300 PRC
The Italian Job
Conquers Extreme Shot Italia II, 2000m
300PRC conquered the 2000meter Extreme Shot Italia II competition we held in Italy this September, wow what a show that was! Have you heard of the 300PRC developed by Hornady? We had but did not given it as much attention since we have already been running the 300Norma Mag to the mile very successfully. There was a lot of interest in this Italian ELR competition with about 40,000 online viewers watching our Extreme Shot facebook page content during the month of September! Needless to say, I was already awaiting to see what cartridges the competitors would be bringing to this first Italia ELR competition at 2000m.
Eventually I met a team that I dubbed,il mago del 300PRC translated would mean, the wizard with the 300PRC seen below with Fausto Massolo, Beretta Brand Manager Italy handing him this lovely Burris ELR scope Burris XTR III 5.5-30×56. It seems it pays dividends to shoot a 300PRC! Clearly his Fclass training at high levels and superb communication with his spotter paid off. Let’s delve into this more closely.
Today’s article will zoom in on the 300PRC and what it can do in the right hands of the spotter and shooter. I’m a big fan of fast ‘F1’ like cartridges myself and for the last 4 years or so have been following very closely many of these new developments and even having solidsolutiondesigns.com chamber me a barrel in these cartridges like the
or 300Lapua mag. Today’s article will highlight what we saw at Extreme Shot Italia II, 2000m and what we learned from this sharing some takeaways with our audiences here.
Thanks to all above Sponsors for supporting us during this competition with amazing prizes, you are all stars!❗
300 PRC – The Italian Job
I was happy to see my friends from Northern Italy when I arrived in Sicily for Extreme Shot Italia II. These guys had done over a day of driving crossing the longest country in Europe. I drove to Tuscany for Coldshoot Italy in March and it took some 16hours drive from Sicily. These guys had done the reverse. I know they are very keen competitive shooters which I had met at NRA Bisley for the European Fclass championships so I was curious to see what they had brought with them. Like them, others drove in from France, Belgium, UK and even Lithuania!! We were in awe when this blonde dude Vladis turned up from Lithuania at the 2000m firing line. We had some very interesting teams, some with professional military background and other with an extensive line of competition shooting in France which probably has the largest ELR shooting community in Europe.
What is a 300 PRC?
Hornady states that “The 300 PRC is an intelligently crafted 21st century magnum cartridge specifically designed to take advantage of long, heavy for caliber bullets capable of delivering the highest levels of accuracy and aerodynamic performance.
Based on the 375 Ruger cartridge case, the 300 PRC is non-belted and uses a standard .532” magnum bolt face and headspaces off the 30 degree shoulder. This results in better chamber alignment than standard belted magnum cartridges and allows for improved stacking and feeding from fixed magazines.
The 300 PRC cartridge and chamber were designed concurrently combining to provide excellent alignment and highly tuned performance. The cartridge case is designed to use common, temperature stable, magnum speed rifle powders producing extremely consistent velocity and increased barrel life compared to currently available magnum cartridges.”
300 PRC ammo
300PRC Ballistics for 2km shots!
All competitors that I am aware of that came to this shoot had their own handloaded ammo. Some shooters go to extreme lengths to ensure their ammo is as consistent as possible. Hornady offers 300PRC Ammo but for the purposes of this write up we shall be sticking to handloads.
The first thing I asked Fabrizio was, how fast are you running your pills? He said 970m/s with 230 Atips that’s with 86gr of N570 Vihtavuori propellant out of a 31″ barrel (Disclaimer: This is not a standard load so work up safely in your own rifle using 300PRC approved guidelines). That is some 300NM territory there given my shooting buddy runs his bergers at similar numbers from his 300 Norma Mag rifle with 29″ pipe. To achieve this, they have a long 31″ barrel and they have done some extensive testing to ensure they have low SDs. Maurizio, his spotter and gunsmith told me that he uses virgin brass prepped up for competition. Some shooters online had reported that you cannot run the Hornady Atips very fast because they ‘blow up’ however these guys are running them at 3182ft/s and they did not loose one bullet over 102 fired rounds in competition between them as well as the others fired during the 2 days training sessions. That’s good news for those wanting to run the Hornady Atips 230gr.
