760. Recently I had great results seating @ 90 thou off lands with Berger VLD's in another calibre. For the info of others that may be working up loads I have just scanned my target with H4350. Except for the initial 59.5 charge they are all compressed charges.  regards JohnT | |||
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Thanks again, JT. The factory ammo seems to avg 2.823" COL. There is little room left in the magazine after that. -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | |||
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Eric, According to my measurements the Mag Length on the Ruger RCM is 2.890". Don using the Stoney Point guage my OAL touching lands is 2.668". I stand corrected with this bullet (168 T-TSX) the bullet is in the neck but only just. With the W760 load my SP OAL is 2.195", that's a 0.473 jump - how about that exactly the base diameter of a 30-06 case.  . An omen maybe???  regards JohnT | |||
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Hey JT, Here is the best I could do one my first day out with my new 300RCM:  Note- sorry for the bad picture, which I took with my cell phone camera (couldn’t find wife's digital camera)This was with the 180gr factory loads. I think I could have done a little better if I had a higher-power scope (I have a new 2-7x on it). To summarize my experience so far: it felt like a 30-06 (much like my Tikka T3 270 did before I put a limbsaver on it); it is much louder than either my 270 or my 375 H&H (or any other rifle I currently own). The trigger is not bad but not as good as my Tikka's or CZ's I just picked up a box of the 165 GMX bullets and plan to buy a pound of Rel 17. I'll let you know how it goes. -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | |||
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Hi Eric, That's good shooting. I have 2 boxes of factory 180gr SST's at my gunsmith supposedly. $81 a box - yikes! Please post your results with Re17 - we don't get that powder yet but eventually I think we'll get it as we get the rest of the Reloader range. regards JohnT | |||
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Hi JohnT, I could not pick up any Rel 17 yet, but I did have some H4350 on hand. Below is the best I achieved today, group-wise:  This is with 165gr GMX w/ Fed LRM primers and 59.8gr H4350. TTL was 2.090" and COL was 2.830" with a light crimp. A ten shot string gave an avg. of 2793fps with a SD of 15.04. 2793 is not too impressive, and I'd like the SD lower. The load was slightly compressed. It shot to the same point-of-aim as the 180 gr factory SST load, FWIW. The GMX bullets were a pain in the a$$ to seat consistently with my new RCBS dies. I'll update next week (or so) once I pick up the Rel 17.  -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | |||
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John T, that is indeed interesting about your to the lands distance. I really don't have issues loading back off the lands, but when I rebarrel, I do have the chamber cut so I can reach the lands and stay within the magazine.... TH, it looks like you are having some good accuracy there. I know you might not be interested in shooting the lighter bullet, but I would be curious if it shot any better in your rig. I was surprised how much better the 150's shot for me.....I've got a load now with the 140 gr TSX, which I actually do think is a little light, but damn it drills, 1/2" pretty steady so far, using either W 760 or IMR 4350. Keep us posted--Don | |||
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On the plus side, I'll say that the GMX bullets cleaned up much easier than the TSX bullets I have used in the past. Two passes with Wipe Out and the barrel was clean. TSXs usually take three to four passes. I'm in the "lead-free" zone here in California and will be hunting black bear this fall (in addition to mule deer). I'm hoping to develop a 165-180 gr tsx or gmx load for use. I'm certain the 150 TSXs will work, but I'd like a little heavier bullet. I can't wait for a little more published data. I'm going to spring for 165 gr TSXs I guess to see how they shoot compared to the GMXs. -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | |||
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Now that this issue has been put in perspective, one of the locals down there posted on this forum that your locale is the left-hand side of the Pacific. Considering your inverted posture, wouldn't that place you on the right-hand side of the Pacific? ________________________ "Every country has the government it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre | |||
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Good going Eric! I have another bunch of loads with W760 & the 168gr TTSX to try. Only difference is I'll be using Magnum Primers (Fed 215). You are doing much better accuracy wise than I am. Wouldn't worry too much about the velocity if you get an accurate load at that 2800fps. In a 24inch barrel that's around 2900fps. In my 300WSM although it's capable of 3150fps with the same bullet in a 24" barrel its accuracy node is at 3050fps. Anyway, you will see from my target that I have fired up to 62.5gr of H4350 with no pressure - (don't know the vel though, sorry). But accuracy was not stellar either. Also I was using WLR primers. On seating the GMX is the problem variances in OAL? If so that is most likely due to the compressed load and the forces pushing the bullet back up. Interesting comments re the cleaning. I use Wipe-out too but have only ever needed to use it once each outing. I do use MP7 to remove carbon first then use Wipeout & leave overnight. Patch it out then oil & put it away. Looks like you are going great with the 300RCM and I look forward to hearing which load you have settled on for most of your hunting. regards, JohnT | |||
