300 Norma Improved

[rogina]

Yes. I have them instock. $1100 shipped. Comes w nitride, mechanical ejector, trigger hanger, dual pinned recoil lug, 20 moa rail w 2 anti shear pins and four 8-40 screws. pm me if you want one.

Thanks, I have just started to think about this project. I will have a few other questions later.

 

[rpierce]

Had a badass adventure down in New Mexico with Jemuel Montoya, Kenny, and Hammer with Southwest Outfitters. They run a first class operation and treat you like family. I will definitely be going on some more adventures with them in the future. My wife Jodi, brother in law Lj, friend Blake and I drove down there along with Jodis uncle Bob. Customer Ron Milby was down there as well with his 300 Norma improved I built him along with another customer, Alberto Ruiz, with his 6.5x47 I built him. Jodi shot her bull at 280 yds right through the heart with my 300 Norma magnum improved. Perfect shot in a less than ideal shooting position. Im so proud of you babe. As we were running up to it the bull staggered up to its feet. As it was starting to get behind some brush I sent a round into it that landed a little high but put it down. Kneeling and shooting fast at 250 yds wasn't the most stable position lol. Upon getting up there and gutting it we realized I didn't need to put one in it as the heart was destroyed. It would have been dead in another minute or two and not gotten up had we not started running up to it and making noise. I smoked my cow at 515 yds through the heart with the 300. She went about 20 yds and flipped over. As we were walking over to it we saw one at 588 yds. I quickly threw the gun down and dialed the scope and Blake got on it quick and sent one right through the heart. Absolutely perfect shot under pressure and being rushed. It went about 20 yds and flipped over. The next morning Leo shot his cow right through the heart at 385 yds. Went 20 yds and flipped over. The 300 hit the heart on every one of our elk. After getting Leo’s cow was taken care of we got word that Ron had shot his cow at 958 yds with his 300 Norma improved. It went a short ways down hill and expired. We ended up seeing probably over 1500 elk in the valley. The last night we saw a beautiful mule deer as well. The next morning I got to go on a hunt with Alberto Ruiz and his 6.5x47 I built him. Saw plenty of elk but couldn’t seal the deal. I went back to camp and right as we had gotten everything packed up Jemuel, Kenny and Alberto came rolling into camp with a nice cow Alberto shot and dropped at 500 yds with the 6.5x47 and 130 gr AR hybrids. Great shooting to everyone on the trip. It was Jodi's, Lj's, Blakes, and Alberto's first elk theyve ever shot. Thank you Jemuel and everyone for making it an amazing experience for all of us. Thank you Miguel for everything as well.

Side Note:The 230 berger performed flawlessly. Opening up without having to hit bone first. All shots were right at the crease of the shoulder. Went in and made the vitals into soup.

 

[CBlack]

Nicely done. Where in NM were you?

 

[rpierce]

Nicely done. Where in NM were you?

thank you. Directly south of Antonito Colorado.

 

[snakepit]

Looks like a great hunt for everyone involved. Thanks for the great pictures and your detailed description of the hunt itself.

 

[rpierce]

Looks like a great hunt for everyone involved. Thanks for the great pictures and your detailed description of the hunt itself.

No problem. It was an awesome experience.

 

[rpierce]

FYI: I have a pile of Bordens new bigfoot lapua bolt face actions and manners eh1 stocks that will be here in any day. Theres another shipment of Borden actions coming in a couple months as well. Ill be building rifles on them and also selling the actions, barrels, stocks etc to whoever wants them to take to their local rifle builder to assemble.

 

[284winner]

Ryan,
Do you still use Curtis bottom metal and mags for your rifles ?

 

[Earnhardt]

What is the COAL off your “standard” 300 NMI load?
Thanks

 

[rpierce]

Ryan,
Do you still use Curtis bottom metal and mags for your rifles ?

I use APA bottom metal for the most part with accurate mags.

 

[rpierce]

What is the COAL off your “standard” 300 NMI load?
Thanks

That depends on which bullet is being used. I have several different reamers now depending on what bullet is going to be used.

 

[rpierce]

Haven't had time to post it on here but I spun up a 338 Norma Improved for myself. I did it in a heavy setup as I plan on taking it to a couple matches next year. The load I settled on for this rifle is a pretty mild one with this 32" barrel. 88 gr of h1000 is pushing a 300 gr berger at a mild 2850. Didn't see pressure until 3000 fps. With N570 I didn't see pressure until 3100 fps. However this load of h1000 has a SD of 6.5 fps for 61 shots on the labradar. Its also only getting like .003 throat erosion every 100 rounds. Barrel will last a very long time with this load.

