I went back and took a look at your opening post. NEVER and I repeat NEVER use any filler with AA 5744. This powder was designed not to be position sensitive so it shoots the same if the powder is up at the bullet or back next to the primer. Also, this powder burns "dirty". In may cases you will see in your bore what looks like power grains that did not burn. It did burn but was not consumed.
As for the 300 gr Hornady XTP. It is a good bullet and is constructed softer than their 350 gr FP. I have no experience with the 300 gr XTP at that low velocity. In my experience of what I have seen from two people that have used this bullet on deer as well as Sierra 300 gr HP they are running them a what is considered MAX Marlin rifle loads 2100ish fps with IMR 4198. You better put your big boy pants on before you pull the trigger. These bullet running at that speed put BIG holes with lots of internal destruction through the chest cavity of a deer or black bear.
If you are going to run the 300 gr 1500ish fps you need to be aware of the trajectory. With a 50 yard zero at 100 yards you will be about 4 inches low and at 125 yards about 8 inches low so knowing your EXACT yardage past about 80 yards becomes very important.
With my 418 gr lead slug with above mention load running 1400 fps I zero dead on at 100 yards which makes me 5 inches high at 50 yards so I have to hold a bit low. But it is easier to compensate at close range than at long range. With this load and zero at 200 yards I am 12 inches low.
I was just fooling around with this bullet on a few deer to see what it would do. I was doing crop damage control with a buddy on a HUGE NC farm where we took 100 deer off a year. You can bate and I knew exactly how far my shots would be and zeroed for that bate spot. Yes these slow big chunks of lead will plow through a bunch of stuff BUT they do not kill in the same manner as a JHP does. They poke a caliber or smaller size hole through and unless CNS or big bone is hit animals do run off a ways until the bleed out and die. This can be a pretty good distance. With JHP especially at higher velocity you get expansion which makes a bigger wound track that bleeds more and you also get a bit more shock to the animal and thus they bleed out quicker or the shock caused by hydrostatic effect can cause the animal to collapse and go down. Usually once an animal like a deer is off it's feet they don't get back up and if they do it takes enough time in the process that they bleed out and don't go very far.
I stopped using my Sharps 45-70 which mostly I used Black Powder with cast bullets for long range target to deer hunt with. Where I was hunting in NC if a deer ran out of the fields or paths between wooded or I should say swamp areas they were very hard to recover. I lost the last deer I shot with the cast slug because it ran into the swamp where I could not get to it. I was trying to put a high shoulder shot that would drop it but was shooting off hand at 50 yards and the doe deer moved forward at the instant that I tripped the trigger and the bullet missed the shoulder and went into the chest broad side and she ran into the swamp which was pretty full of water at the time. Just some food for thought.
As for the 300 gr Hornady XTP. It is a good bullet and is constructed softer than their 350 gr FP. I have no experience with the 300 gr XTP at that low velocity. In my experience of what I have seen from two people that have used this bullet on deer as well as Sierra 300 gr HP they are running them a what is considered MAX Marlin rifle loads 2100ish fps with IMR 4198. You better put your big boy pants on before you pull the trigger. These bullet running at that speed put BIG holes with lots of internal destruction through the chest cavity of a deer or black bear.
If you are going to run the 300 gr 1500ish fps you need to be aware of the trajectory. With a 50 yard zero at 100 yards you will be about 4 inches low and at 125 yards about 8 inches low so knowing your EXACT yardage past about 80 yards becomes very important.
With my 418 gr lead slug with above mention load running 1400 fps I zero dead on at 100 yards which makes me 5 inches high at 50 yards so I have to hold a bit low. But it is easier to compensate at close range than at long range. With this load and zero at 200 yards I am 12 inches low.
I was just fooling around with this bullet on a few deer to see what it would do. I was doing crop damage control with a buddy on a HUGE NC farm where we took 100 deer off a year. You can bate and I knew exactly how far my shots would be and zeroed for that bate spot. Yes these slow big chunks of lead will plow through a bunch of stuff BUT they do not kill in the same manner as a JHP does. They poke a caliber or smaller size hole through and unless CNS or big bone is hit animals do run off a ways until the bleed out and die. This can be a pretty good distance. With JHP especially at higher velocity you get expansion which makes a bigger wound track that bleeds more and you also get a bit more shock to the animal and thus they bleed out quicker or the shock caused by hydrostatic effect can cause the animal to collapse and go down. Usually once an animal like a deer is off it's feet they don't get back up and if they do it takes enough time in the process that they bleed out and don't go very far.
I stopped using my Sharps 45-70 which mostly I used Black Powder with cast bullets for long range target to deer hunt with. Where I was hunting in NC if a deer ran out of the fields or paths between wooded or I should say swamp areas they were very hard to recover. I lost the last deer I shot with the cast slug because it ran into the swamp where I could not get to it. I was trying to put a high shoulder shot that would drop it but was shooting off hand at 50 yards and the doe deer moved forward at the instant that I tripped the trigger and the bullet missed the shoulder and went into the chest broad side and she ran into the swamp which was pretty full of water at the time. Just some food for thought.