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Got some Bad News(???) for all you folks buying RCMs and SAUMs, poor old rick jamison(aka 300Mag) DOES NOT get Royalties from the Firearm Manufacturers on them.  He only rips-off everyone buying WSMs.Best of luck with the RCMs and SAUMs.  | |||
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Ordered the Reloader 17 as there was none in the local shops. Also, I grabed some 165gr SST to compare to the GMX bullets. Horandy says that they have the same BC. The SST average 1.273" and the GMX average 1.425". The GMX's ranged from 1.421 to 1.427. I don't think the SST will compress the powder as much as the GMX did (obviously). I really wish I could still use Nosler Partitions here in California. I'm picking up 165 gr TSX next week. -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | |||
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BTW, does anyone know how the TSX's compare to the MRX's in length for comparable weights? Just thinking out loud. -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | |||
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G'day Eric, Got a chance to shoot my 300RCM again using W760 and Fed 215 primers. My final load which is 1.0gr above Hodgdon Max is doing 2835 with an ES of 18fps. Cannot see any pressure signs in the primers or being hard to extract. H-shows about 2950 as Max but in a 24inch barrel so I figure I'm there at 20". Will just play with the seating depths to see if I can reduce the horizontal dispersion.  Let me know if you find a powder that does better. H4350 is not bad & I have loaded up to 61.5gr with it & the 168T-TSX but problem is from 59.5 gr on they are all compressed loads. That is a pain in terms of getting uniform seating depths. regards, JohnT | |||
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Hey JohnT, Looks like you're getting there. I'm interested to see how the seating depth goes for you. My Reloader 17 should be tomorrow, so I'll have some data this Sunday for you. BTW, where do you hunt Sambar stag down there? -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | |||
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Rel 17 results: I used 165 gr tsx, with a COL of 2.815" and neither of the loads below felt compressed. 60.5gr Rel 17 averaged 2895 fps. 61.0gr Rel 17 averaged 2956 fps. In both cases, the groups were about 2 inches, which is not good enough for me. I have to think that the larger groups are due to the seating depth. Next week I'll try a few more but with a slightly longer COL. -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | |||
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Wow Eric, velocities are really up there with Re17. Hopefully, you will find accuracy somewhere in that velocity arena. Sambar are mainly hunted in the State of Victoria. I hunt them in the area around Mt. Hotham. They are in NSW as well but the smart buggers find refuge in the National Parks where no hunting is allowed at all. I'm sure there are some on private land but hard to get access. In terms of how much effort to get a stag let alone a good stag probably our toughest game animal. If you are interested in them see if you can borrow from the Library a book called "Secrets of the Sambar" by Errol Mason. Will teach you a lot. His website is worth a look too. Errol Mason regards, JohnT | |||
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Hey JohnT, I'll check that book out. I hope to hunt red stag in NZ within the next 5 years, so maybe I can swing over for Sambar too. On another note, I have found the tsx box I used to be pretty inconsistent, both in weight and in length. The bullets average 165gr +/- 0.5, and 1.303" +/-0.003. Just FYI. -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | |||
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Hi JohnT, I really like the Rel 17 now. It seems that grain-for-grain, Rel 17 buys you roughly an extra 100 fps over H4350 (plus a little room in the case) My last outing:  This was using 165 gr tsx, 60.0gr Rel 17, COL of 2.820" with a light crimp. This combo gave 2873 FPS (SD=8.5). The exact same load, but with a COL of 2.815" yields 2893 FPS (SD=9.6). The groups do better with a little fouling, BTW. Next we'll try 60.0gr again but with a COL of 2.825" -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | |||
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Eric, Going Good there! I see you have the same horizontal stringing that I get as well. As you are already seating at 2.815 not much room to seat deeper so that looks like a lost cause to getting rid of the horizontal. On mine & I presume yours too the inletting is real tight on the barrel and touches at many spots. I may have to consider free floating to get rid of that horizontal. regards JohnT | |||
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Yes, mine is the same. I'm going to pull the stock off this weekend and see what can be done about this. | |||
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Eric on bedding an RCM have a look at this post. Extraodinary lengths in bedding it so I am waiting for the actual test results of when he fires it. Pillar Bedding RCM regards, JohnT | |||
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WOW! That guy has his bedding process dialed in, doesn't he? That is way beyond my capability. I hope it works for him. I have the synthetic stock, btw. -eric " . . . a gun is better worn and with bloom off---So is a saddle---People too by God." -EH | |||
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In that case here is what an Aussie guy did. Not as pretty but obviously worked. Bedding M77 Plastic Stock regards JohnT | |||
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The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Rifles Medium Bore Rifles Anyone tried a 300 RCM (Ruger Compact Magnum) yet?
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