300 Win Mag...Do I need one?

C

CDR_Glock

New member
I live on the East Coast. My range reaches out to 250 yards. The biggest thing we have to hunt is a white tail deer.

My good friend wants to sell me his 300 Win Mag. It's zeroed at 300 Meters.

What use would I have with it in he East Coast? I always planned to hunt in the Northwest but one circumstance or another comes up, and I can never make it.


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You don't need a .300 Win Mag for anything in the lower 48 states. I have one. I bought it because the dealer had sold the 7mm Rem Mag I wanted. I've taken two 5x5 elk and a black bear with it. If I ever go elk hunting again I'm taking my .270 Win. Oh, I eventually got the 7mm Rem Mag and have never hunted with it and never will. This is not a slam on either the 7mm Rem Mag or the .300 Win Mag -- it is just an opinion based on well over 40 years of experience. A .270 is about as close to perfect as one can get when it comes to a deer rifle.
 
300 win mag is on my short list for my next gun. I believe it to be a legitimate 1,000 yard....1 mile gun in the right platform. Bullet choice is exceptional and the case holds loads of powder.

Hummmm?
 
If you want one you need one.

You should not buy it is you can't afford it or if you have to take money from responsibilities to pay for toys.

If that's not the case you need one.


I make flintlocks to earn about 85% of my living.

Need.........what the heck is that?
 
Guy I used to work with wanted and needed to have a 300 win Mag rifle, so he bought it. Fun to watch him shooting that rifle, as he simply couldn't handle the kick. He would literally twist and turn and stuff foam over his shoulder. Hardly could keep shots on paper. But he would insist all 10 shots had gone through the single hole. We bought him an under-bra-strap recoil pad just to tease him.

Quietly he sold his rifle after not shooting it for a while. I didn't think we had pushed him over the cliff. The ammo bill did.

Have you shot one before you are sure you need / want one?

-TL
 
At 250 yards a 308 does everything a 300 WM does with about 1/2 the recoil. There isn't enough difference in trajectory to matter at that range and no animal will ever no the difference in energy.

Where the 300 mags start to show an improvement over non-magnum rounds is on elk size game at ranges over 500 yards. Almost all common non-magnum rounds have more than enough to get the job done out to at least 400-500 yards.

It isn't how fast the bullet leaves the muzzle that matters, it is how fast they impact game, and how deep they penetrate that matters. Todays high BC bullets fired from non-magnum rounds may leave the muzzle 300 fps slower than a magnum round. But because they retain speed much better at distance the difference down range isn't that much greater compared to the magnums shooting old school bullets.

With hunters finding that high BC bullets in 260 and 6.5 Creedmoor are capable of taking elk at 500-600 yards I no longer see the need to put up with 30 ft lbs of recoil when rifles with 12-15 ft lbs of recoil will do the same job.

FWIW, I've owned multiple 300 mags over the years, still have one. I'll probably never hunt with it again.
 
I used to like shooting the big boomers but age and infirmity has cooled that desire. I've kept a 7mm Rem mag and a 300 Win mag and sold the rest.
At the ranges and for the purposes listed, there's no "need" for a 300WM.
 
Anytime I hear or read the word "need" when it comes to firearms I just want to puke. "Need has nothing to do with it. I live on the east coast within an hour of the beach and I have a 338 LM. Do I need it? Hell yea! :D
 
I shoot regularly with 338 Lapua & 300 win.. For the longer shots over 400yds they get the job done, especially if the wind is blowning, DRT. I shoot these calibers suppressed which takes most of the recoil and noise out. Also shoot with dial up scopes to eliminate ridiculous Bubba holdover frustration. If you want it get it.:rolleyes:The same cast of characters on this forum always bash the bigger calibers for deer because the ammo is too much $ or they put to big a hole in the animal. I doubt they have ever hunted where shots over 400yds were available. I would rather have overkill than underacheivment.:eek:But they must know what they are talking about because they have posted thousands of times?:confused::rolleyes:
 
You don't need a .300 Win Mag for anything in North America, including big bears. You don't need a magnum of any kind for anything in North America. 'Magnumitis' is the result of one of the best marketing campaigns in history. Worse than the 'one hole group' illness.
Mind you, if you want one. And the price is right, make, model and condition the rifle mattering, go buy the thing. "I want one." is reason enough. Needing one doesn't enter into it.
"...It's zeroed at 300 Meters..." Doesn't matter. It's not sighted in for you.
 
For hunting, I have a Kimber 7mm-08, Sako Tikka 308, Thompson Center 50 cal muzzle loader, Ruger 10/22 and Savage 22 WMR.
Click to expand...

With what you have the east coast is covered so I would say no, you don't "need" it. Now the question is do you want it? I always wanted one when I was younger and finally sold an excellent 30-06 to finance it. At the time there was no doubt in my mind that I made the right choice. I shot that 300 Win Mag for over 15 years as my primary big game rifle, mostly on elk but I did take some blacktail and muley bucks with it too. A few years ago I finally had to admit to myself that the recoil from rifle was just to much for me anymore and sold it. I replaced it with a few rifles, a 243 for blacktail hunting, a 6.5-284 for all deer and as a lightweight elk rifle, and a 7 WSM for elk. Did I 'need' three rifles to replace one, heck no but I sure wanted all of them!
 
Looking at your collection it might be a good gun if you ever get the chance to go west. For your area probably no but if you like it and the price is right go for it. Ask the guy if you can go out and shoot it with him. Then you will have an answer.
 
Just get an '06 and that will do for anything. SuperPerformace powder allows the old 30-06 to equal the .300 WM's regular loadings. And yes, the same powder in the .300 makes it even faster but still the old '06 will take 'em way past 300 yards if you can shoot.

Deaf
 
No, you do not need a 300 Win Mag, your current rifles are fine.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't buy a rifle in 300 Win Mag if the price is right and you want the rifle.

Jimro
 
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