In spite of the preferance for US shooters for 150 to 180 gr bullets in the '06 and 30 cal mags, most for these rounds do not reach their full potential unless a 220 gr bullet is loaded. The sectional density at this weight is .331, right there with the 400 gr 416s and the 500 gr 458s. On the small bore side, there is the 160 gr 6.5MM, at .328. Needless to say, this is fine company when penetration with consistent expansion is the order of the day.

With this in mind, I used the Nosler Reloading Manual, 5th ED., to work up loads in my 300 WSM with 220 gr Hornadys in place of the 220 semi-spitzer nosler partition to keep the cost down. Just as in the manual it is easy to top 2700 fps in a 24 inch bbl with no less than 4 powders without exceeding Max.

For fun and education, I next worked up some reduced loads using AA 5744 with the idea being to roughly determine a safe MAX load. In the end, I was surprised to find that you can start at 37.0 grs and 2210 fps and work up to 43.0 grs and 2490 fps. Due to the light powder charge, this max load has 20% less recoil than the '06 at the same velocity and plus or minus 12 fps velocity variation. Accuracy is under 0.50 MOA.

This appears to be a very useful hunting load and amounts to a "mini-416" in the velocity and penetration department. No, its not for cross canyon shots at Elk, but in the woods and out to 300 yards it tracks with the venerable '06 for moose and Elk and is great for eastern woods hunting when there is undergrowth and you really want that venison with one shot on bad angles.

If you like the recoil level of the 270, and you want to take something big under adverse conditions, check this out in your own 300 WSM. My guess is that you can do the same thing with a 300 Win Mag with about 3 more grains of 5744.

How would your load do on targets at 600 and 1000 yards?