Thanks pphreed, I plan on trying RL-17 - I have about a half a pound of it.

Hawhee, I would like to see the laod data for the Barnes Bullets. As for the Accubonds, I've shot 3 elk with the 165's (shot one twice) and have not recovered a bullet yet. They seem to poke right through, with decent terminal performance. One was 315 yards high sholder shot - knocked him down, then put another through the ribs when he tried to get up. Another was 200 yards through the lower ribs, right behind the shoulder crease. He didn't even kick. The third was last day raghorn frustration shot in the middle ribs at 30 yards. I got to see how he reacted really well, given that he was so close - he moved one front leg once, briefly and was DRT. So far, I've shot 2 elk with a 280 Rem and 6 with the 300WSM. Never shot through one with the 280 (I traded it) and have never failed to shoot through one with the 300WSM (even one at 525 yards). I shot a decent whitetail last year with my 300WSM 165g elk loads - in the ribcage and he ran about 40 yards and piled up. I'm switching back to ballistic tips for deer.

I made the switch to 180's this year because the ballistics tend to match up with the reticle on my new Zeiss scope a little better than the 165's. I tend toward using "enough bulet" and "enough velocity", favoring accuracy and precision over surplus energy - from what I've seen, I have enough terminal performance - I just want to make it easier to hit things I want to hit.

Here's what my rig looks like- but it has a 4-14 Zeiss on it now...
[img width=600 height=449]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h28/elkbane/NewRifle003.jpg[/img]
Elkbane