Good to see someone on this thread who actually owns, and shoots, a 300 Wby.-
I've had mine since the mid-'90's, and used it for about everything you could imagine. It now sits in a McMillan Edge stock, and with scope and rings, tips the scale at 8 lb. 15 oz.
Recoil with this stock, and its Pachmayr Decellerator pad, is very manageable.
My current 165 gr. Barnes TSX handloads go out the barrel at a chronoed 3390 fps, as does factory ammo- zeroed at 300 yds., it is a hair over 2.5" at 100, and 8" low at 400 yards.
That's the prime reason I own and shoot the 300 Wby- it's darn flat, and very accurate to boot.
I've only taken one game animal with a .300 Winchester- that was a Spanish Ibex at an even 250 yards. Almost any rifle and caliber would have worked- but if that Ibex had been out at, say, 350 yards, I would have greatly preferred to have had my Weatherby in hand.
The area I was hunting in had very strict rules about shooting- two misses and your hunt was over. A wounded Ibex, not recovered, game over. And we're talking about a very expensive game animal.
I understand that a lot of fast .30's, like the Wby, UM's, Lazzeronis, etc. see use for the really big sheep, like the Marco Polo and Argali, in Mongolia and the 'stan' countries. Flat trajectory at long distance is likely the primary factor for their use.
