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307 Win. Load
Ray2008
Member Posts: 21 ✭✭
I got a great price on a 307 Win. is in super condition. I have been buying all the new brass and ammo I can for years. I need a good load for this gun now. The bullet will be 150 gr. Thanks
Comments
W.D.
From my notes, attributed to another source:
"The .307 Winchester is based on a rimmed version of the .308 Winchester case. Internally, the .307 has thicker case walls than the .308. It is a fine cartridge and brings .300 Savage performance to rifles with a tubular magazine like the Winchester 94 and Marlin 336.
Winchester factory loads originally offered a 150 grain bullet at 2760 fps for medium size big game, and a 180 grain bullet at 2510 fps for large game. These figures were developed in a 24" test barrel.
The 150 grain bullet has been discontinued by Winchester, leaving only the 180 grain load. This starts a Power-Point bullet at 2510 fps with 2519 ft. lbs. of muzzle energy. At 100 yards the velocity is 2179 fps and the energy is 1898 ft. lbs. At 200 yards the remaining velocity is 1874 fps and the energy is 1404 ft. lbs. At 300 yards the velocity has fallen to 1599 fps and the energy to 1022 ft. lbs.
The handloader has a little more flexibility than the hunter who must rely on factory loads. Any bullet suitable for the .30-30 may also be used in the .307 Win. Generally these are bullets of 110, 120-130, 150, and 170 grains.
The best choice for the deer, antelope, sheep, and goat hunter is probably a 150 grain bullet like the Speer Hot-Cor Flat-Soft Point. This bullet has a ballistic coefficient (BC) of .268, one of the best in its class. The Speer Reloading Manual No. 13 is perhaps more conservative than the old Winchester factory load, but still shows loads launching this bullet at a muzzle velocity of 2313 fps using 37.0 grains of IMR 3031, or 2598 fps using 41.0 grains of IMR 3031. It is worth noting that these Speer loads used Winchester cases and CCI primers, and were chronographed in the 20" barrel of an actual Model 94 rifle."
From Hodgdon:
.307 Winchester
"There once was a time when the Winchester Model 94 and Marlin Model 336 were used by more eastern deer and bear hunters than any other rifle. During those innocent days, a large number of those hunters would have mortgaged the old homeplace to buy a Model 94 or Model 336 chambered for a cartridge with the performance of the great .300 Savage. The .30-30 Ackley Improved came close to what they wanted, but few hunters who used those handy little carbines were handloaders.
In 1982, U.S. Repeating Arms responded to the demand by introducing the Model 94 Angle Eject in .307 Winchester. Unfortunately, it came about two decades too late. Most of the hunters who had yearned for such a cartridge were either no longer with us, had switched to bolt actions, pumps, and autoloaders, or perhaps had taken up golf. Marlin also announced the availability of the Model 336 in this chambering but, except for a few experimental rifles none were ever built. This makes the Model 94 the only factory rifle ever available in .307 Winchester.
All of this is sad indeed since the .307 Winchester may be the finest woods cartridge ever available to American hunters who prefer the old classic lever actions. Recoil is tolerable, accuracy in the Model 94 is quite good, and its velocity makes the .307 a dead ringer for the .300 Savage. Exactly what so many hunters asked for.
Olin engineers who developed the .307 recommended that only flat nose bullets be used in handloads. For this reason, the various 170 grain bullets made for the .30-30 Winchester are preferred for all around use in this cartridge. A number of powders are quite suitable for the .307 Winchester, but the handloader can do no better than stick with H335, W-748, or IMR-4064."
Source: Hodgdon Data Manual, 26th Edition
This is data available from the Hornady website specifying the newer FTX soft pointed bullet:
http://www.hornady.com/assets/files/ftx_load_data/307_win_ftx.pdf
All of the gunpowder manufacturers provide a good selection of loads for this cartridges. Your performance will vary from every other shooter so specific loads are unnecessary. General guidelines will get you started in the right direction. Load development is half the fun of starting with a new cartridge.
My notes from several years ago state that IMR-3031 and Accurate 2495 provided the best accuracy with velocity performance shooting the Sierra SPFN. However, as with my 30/30 Win., the 170 gr. bullets provided the best accuracy overall, albeit at a lesser velocity. This has been true in several rifles and single-shot pistols but your findings may be different.
Enjoy the process!
Best.
It uses the same specs as the 30-30 Win. What kind of powder do you have, or want to use? There's lots of info in Lees second edition of Modern Reloading.
W.D.
I think it's more along the lines of the .308 It's a rimmed .308 case.
What kind of rifle is it? That will really determine if you want to go as hot as a .308. For the time being I would use starting loads for the .308, drop a grain or two and work up from there.
The basic premise of this round was to give .308 power out of a lever action rifle. The thinking when this came out was that you couldn't use a rimless case in a tube-mag lever gun. Well, the knowledgable ones in various R&D dept's came up with a way to feed rimless cases in a levergun. So, the .307 Win is somewhat obsolete in that sense. (nothing is ever obsolete as long as it has some usefulness)
My Speer no. 11 loading manual gives 38 gr. of H4895 to start with a 150 and 40 gr. of IMR4064 for a 150.
What you have for powder and bullets would help us narrow down a starting point for you.
You can also check www.reloadersnest.com for loads for the .307 Win.
Edit:
I need to impress the point that these were made for tube-feeders. As such they require a flat nose or soft tipped bullet so that during recoil a bullet won't set the case in front of it off!
The limitations of the round lie with the action. Although beefed up to handle higher pressures, it would be prudent to not go all the way to the .308's quite lofty levels. Keeping pressures to the 300 Savage's still respectable performance levels will insure long life for the brass and the gun.