Interestingly, another competitor from France whom I follow closely came with a 300Norma Mag with a 250Grain molly coated Hornady atip and reported amazing accuracy. These are guys that I know will test and check their stuff before going on with it so if it works for them, the homework has been done already. With a BC of 0.414 G7 BC, the 230gr Atips packs a very nice punch with 10MOA of winddrift at 2000m in a 10mph (4m/s) crosswind 90degrees to the bullet flight at its full value component.
| Calculated Table | ||||||||||
| Range | Drop | Drop | Windage | Windage | Velocity | Mach | Energy | Time | Lead | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (m) | (mil) | (MOA) | (mil) | (MOA) | (m/sec) | (none) | (ft•lbs) | (s) | (mil) | (MOA) |
| 0 | *** | *** | *** | *** | 970.1 | 2.789 | 5172.7 | 0.000 | *** | *** |
| 100 | -0.0 | -0.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 930.7 | 2.675 | 4760.6 | 0.105 | 4.7 | 16.2 |
| 200 | -0.2 | -0.8 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 892.4 | 2.565 | 4376.7 | 0.215 | 4.8 | 16.5 |
| 300 | -0.7 | -2.4 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 855.1 | 2.458 | 4019.0 | 0.329 | 4.9 | 16.9 |
| 400 | -1.3 | -4.4 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 818.9 | 2.354 | 3685.4 | 0.449 | 5.0 | 17.2 |
| 500 | -1.9 | -6.6 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 783.5 | 2.252 | 3374.3 | 0.574 | 5.1 | 17.6 |
| 600 | -2.6 | -9.0 | 0.6 | 2.2 | 749.1 | 2.153 | 3084.3 | 0.704 | 5.2 | 18.0 |
| 700 | -3.4 | -11.6 | 0.8 | 2.6 | 715.5 | 2.057 | 2814.0 | 0.841 | 5.4 | 18.5 |
| 800 | -4.2 | -14.3 | 0.9 | 3.1 | 682.8 | 1.963 | 2562.4 | 0.984 | 5.5 | 18.9 |
| 900 | -5.0 | -17.2 | 1.0 | 3.5 | 650.9 | 1.871 | 2328.6 | 1.134 | 5.6 | 19.4 |
| 1000 | -5.9 | -20.4 | 1.2 | 4.0 | 619.9 | 1.782 | 2112.1 | 1.291 | 5.8 | 19.8 |
| 1100 | -6.9 | -23.8 | 1.3 | 4.5 | 589.8 | 1.695 | 1912.0 | 1.457 | 5.9 | 20.4 |
| 1200 | -8.0 | -27.4 | 1.5 | 5.0 | 560.7 | 1.612 | 1727.8 | 1.631 | 6.1 | 20.9 |
| 1300 | -9.1 | -31.3 | 1.6 | 5.6 | 532.6 | 1.531 | 1559.0 | 1.814 | 6.2 | 21.4 |
| 1400 | -10.3 | -35.5 | 1.8 | 6.2 | 505.6 | 1.453 | 1405.2 | 2.007 | 6.4 | 22.0 |
| 1500 | -11.6 | -40.0 | 2.0 | 6.8 | 479.9 | 1.379 | 1265.7 | 2.210 | 6.6 | 22.6 |
| 1600 | -13.0 | -44.8 | 2.2 | 7.4 | 455.5 | 1.309 | 1140.3 | 2.424 | 6.8 | 23.3 |
| 1700 | -14.6 | -50.1 | 2.4 | 8.1 | 432.5 | 1.243 | 1028.3 | 2.649 | 7.0 | 24.0 |
| 1800 | -16.2 | -55.7 | 2.6 | 8.8 | 411.2 | 1.182 | 929.3 | 2.887 | 7.2 | 24.6 |
| 1900 | -18.0 | -61.9 | 2.8 | 9.5 | 391.6 | 1.126 | 843.0 | 3.136 | 7.4 | 25.4 |
| 2000 | -19.9 | -68.5 | 3.0 | 10.3 | 374.0 | 1.075 | 768.7 | 3.398 | 7.6 | 26.1 |
300 PRC rifles
Maurizio’s Winning rifle specs
Riflesmith: Little Boy Rifles (Italy)
Zero compromise optic zc 5-27×56
Base & rings: zero compromise optic model BM 6 mil
Cant indicator: Long Range Arms send iT digitale
Action Bat Machine model M 1.550″
Barrel: Lothar Walter
caliber 300 PRC at 31″
MB Terminator T4 plus McMillan A6-7 Super magnum stock
Trigger Bix’n Andy
Bipod Fortmeier
Brass: Lapua Polvere N570
Bullets: Hornady A-tip match 230
Total weight 11.9 kg.
