Gang I stumbled on what is promising to be a good Deer load for the 300WSM as follows:
Win virgin brass
71.0 grains RL19
140 grain Barnes XBT (moly coated)*
CCI 250 mag primers
COL 2.780" which in this chamber is .095" off.
Results were 5 into .812" but three of those were into .177".
This particular rifle is a Win M70 blued with the laminated stock. It wears a Kahles Helia CB 3-12x56 Illum.Ret. *Both the barrel and the Barnes were moly coated with the KG Systems products. Sorry but this string didnt register through my Chrony...I guess the sun was too low in the sky. I'll post the mv later after additional testing. BTW this load is 1.5 grains under Max in the Barnes #3 so as usual dont start there but work up to it. I say I stumbled on this because my seater was set up for seating the Horn 165 grain SSTs to the rifiling in my Encore and as I was running out of shooting light I didnt take the time to re-adjust...Just thought what the hell who knows with these Barnes anyway..It would have taken me a long time and a lot of components to get to .095" off of the rifiling. Knowing how I like to piddle though I will probably still mess with the depth a little more and maybe try the FEd 215Ms. Try to pull in those other two wayward sons.....

Dave:

I've just recently read somewhere that X bullets often shoot better way off the lands. Maybe that's why I couldn't get them to consistently shoot in my .375??? I'm so used to keeping things fairly tight...always trying to get a little extra room for powder!!

Curious...how was the copper fouling? I had to clean my rifle after each group or they would open noticably with the Barnes. First group would be 1.25", next 2.5"...

Tim

Tarbe, I looked it over real close last night. I'm not seeing any copper yet but I only have about ten rounds through. Coating the barrel and the bullet really seems to make a difference. I wont shoot the x anymore without coating it. Ive tried the XLCs and it seems to take quite a few of them before the groups settle down...I guess the barrel gets an even coat of the blue stuff after about 10 or so rounds.

Tried this load again last weekend. No fluke it will easily put three inside .5" @ 100yds. Still havent chronoed it. I also tried it with WLR primers and it opened the group up to 3". I was always told that primers would not make that much of a difference. Thought the copper might be building up so I fired three more with the CCI 250Ms and got a nice little clover leaf.
DLJ