.300 win "MAG" thoughts

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kd7sgm

New member
The magnum bashing is getting old. I have a legitimate question in the works and I am sure there will be swift retribution for it. I do not understand why everyone is down on "magnum" rifles ? if a .300 win mag was just called a .300 winchester would that make it better. Another enigma to me is why someone would be completely head over heels for the 30-06........I see angels rising from my desk as I type those numbers, and discount the 300 wm as over kill ? They are the same caliber, the 06 is around 200 fps slower has around 300 ft lbs less energy not that big of a deal. It can not be a matter of recoil, because the difference is again, not that big of a deal, 20.9 vs 24.3 pounds of felt recoil. I choose a .300 wm over a 30-06 every single time when I need a 30 caliber because the 300 has 20" less drop at 500 yards than the 06. If you like the 30-06, that is great, but do not think that magnum rifle owners are in-experienced, lunatic newbees attempting to compensate for inferior marksmanship, shot placement and or anatomical endowments. I do not advocate a new shooter starting out with a 300wm or a 30-06 for that matter, but it is a very capable cartridge deserving of more respect than it gets.
 
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I got my first rifle, a 7mm WBY Mag, in 1970. The Mag craze was full throttle in those days. 40 years later, I like the 260 best. I've still got a 7mm Mag, but it mostly gathers dust. Funny what a bulging cervical disc does to your recoil tolerance. Mostly 300 yards is the longest poke available for me, so the standards work fine.
 
I'm a magnum fan. I also own a .30-06 and a .270. The 7mm rem Mag I used last year on a black tail deer left it looking like it was hit by a car
 
I'm a 300 Win Mag fan also since the early 70's. I love to hand load for it. It's my go to for large game. I've taken Mule deer, Elk, Moose, Bison, Bear, and Caribou with the 300 Win Mag.

I also shoot an .06; Specifically a 25.06 for Deer, Antelope etc. Between these 2 calibers, I can hunt any North American big game animal with confidence.

So many people jump onto the "over kill" ship when referring to the use of the .300 win. They havn't a clue about what they say. LOL Dead is Dead. We are not hunting with JDAMS.

The second group of nay sayers is the recoil is to heavy. What it is; is anticipated flinch and poor form while shooting at the range. *This can be corrected by the shooter. When hunting you shoot an Elk etc. you don't feel the recoil at all.:)

Just my .02 cents and it still can't get you a cup o'joe

* unless there is a physical/health problem in play . In the early 80's my step dad had a heart transplant. Which changed things shooting for him.
 
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If I ever hunted anything bigger than whitetail deer, the 300 mag is the caliber I'd probably buy. But, I might also consider a few non-belted calibers, one of which would be the 30-06 AI. For what I hunt, pigs and small Texas whitetails, I expect that the 300 Mag is a bit more than I need (note that I didn't use the word "overkill").
 
I didn't know that anyone was bashing the .330 WM. It's a fine cartridge as far as I can tell. Some of our warriors, I understand, are putting it to great use.

I see that the OP lives in Idaho, so he can probably see further than I in these pine thickets in central Louisiana. Here, 200 yards is a long shot. Indeed, from my deer stand I can only see a measured 242 yards. Anything further than that is over the hill, under cover, might as well not even exist. I understand that nit everyone lives with those limitations.

That said, my newbie neighbor bought a .300WM as his first rifle. It is a beauty, someone put a whole lot of time in it, heavy barrel, laminate stock, bedded, floated. It's a doozy, built on a Rem 700 action. He asked me if I'd teach him to shoot it and I said fine, wait till Saturday afternoon and I"ll go to the range with you. He couldn't wait till Saturday, took it out on Thursday and when he fired it the first time, the scope came back and broke his nose. When I saw him that afternoon, his nose was swelled up like a cantaloupe and he said that the rifle didn't seem to be accurate, but that broken nose might have induced a flinch.

but do not think that magnum rifle owners are in-experienced, lunatic newbees
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However, I have been told that the .300WM is the very minimum acceptable caliber for the 150 lb deer we have in these parts. A fellow at the gun shop told me that last year. "Yeah," he says, "I used to shoot'em with a .30-06, but they didn't seem to drop. That's why I want this Three-hunnerd-Magnum".

