.300 Whisper ammo

[Pulmifinger]

Hi, guys. I'm new to the forum. Could anyone tell me where I can buy .300 Whisper ammo online.
Thanks:confused:

[versifier]

Welcome to the forum. One source is Midway. They have CorBon 150gr 300Whisper for 24.99 a box. But, aside from that being outrageously expensive, you can't begin to tap the cartridge's potential unless you handload it. 150's are too light for silhouettes, and don't have enough velocity for hunting except at very short ranges. You need much heavier bullets for knocking down metal targets, and between 110-130 for hunting with it.

[Daveb]

Welcome to the forum. One source is Midway. They have CorBon 150gr 300Whisper for 24.99 a box. But, aside from that being outrageously expensive, you can't begin to tap the cartridge's potential unless you handload it. 150's are too light for silhouettes, and don't have enough velocity for hunting except at very short ranges. You need much heavier bullets for knocking down metal targets, and between 110-130 for hunting with it.
Just wanted to let the new reloader know what I did about the .300 Whisper. I bought a 14 inch TC barrel but discovered the reloading dies were almost as much as the barrel. Did a little research and discovered that Lee makes RGB dies in 7.62X39 so I bought them and ground off about 1/4 inch of the sizer die. I left the depriming stem set to deprime the brass. I had a set of 7 mm TCU dies as well but discovered .243 dies would work too. Where I'm going with this is- I took 221 fireball cases, ran them through the 7 mm sizer die, then through the shorter 7.62 sizer which necked it up to .309. I checked for OAL and made sure they chambered in my barrel. I then fireformed them into .300 Whisper cases. I now have about 250 fireformed cases. I normally just have to necksize the brass when I reload it but if I need to full-length resize the case body, I run it through a .357 sizer die which brings the case body down to within a couple thousandths of the original case diameter. Its a bit more work but once I got the brass fireformed I only neck size and load them. I use 130 grain Sierra bullets in front of AAC 1680 powder ( I started from 18 grains and worked up from there.) I use CCI small pistol primers mostly and have not had any split necks or other signs of brass fatigue. If I do my part, the 100 yard groups are usually within 1 MOA. Muzzle velocity is about 1900 FPS with my load.
Anybody else out there have anything similar?

[versifier]

By God, Dave, we could all learn a lesson or two about improvising from you. Welcome to the forum for you, too. I will be going to work on the lathe this summer to make some .308x1.5 dies. That will be a simple cutoff and chamfering of regular .308 dies. The .30/223 will be a bit more of a challenge - I was thinking of just biting the bullet (pun intended) and buying a set of Whisper dies. Now it looks like the wimpy route! Dang! I hate it when people make me THINK. It looks like a case of time vs. money, but I am a Yankee. I think I will bore out a Lee .223 collet die and turn a new .309 mandrel for it. I should be able to ream and polish a set of Lee .223 RGB dies to .309, too. That seems like a workable compromise.

[Daveb]

Hey Versifier! Wondered how you came out on the 300 Whisper project. I haven't gotten to play with my T/C much for a while. Cowboy Levergun Silhouette matches got in the way. And the weather has kept me inside quite a bit lately!

[versifier]

I cheated. :) I bought a set of RCBS 30/223 dies and I had Lee make up custom FC die for it. The barrel likes Sierra 125 PH's and will keep 5shots in an inch or under @100yds with a red dot sight (the dot is larger than the paper target). Velocities are right around 2300fps. It also likes 110 RNSP's and will also keep them just about MOA. I tried some 150GK's, but the velocities were too low for me to want to hunt with them, even if the accuracy was acceptable (1.5"). I have barely begun to test cast bullets in it, and I have some Sierra 125FNHP's that I may try out in it, too.

Even with carbide bits, the .308 dies were much too hard for me to work them on my lathe. Luckily I had a friend who works in a machine shop and wanted to get some practice on the surface grinder. He successfully reduced the length of Lee FL sizer, collet, seater, and FC dies. While trying to remove the barrel from a m95 Mauser for the .308x1.5/.30BR, I overtightened the barrel vise and stripped one of the through bolts. I need to have it welded back together. :evil:

Don't buy a cheap Wheeler barrel vise like I did - their wooden bushing system sucks - I had to make new ones out of maple as the oak ones supplied with it crushed when I tightened the bolts down. The new maple ones worked great on several rifles until I tried to take apart the m95 and they are still good to go for a bunch more rifles. Even with lead and rosin, I could not get the vise tight enough to hold the old barrel without turning. I even chucked it in the lathe and made a relief cut. My next step is to use a plummer's pipe vice which will kill the old barrel, but it wasn't worth much anyway.

[Daveb]

Hey Versifier! Glad to see you followed through on the 300 whisper thing. I agree that bullet weights around 125-130 grains are best. I tried the heavier bullets but couldn't get them to shoot accurately or fast enough. You might try 20.0 grains of AAC 1680 with a standard W/W primer. I found this a darned good load for out to 150 yards. Be careful out there!