Peterson Cartridge Co. of Pittsburgh, PA announced it is producing .300 Win Mag casings in two versions. Peterson makes the traditional SAAMI spec’d version that headspaces off the belt, but it also makes a version that headspaces off the shoulder. Peterson calls that version the .300 Win Mag- Long.
Shooters that reload .300 Win Mag casings have often wished they could get more reloads from their casings. Well now you can!
Derek Peterson, president of Peterson Cartridge explains, “Traditional .300 Win Mag casings tend to show signs of case head separation after only 5 to 7 firings.
“Here’s why. The SAAMI specs for any caliber, list a minimum and a maximum tolerance for each dimension on the casing and the rifle’s chamber. With most calibers, the max dimension of the casing, for length-to-shoulder (L-T-S), has the shoulder of the casing right up against the chamber wall. With .300 Win Mag, unlike most other calibers, if your rifle’s chamber is cut to the SAAMI minimum for L-T-S, and your casing is at the max length-to-shoulder dimension, the casing shoulder is still .0095” away from the chamber wall. With the same minimum rifle chamber, a casing at nominal L-T-S is .012” away from the chamber wall. In a worst-case scenario, if the casing was produced at the SAAMI minimum L-T-S, and the chamber was cut at the maximum L-T-S dimension, the casing shoulder could be up to .026” away from the chamber wall. That might not sound like a lot, but it is.
“That large gap is what causes the casing to stretch so much when it is fired. It’s that stretching that causes premature case head separation.”
Peterson continued, “With Peterson .300 Win Mag- Long casings, we make them with a longer L-T-S dimension. All the other dimensions are SAAMI spec. But the longer L-T-S prevents the casing from stretching excessively on the 1st firing. The casing has more support, which translates to less stretching, which translates to longer case life.”
Peterson concluded, “If you are a handloader, that wants more reloads from your .300 Win Mag casings, we think you will appreciate our new .300 Win Mag - Long casings. I’d like it if you’d give them a try and let us know what you think.”