Still, if you like it, can shoot it, enjoy using it, then have at it. I'll stick with my old outdated calibers and have a ball.
 
If you haven't noticed in all the years you've been on the planet, shooters are an opinionated, closed minded set, in general. Even the smallest things, for example, a 6 mm bullet vs a 7 mm bullet at practically equal velocities will trigger statements that one is woefully inadequate, and the other is overkill, and in the meantime, every other statement will be off topic, irrelevant, or factually challenged.

Elmer keith liked the .375 H&H as an elk rifle, and also liked the .458 as an elk rifle when in timber. He despised the 270, and thought that it shouldn't be used on anything bigger than a prairie rat. He would have been the first man in line to buy the new .700 nitro express (even though, to my knowledge, he never owned a .600.) This man who hunted everything on the planet wouldn't have used a 7 mm magnum as a tent pole, and wouldn't have used a 300 for anything bigger than a dik dik.

Magnums have a place and a purpose. Some people insist that they stretch those general guidelines. Others refuse to use magnums when they would be the appropriate choice. Neither approach is right, but you're going to hear people screaming like chimps over the issue until we all move on to particle beam weapons.
 
Brian that is a great outlook on this topic. Will there be Magnum variants of the particle beam weapons as well. Jeff Cooper had very similar thoughts on Caliber as Mr. Keith's. I used to get upset at they way he would bash the 9mm for the 45 acp but he kept me buying magazines.
 
If one truly wants overkill, I've got a buddy who had an unused Savage long action and mated it with a .416 Rigby barrel.

I asked him what he was going to do with it. He said "shoot refrigerators."
 
I bought a Ruger Hawkeye in 7mm magnum on what some would call a whim upon learning that I was going to have the chance for some big game hunting in Montana. I would have gone with the same rifle in .300 Win Mag had it been avaible, but I was on a time and budget crunch.

That being said, the trip never materialized, and aside from three rounds to confirm my zero, the rifle is still gathering dust in the safe.

I also have .30-06 that has been fired a whopping total of five times by me to set up it's point of impact. It was bought to help a friend.

My go to dear rifle for south Georgia where I hunt is a Mini-14. Never needed anything more, even though I use the Winchester Supreme black box stuff just for insurance.

However, I have never begrudged nor been begrudged for having a magnum rifle. I like having it, it's accurate, it's got a solid heft, it looks like a rifle should, and hell, maybe one day I will get to bag a Moose with it.

And that is the cool thing about shooting and America, I can have a rifle for a hunting trip I may never go on and no one can say squat about it.
 
Being a magnum enthusiast, I own and reload for 300WBY,340WBY, and have owned and reloaded for 7Rmag, and 300 WM in the past.

The WBY mags maybe over powered for southern white tails, but up here in Big Sky, I believe that these magnums allows conscientious shots on game that you might have to pass on with a 308 or such. The big honking mags allow quartering shots at 300 yds+ that I would be hesitant to take with a normal cartridge.

I say if you can take the recoil and shoot them accurately and consistantly
, then it's a viable hunting tool that allows you to expand your capabilities considerably.
 
I don't have that big of a problem with someone bashing my 300 WM as I know from experience what it is capable of. It's the people who bash me for owning it that I take exception to.
 
I'm not a fan of belted magnums.
I'm not a fan of using more powder than necessary to get the job done.
I'm not a fan of having to use a 26" barrel so i can burn all the powder stuffed in the case when an 18"-20" barrel with a "puny" caliber will kill the animal just as well...

In short, I wouldn't hunt with any of the magnums available today if you gave one to me and bought the ammo.