Info on groups in post.
First 3 shots down the rifle measured .247"@100 yds. Random Starting load.
3 shot 100 yd group measured .153"@100 with h1000 load
580 yd group measured 1.145"/.188 moa at 580 yds. Had .502"/.082moa vertical.
1000 yd group measured 3.708" with 2.502" vertical.
Second 1000 yd group on steel measured 4.988".

Rifle has the following components:
Surgeon 1581 XLR Evolution HD chassis with a sick paint job by Grant Gillespie at Viking Armament
Cadex Defense Bipod
Brux 32" 9.3 tw with 1.350 shank
Aaron Hipp tuner Self timing 5 port "Muscle" brake with 3/4x24 threads
Triggertech Diamond Trigger set at 8 oz and timed to action
Tangent Theta 5-25 GEN3XR scope bedded into a set of NF rings
Long Range Arms level

 

[rpierce]

So I got some new 300 Norma Improved dies in from Bullet Central and decided to try them out on a brand new instock rifle with my new longer freebore reamer and a 26" barrel. I grabbed a pound of N570 off the shelf. I grabbed some brass that has been fired atleast 5 times. Just deprimed it, annealed it, trimmed it and ran a brush through the neck. Used imperial lube and ran it through the new die. I started out at 86 gr of N570 with 245 bergers. I did the powder charge test at 100 yds since it was too late in the day to go set my target camera and targets up at 580 yds. This was the first shots down the rifle. I didn't hit pressure until 93.5 gr of n570 which was 3127 fps. I had a slight ejector mark and a slight bolt click. I figured this was about max. I noticed there was a node 2 gr below max at 91.5 gr. 91-92 gr had an ES of 10 fps and was 3065 fps average. So I loaded the last 4 rounds up at 91.5 gr. Went out this morning and setup on my 580 yd steel plate. Had a little bit of a left to right wind. First shot went over the plate so I came down a minute and shot the next 3 shots into probably the tightest group Ive ever shot at 580 yds. It was on steel so I couldn't get an exact measurement of the group but it appeared that they all hit the same exact spot. When I got down there I couldn't differentiate any shots on the gray splat on the plate. 3065 fps with a 245 grain berger and its 2 grains under pressure. Punch the numbers in on that combo and its a straight up freight train.

Rifle has the following components:
Kelbly Atlas
Manners EH1
Proof carbon with 1.250 shank
Titanium self timing 5 port "Muscle" brake
Hawkins BDL with wyatts box
Triggertech Primary
Nightforce NX8 F2 4-32 MOA bedded and leveled into a set of 6 screw NF rings with NF level cap.

Rifle weighs 10 lbs 1 oz with optics.
I was able to spot hits no problem while shooting off the bipod with the scope at 26x. 245 grain @3065 fps

 

[Yote Hunter]

Good shooting Ryan! What twist barrel are you using with the 245 gr Berger’s?

 

[rhovee]

I’ll be curious how it ends up once broken in. On a green barrel you can cram some serious powder in them.

 

[rpierce]

Good shooting Ryan! What twist barrel are you using with the 245 gr Berger’s?

9.0 tw

 

[rpierce]

Check out the awesome 600 yd groups a customer sent me while fireforming brass with hydro formed brass for his 300 Norma improved. He was testing different charges of Retumbo with 230 a tips. Awesome shooting.

I’m offering hydro forming as a service for customers now also. Blows the shoulder forward and out without wasting Bullets. Your first firing will sharpen the shoulder up to final dimensions.

 

[rpierce]

Just a heads up to customers. Recent batches of Lapua 300 NORMA brass have thicker necks than previous lots. Loaded neck diameters are .002-.0025 thicker than before. I have an IDOD neck turner that will be here very soon. If your loaded neck diameters are .339-.340 send brass thats fired and NOT sized. Itll only need turned once and 100 pieces of brass will last several barrels so its not a big deal. Itll be fairly cheap and a very quick turnaround. Get ahold of me for more info.

 

[RallyFan]

Does anyone know the case capacity of the 300NMI..?

thanks,

 

[rhovee]

Depends which version. But 109 ish