Was given a snit ton of 300 win mag . 700 rds and I had to have a gun for it . now have a Ruger M77 hawkeye african

It'll kill anything in North America, however if you want to hunt musk ox or bear in Alaska on a guided hunt they will require you to use a bigger caliber.

The 300 mag is a great round. A bit much much for whitetail deer. Excellent long distance round.

It's kind of a .30-06 on steroids.    They generally love 180 - 200 gr pills.

Recoil is manageable - but you are not going to want to sit at a bench and bang away a box or 2 of shells.  I developed a hell of a good flinch shooting mine too much when I was young.   I'm careful not to shoot it at a bench anymore than I need to now.  


I try to keep mine sighted in 3" or so high at 100.  Makes it point blank out to 300 ish.  My gun likes 200 gr. nosler partitions FWIW.  I tend to prefer slightly heavier bullets with slightly less velocity.  I shoot a  winchester model 70 classic stainless (well, my son-in-law is using it now.  He's taken an elk with it almost every year for the last 5 or 6 years)

Really needs a 26" ( or longer) barrel to take best advantage of the large powder capacity.......
A Vais brake really tames recoil but damn!!!they are loud!

Loaded with heavy for caliber, high BC bullets it will very nearly equal the performance of the 338LM. Berger Bullets: 300WM vs 338LM

There is also a hunter thats posts under the name Broz that uses it exclusively to hunt with outstanding results.[ul][/ul]

Broz 230 OTM terminal results

It will push a 163grn 30 cal AP bullet about 3200fps...


Yeah that extra 400fps does make a difference.    Projectiles still sharp after passing through a 1 1/4 inch mild steel plate at 80-100 yards that a 3006 couldnt put them through.

Who is "they"? Iirc, my friend went on a brown bear hunt last fall , the guide asked him to bring his 300wm instead of his 460.

Op, the 300wm is a great all around round. Pigs to beers and moose it will do it all. Some stock designs are better than others at helping to manage recoil.

Enjoy!

Killed antelope just as well as elk for me.

What any cartridge will do, including the 300 Win Mag, depends a whole lot on the bullet.

Most common seems to be a 180 grain load.  This normally has a typical muzzle velocity somewhere in the 2900 to 3000 fps range.  In comparison, the normal 30-06 180 load does about 2750, give or take.  Given that the 180 30-06 load is capable of taking any game on the continent, the 300 win mag is just more so....

At nearly 3000 fps, many regular old school cup and core bullets can be pretty stressed out at short range impacts on hard bone.  These old school loads, like a Rem Corelokt, Win Powerpoint, etc are fine for most applications and likely excel on deer and such.  Much over expansion sometimes leads to  under penetration on big stuff like moose.  For bigger game, the impact speeds the 300 WM is capable make a premium, deeper penetrator a good idea.   TTSX, Accubond, Interbond, Partition come to mind.

if any of those loads are stuffed with anything like a ballistic tip, especially in something like a 150 or 165, or any other fairly fragile bullet, DONT use the 300 Win Mag on anything big.  Those bullets will be well in excess of 3000 fps muzzle velocities, and will open EXPLOSIVELY, with relatively shallow wounds.  They'd limey be fantastic on something like coyote, as long as you don't want the pelt.....

You can do near anything you want to with that cartridge.  Just be sure to match the bullet contraction to the game...

To me its the perfect elk caliber where shots will be longer(450 to 500 yards).  Works well on anything and yeah its more than you need for deer, but use a tough bullet and its not going to mangle them any worse than a 270,06 or 308.  For moose or big black bear its very good but shots on those animals tend to be up close and personal and something like a 308 or 06 will work just as well.  For big bear it wouldn't be ideal but I don't think any bear is not going to die from a 200 grain partition through its lungs.

Agree I have a 300 wsm, which with factory ammo is basically the same thing.  Wouldn't use the 150 grain ballistic tip type bullets on anything bigger than small deer.  The 180 cup and cores are around 2950 fps from my gun.  Thats the upper limit on those bullets at close range.  I think I would use a premium bullet on anything over 300 lb's or use a 200 cup and core.  I did take a decent pa black bear with my 300 wsm 180 grain cup and core federal bullet broke both shoulders and exited with about a 50 cent piece hole, which tells me it held together well, shot was only around 30 yards so bullet was likely at 2900 fps.

Oh now you have done it.  You've outed yourself as a fool.  Everyone on arfcom 'knows' that longer barrels are meaningless. <img src=http://www.ar15.com/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>

To the OP, everything I have ever killed was with cheap ass Winchester super-x ammo for a .270 Winchester.  People will armchair this shit all day long, but the bottom line is unless you are hunting something really serious like a larger bear, shooting <500 yards, etc, the .300WM with any loading you find will kill the shit out of anything in NA. 

I have an early 90's vintage Browning A-Bolt Stainless Stalker in .300 Win Mag that is the only center fire rifle in my collection that I never once thought of selling.

My brother spent 2 months way up north welding stainless steel at a camp and the guides up there required 375 or larger. You'll find that larger calibers and shots shorter than 100 yards is becoming a standard amoung guides in Alaska.

Hunting in any kind of timber and a 100 yd shot is a long shot.  About the only time I've ever really had to shoot any further than that is antelope on the flat lands, even then we were able to get to within 200 yds without much effort on our part.

That is simply incorrect.

In fact one very well known and extremely well respected guide/outfitter (who is very well known for getting clients onto big bears) recommends the 30-06 and similar class cartridges. This is due to years of experience watching greenhorns show up with .338/.375 mags etc, that they can't shoot worth a damn due to the recoil.

300 Remington Ultra Mag for the win!

-- Only because I have one, and want others to share in the overpriced ammo to make it more popular and available. And I guess because power 1 is 30-06, power II is 300 wim mag, and power III is full power kill everything and whats behind it. And you don't need to change your zero switching between the power levels at distances under 300 yards.

HA HA HA I read that thread.  gotta get that bullet out as fast as possible! To hell with muzzle velocities!!!

Ive hunted for years with a .300 H&H Mag.  I load a 200grn Partition over RL22 and get 2880 out of it it will kill an elk at 454 yards and go straight through a small mulie at 20. 

Nice looking animals there sir.  

Great looking elk?  Was that taken in unit 34 in NM?  Looks familiar.