300PRC advantages
There maybe many advantages to different calibers and 30 cal magnums. In my view, one of the most advantageous points of running a 30cal magnum is that you have ample bullet choice, barrels in Europe are always in stock even through house holds European barrel manufacturers which means that you can get a barrel spun up in a short time but more importantly, the possibility to PRACTICE and get to know your rifle and load without worrying too much about the barrel wear that comes with ultra high performance cartridges.
The 300PRC uses less powder than the 338Lapua, shoots a lighter bullet and consequently recoils less that these conventional options. That means as a shooter, you are able to spot your round impacts easily because there is less movement especially if you are not a very experienced shooter. You will be loading 76-86gr of powder compared to 85-90gr with the 300Norma/ 338LM and 115gr with the 33XC. (up to +47% more powder,189rounds VS 130 rounds loaded for every 1kg of powder purchased!)
This is not 308Win so no one is expecting thousands of rounds but if your barrel gives you 1000-1500 rounds of competition standard barrel life with some of these 15 rounds strings we do, that’s plenty to get you to train and compete. You will get to know your load, experiment with it in various weather conditions, take some serious notes, attend a few training classes with your rifle and ammo as well as being able to purchase ammo components in advance for at least a full year of shooting. Some of the other calibers like the 338LM will be even more forgiving and we’ve seen some very nice 338Lapua magnums on the line with 32Inch barrels shooting in the upper 800m/s range.
How far can a 300 PRC shoot? 2KMs and he’s still on it!
So the million dollar question, how far can a 300PRC shoot? For the purposes of this answer, I am referring to a 70x80cm target at 2000meters/ There is no better way to answer this question than watching Italian Fabrizio Giuggia behind his 300PRC together with his great spotter Maurizio at 2000meters. You may watch other shooter’s string of fire by visiting Extreme Shot Italia II page. For the purposes of this round, the shooters had 2 sighters then their official 5 round string. Notice how Fabrizio also nails his sighter at 2000m with his 300PRC. (cannot convert sighter).
Spotter Shooter communications for ELR
I cannot stress how important the spotter is to your success at ELR shooting. The wind calls that he will give you as well as other tips can make or break your string. Here is one such example- Italo-Belgian shooter Steve Giannone who managed to steer his way back up to 3rd place with legionnaire spotter Roman Ochaba from France. Listen to Roman as he guides Steve through the basics and then some more.
300 Norma Mag
Should you still be hooked on running the 300Norma Mag as we have been doing for the last 3 years, I suggest you take a look at our 300 NM extensive articles that show how truly useful this cartridge is. Below you can see the 300NM loaded with extra long Hornady Atips 250gr next to the 33XC loaded with 300gr Berger.
33 XC
Are you keen on the 33XC? So are we. We have built 2 33XCs for competition and written extensively about it. Learn all about the 33XC in these articles we published.
