Spent an interesting afternoon at the range with some fun rifles belonging to a friend.One was a Gene Simillion 300 Weatherby on a M70 Classic action,26" Krieger and McMillan stock;scope was a Swaro Z6,1.7-10X.

The other was a Rem CS 300 RUM that was not up to par as it came from the factory,and was reworked and rebarreled by a good accuracy smith located in Alberquerque,NM.Name escapes me.He squared everything up and installed a 26" Brux barrel.I was impressed with the new barrel and the work done on the rifle.

(I had along a pair of 270's).

We chronographed loads for both rifles and the 300 Weatherby settled in quickly giving great groups at 100 yards(usually 3 shots touching)with the 180 Nosler Partition and 180 Bitterroot at velocities of about 3170.Load was 82-RL25,Norma cases and Fed 215 primer.

Surprisingly to me the 300 RUM gave about the same velocity(3160-3170) with 91-RL25 and the 180 Trophy Bonded(old style),giving nice tight little clusters.Funny thing was that going to 92 and 93 gr produced no additional velocity to speak of,and accuracy went down hill,groups opened, etc.This particular rifle also demonstrated a strong preference for the 180 TBBC bullet over the 180 Swift Aframe, which surprised me.My friend has a very large supply of these old TBBC's and was anxious to make them shoot well,something the CS 300 did not do before rebarelling.

I don't know much about the 300 RUM,never having loaded for one,but notice the guys here that have them seem to have settled on 180 gr bullets at a bit under 3200,and a 165-168X's at a bit over 3200.I know these velocities pretty much duplicate what can be done with a 300 Weatherby,and would think that the 300 RUM is a bunch faster.

These are all hunting weight rifles in the 8 3/4-9 pound range,and I wonder if that has anything to do with the velocity level at which the 300 RUM produces its' best accuracy(?).

In any event both struck me as being fine LR big game rifles,and any difference between them may be pretty academic.

But Bob, what about the .270's? Did you try the Reloader 17 in them yet? Inquiring minds want to know.

Those are both pretty mild loads for the wby and rum. I'm thinking it's possible that neither have the normal freebore after the updates and had to be loaded milder perhaps??
I'm sure people are gonna chime in with guns that do 100-150 fps faster in both calibers. But there most likely isn't an animal around that will be able to tell the diff and with accuracy like that the hunt should be alot easier.

kraky, yes I know the simillion rifle seems not to have typical Weatherby free-bore.This occured to me as I watched the chronograph result.....but to expand on what you are saying,if a 180 gr 30 caliber bullet at 3170 can't get it done, things are unlikely to get much better at 3270...

I also thought the difference was academic so was happy to get a 300rum from a buddy that was afraid of his.
That the rem. has typical freebore I saw as a bonus.The price was right too.
Just over 3200 fps with 165 TSX is where I stopped.
The accuracy was a nice surprise also with 180 Scirocco,180 Speer Mag Tip,180 Accubond
That I have to load a little more powder to get the same speed as a 300 wby bothers me not at all.
I "needed" a new toy at the time ,reason enough for me.

3170fps w/ a 180 is very very mild in the RUM...

I have both and see about 125-150fps difference between them(Wby only has a 24"bbl though)

I run-
RUM-180NAB/Retumbo/3365fps
Wby-168TTSX/H4831 or MRP/3325fps

BTW-Both are factory barrels


Brett

i'm running 96.0 grains of rldr 22 under a 150 tsx, and am getting a bit over 3600 fps, out of a 26" tube.
not a max load either.

shoots great and recoil isn't that bad.

I shoot RL-25 in my 300 RUMs and get 3325 with 180 Accubonds. Get tiny groups too!! 163bc

Hi Bob,

I also have a hunting weight 300 RUM that weighs right at 9 lbs. It has a 27" fluted #5 lilja SS barrel.

In my experience the 300 Rum does surpass the 300 weatherby as it should with its larger case. My three friends that shoot the 300 weatherby cannot duplicate the performance of this RUM. I suppose the extra 1" of barrel helps.

I went back to my notes:

168 TSX 90 gr RL-22 3540 fps

180 accubond 88 gr of RL-22 3380

Then I discovered RL-25

168 TSX 94 gr RL-25 3565 definately a winter load

150 E-tip 97 gr RL-25 3785 (was curious) Shot well in warm weather but got wormy when it dropped into the low 40s.

current load: 200 gr accubond 91 gr RL-25 3200 fps

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I killed two cow elk with the 180 accubond at 250 and 375 yds
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Took two more cows at 200-250 yds with the 168 TSX.
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Took a cow at 490yds in a brisk crosswind with the 168 TSX. Had a huge drift but hit dead center in the uppper shoulder DRT
After that I ran out of the TSXs and decided to go with the best BC hunting bullet the 200 accubond.

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I really like the RUM brass. When I partially FL resize it doesn't take much effort to push it into the die.

AZ: Yes I know the 300RUM is a faster cartridge;it holds more powder.Yesterday he increased loads with RL 25 and is now up in the mid 3200's with the 180.The Brux barrel is 26" and nicely accurate.With all that capacity the thing seems to go over 3200 very easily.