Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting .325 WSM. The good and bad??

Nice selection you got there, Jeff.

I need to pick up another Kimber 1911 one of these days...

You need a real German Mauser Timmy.

Yeah, that too!

Kliengunther?

Why not?

Fire Hawk,

My safe has 2 sides a devider in the middle of it one side long guns and the other side shelves for the wifes stuff.... My side is starting to get full. Thinken the wife will need to move her stuff soon.... So I can take the shelves out and make it a true 100% gun safe!! She will not be happey......

Would like to have one my self!!!!

I don't elk hunt myself, but saw the 325 wsm post and thought I'd share my experience with one. I sometimes really hate this site, I bought the scope on this rifle from a member here at an absolute steal even though I had no use for it. So then I had to buy a rifle from a member here so the scope had a home. RMEF Winchester 325 CRPF with S&B 3x12x50 Zenith.



I have only shot factory loads, 180 gr ballistic silvertips, in this rifle and it is a pussycat to shoot. Ammo is kind of expensive so I have not shot 5 round groups with it, just 3 round. I have never shot a single group over 1" , normal is .7-.8 inches at 100 yards, I'm fairly sure I would exceed 1" by a small amount if I fired 5 round groups. The factory 180 gr ballistic silvertips would make a fine varmint round, but are rather explosive on whitetail. In my case I don't care about meat loss using it to reduce an outrageously large overpopulation of deer at my house, I want them to go down fast so I don't have to track accross neighboring properties.
To give you an idea what this bullet does, here are a few pictures of the last deer I shot with it, live weight of deer was 105 lbs.
Yellow highlights the only spot cut with a knife, other than that the leg was 100% severed.


Entrance side behind the leg


Exit, bruised the deer down 2/3'rds the body.


Once I finally run out of all the factory ammo I purchased when I got the rifle, I will reload for it with something a whole lot less explosive.

Use the 7Mag!

Buy the shotgun for the twins. That's a MUCH more practical solution, and you definitely don't need more than a big 7 for elk. Those 160 AB's or a good TSX will do all you ever need done on elk.

Buy the shotgun - if you get the 325 you will make the rest of us jeoulous, and that ain't right.

Frontal area is an important factor in killing game, and if you have a 7mm then the 300 isn't really enough more gun to make a difference, but the step up to a 8mm is more significant.

Holy Snikeys Karl. Note to self "Never use Ballistic Tips in the 325 WSM for deer" Way too messy. Accubonds and TSX come to mind as a good option though. Hmmmmm, how can I figure this out? I NEED that gun;>)

Never confuse needs with wants.

I picked up an A-Bolt in .325WSM and really enjoy shooting it. The recoil is not too bad in the fairly light rifle and the A-Bolt shoots quite well with the Accubond and TSX loads I have tried in it. I have not hunted with it yet but plan on trying it out on some deer in the next six weeks. I will probably stick with my 7mmRM if I go after elk again in the near future.

Notropolis, why are you going to stick with your 7mm RM for elk?

Firehawk,

I just bought my son an 870 youth in 20 guage. I figure I will get more enjoyment out of it than a new rifle for myself.

I do have a Kimber MT, in 300WSM, and have no regrets. The 300WSM is a great round, that I can reload and produce similar results to factory. It is my understanding that you would not be able to do this with the RCM's. They use a Hornady proprietary powder to get the performance. I would stay away from that one, untill I could make sure that I could load something on my own that would at least match the performance that I purchased the rifle for. I'd bet the same holds true for the .325's.

I do think that it is funny that guys will say that "the .300 WSM isn't much more than the 7MM Rem Mag", and that "the .325 WSM isn't much more than the .300 WSM" but still won't hunt dangerous game with a 300 but would use a 325, so I guess that is what it all boils down to. The hunting community is filled with conflicting opinions that are both correct!

The .325 seems like such a more "single purpose round" than so many others out there. (Boy, is that gonna git me in hot water here or what?) The 7mm is still a great deer rifle, as is a 300, but the .325 is a bit much for deer. The BC's available for some of the 7mm boolits are amazing. I have friends that have taken a lot of elk with their 7mm's. If you like the round, and have everything to load with, I think I would tend to stick with it, but then again the 7mmWSM is pretty cool, and just out shoot my buddies, and spend the money on stuff for your kids and that new barrel.

BTW, I am in a quandry as to which caliber to buy a rifle in for my 11 year old son. It would be for deer, and he will really want to hunt elk with me. I am thinking .270, or 7mm-08. I do not think it would be a good idea for him to go out into the field during Elk season with a .243. He is a tall and lankey kid, but really strong for his age. Two questions here, one being possibly more rhetorical (sp.). How do you like the 7mm-08? and Why will we send our kids out with a .270 or something similar for elk, and yet we feel we need a "more bigger-better rifle for ourselves"?

Good luck,

5Points

5 Points. I built (or my gunsmith did) that 7mm-08 from an old Win 70 Westerner that was chambered for 243 Win. I bought the rifle used at a pawnshop, played around with the 243 a little bit, then turned it into a 7mm-08 with a Schillen barrel cut to 22". I love that gun. Is it perfect? No. Ideally, it would have a short action bolt, but this one is the regular length. But....the recoil is light, accuracy has been very good and I just like it alot. I have a buddy that hunts with a Model 7 in 7mm-08. He is from Iowa and was really surprised to hear that I had a rifle in the same caliber.

Anyway, I watched him anchor a spike bull elk last fall with one shot from his 7mm-08 and 140 TSX handloads. He is a large man. Probably 6'2" or so and strong. He has never said he wished he had a bigger gun.

So....I love my little 7mm-08 for target shooting, teaching my wife to shoot, practicing myself (same rifle essentially as my big 7) and I know my kids will like it too. I have killed three deer with it and look forward to doing it again. Ideally, I built it so that my wife would have a potent rifle for hunting without the punishment of recoil. She just hasn't wanted to go kill anything so I have pretty well adopted it. She does enjoy shooting it though.

I want something with a larger frontal diameter so that I have a better chance of getting a blood trail from a large bull if needed. I shot a cow last year that had NO blood trail, although the bullet performed perfectly and did its job well, I don't know if I would have found her if there wasn't fresh snow on the ground. That experience has me thinking that I want a larger caliber for more possibility of blood trail if needed.

Firehawk

This is from my BLR in 325 WSM.

61.0 grs. of IMR 4007 SSC, 220 Gr. Sierra Gameking, WLR primer velocity 2616 FPS.

My Kimber Montana 325 WSM, Note the spiffy Schmaltz TI bolt knob:




how it shoots at 100yds with 4 different loads including a factory:






A couple years back I bang flopped a Whitetail at 347yds, my longest ever on a deer.

Yea, I like it a lot..............................DJ

here is a 2 shot 100yd group with my 325wsm.... The 2nd shot was not needed at all <g>......

STA---how that's my kind of load developement testing...

Dober

dj,
thats some dam good shooting! What are you shooting in her now? 200gr tsx?