300 WSM advice

Hey everyone, you guys here have helped me with just about every decision when it comes to building my first rifle, a savage 16, now I'm looking to get into reloading and need some advice as to where to start.

Just a little background, I am going to get the Lee 50th anniversary kit with RCBS 300WSM dies and case length trimmer, so equipment is covered all I need help with is loads.

Any loads you guys have worked on would be helpful, I'm looking to start with Winchester brass, primer's is still a throw up, but its between CCI LR primers and federal 210 primers. Powder I'm going to go with Reloader 17, and rounds I'm going with Hornady 208gr. AMAX and Nosler 180gr. E-Tips. What do you guys think?

Unless the WSM is on a long action I might not spend a lot of reloading time with the 208 Amax. It is a very good bullet but it is also a very long bullet and after you seat it so that it will fit in your magazine you don't have a lot of powder space left. That in turn limits your choices of powder. Course if you shoot them single shot then that is another matter.

Reloader 17 worked well for me in the 300WSM but H4350 did better. One factory loading that has worked very well in four 300WSM's I have shot them in is the 165gr Federal Fusion. Great accuracy and at 3100fps from a 24" barrel it is a great performer at long ranges. Never used the Nosler E-Tips but all of the Berger's I loaded with shot extremely well.

I've been told that the 208 AMAX will do fine in a short action, since Alpha magazines have an OAL of 2.95" its enough room to seat the 208 well, so I'm not worried about that. are you referring to the berger tsx?

Since your rifle is a model 16 I am assuming that you will be loading for hunting and not for benchrest shooting. If that is indeed the case, I had excellent luck with the following load in my model 16. Win brass, WLRM primer, max load of Win WXR powder and a 180 gr Nosler Partition bullet. 3000+ FPS and under 1". That will kill anything in North America.
Charlie

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately, since i live in California, I need to use lead free bullets, hence the nosler E-Tips, that might be a good load for everything else. This rifle is going to be used for hunting as well as target shooting (It's a bit of a heavy rifle, but I have no problems since I have been lugging around a 15lbs rifle for hunting before getting this one).