If I can't kill it with a .308 or .30/06, I'll use my .45/70... If I can't kill it with a .45/70, I don't need to be hunting it.

Nothing personal, just my opinion on the subject.
 
The WBY mags maybe over powered for southern white tails, but up here in Big Sky, I believe that these magnums allows conscientious shots on game that you might have to pass on with a 308 or such. The big honking mags allow quartering shots at 300 yds+ that I would be hesitant to take with a normal cartridge.
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This is exactly what magnums are for. a 180 grain 30-06 bullet would do anything out to 300 yards on a modestly sized deer. Trajectory does NOT suck, as many are going to say, and frankly, if you can't or won't learn your trajectory tables and take some effort to learn the windage and other correction, fine. get the magnum. It is NOT necessary in the case of a deer the size of a goat.

I never advocate underpowered hunting. I'd rather see someone using a howitzer than something barely adequate, because hunting is NOT predictable, and nothing is more irresponsible than letting a wounded animal die slowly because of a personal belief that failure ain't gonna happen.

I do, however, find the use of a magnum when it is unnecessary, or other overgun situations to be just plain ridiculous. A 45-70 for deer is normal, as is a 30-06, but unless you are shooting at extended ranges, a 300 ultra mag is just plain ridicoulous, as would a .340 weatherby.

Just my opinion, and I have no intent to change it, just because there are thousands of people who think I'm wrong.
 
I'm sort of the opinion that a 308 or 7-08 will do 90% of what anyone needs to do. I grew up with the 30-06, have owned one for close to 40 years, but am coming around to the idea that if the 2 above won't do the job, then I really need something a lot more powerful than my 30-06.

I've owned and tried a few 300 mags and 7mm mags. They have a place, but I've never cared for them. Not because of recoil, but mainly because of the much larger,longer heavier guns they were chambered in.

I've been interested in the WSM rounds ever since they were introduced. Never would buy one mainly because of the very high ammo costs before I started reloading. Reloading now and I came upon a steal on a used stainless Winchester Classic a few months ago in 300 WSM. It has changed my feelings on magnum rounds. It is not that the WSM is any faster than the belted 300 Win mag, but it's the package it comes in.

This rifle is the same size, length, and weight as my 308. The more efficient WSM rounds burn less powder to get equal velocity. This means they work better in shorter barrels and will recoil less. I'm getting 400-500 fps more velocity than a 308, with only slightly more recoil than a 30-06. In a light handy package. By reloading I can, and will, download to 308 velocities to get even less recoil for most of my hunting. I can use full power loads when necessary. Haven't hunted with it yet, but I'm beginning to believe this may be the best of both worlds.
 
I have owned a 7mm and 300mag, but i'm a big 270 fan. It will do anything i need here in OK.
I bought the other two mags cause everybody said they kicked so hard, i was really dissapointed.
 
I can understand the idea of shooting an animal through the backside would call for a powerful round. I myself have and use a .300 and a .264 win mag. But because i live in an area with a lot of hunting that i dont have to pay for i have become picky about my shots and dont like to clean stomach contents out of an animal. If i were spending lots of money for the hunt of a lifetime, i would not hesitate to bum shoot a trophy and I would use a magnum.
 
If you like the 300 Mag you shouldnt worry what everyone else thinks. in the terrain i hunt in it would just be a waste of powder,but if you hunted in a Desert, or huge Agricultural Fields where you can see 1000 yards in any direction it would be worth having. JMO
 
I have a 308 Norma Mag, about the same as a 300 win mag. It doesn't have as much felt recoil as my 30-06. I suspect that is because of slower burning powder. Whatever, it is less recoil to me.

To top it off, it is a tack driver accurate rifle. I can afford the wee bit or extra powder it burns.

I don't begrudge anyone his favorite rifle/round. Just don't begrudge my difference in preferences. Shooters ought not to be so judgemental. :)
 
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