Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 7Mag vs 300Mag

Which is better? Besides diameter is there much difference?

thoughts on these two questions or other thoughts?

Kique

I prefer the .300 Weatherby or Win. Either will generally shoot a 165 at 3200 or so. A little over 3200 in the Weatherby. And recoil is not that much worse to me than a 7mm or .30-06 in a reasonable weight rifle (although I had a NULA .300, which was a little unpleasant, but that may have been stock fit).

I`m Glad you dont have that nasty old NULA 300 Win. anymore !

300 win mag is better for larger game. 200gr at 2950fps is possible. 7mm rem mag may be a better deer rifle for open country, 140gr at 3200fps sure kills them dead. I have both so at my house there is no vs

In general terms, more or less the truth, but also, in general terms, what one will do, so will the other, given the right bullet selection in either.

The 7mm does handle bullets below the lightest generally used in the 300 & conversely, the 300 handles heavier bullets than the heaviest generally used in the 7mm.

MM

I think the 300 is more versatile because the 165gr shoot as flat as the 140gr from a 7mm and the 200gr bullet from a 300 just plain hits hard and penetrates deep on elk. You can go 180gr and shoot pretty flat and hit hard.

If you don't need the rifle to play dual roles on deer and bigger game all of the time, the 7mm Rem Mag gives you great performance on deer in open country and at less cost. It can also work on elk with bullet weights in the 160gr and 175gr class. However, when it gets to the 175gr bullet, its almost no different than shooting a 30-06 with 180gr bullets.

To compare one of each with about the same amount of case capacity there isn't much difference. To make it easy, compare the 280 Rem to the 30-06. Both are great rounds but the 30-06 won't do much more than the 280 would do. I wouldn't necessarily compare a 7mm Rem Mag to a 300 Win Mag as I believe the 300 Win has a little more case capacity but maybe a 7 WSM to a 300 WSM would be more fair. Which ever you would choose the cut off for hunting IMO would be just short of the great bears. I think most would agree that more bullet than either can offer would be better suited for that task.

If you are going to hunt elk the 300 is a better choice with the availability of heavier bullets, But the 7 mag is a fine round also

I've had them both and like them both. By a slim margin I prefer the 7mm Rem mag as I feel less recoil when shooting it. In the field, I've noticed no difference on game. Sudden death is sudden death, no matter if it's a .28 or .30 cal bullet.

The .300 is a little more gun, the 7 shoots a little easier. Take your pick. I think we're almost back to the angels on a pin head argument...

Regards, Guy

Can't think of much I would grab one over the other for, no practical difference for 95% of what you'd either one. I would say the 7 will thump a little less on the non-business end. Seems to me when you get to 200gr things become a little nastier!

I own both but I prefer the .300 Win mag. and will probably sell my 7 mag.

My M-70 Laredo will throw a 200-grain spitzer boattail at 3,000 fps., and with good accuracy. Sighted 4" high at 200 yards, it's dead on at 300 yards and maintains over 2,000 ft. lbs. of energy at 600 yards.

More is more.

Depends upon what you want to use it for. I view the 7mm rem mag as pretty much the perfect all around deer cartridge. However, if I were after elk I'd prefer to be carrying some sort of 300 mag. The 300 mags cross the limit of how much kick I'm willing to deal with on a continuing basis to shoot deer. I really can't tell any difference in recoil between a 7mm mag, a 30-06, a 270, etc. When I touch off a 300 mag I know it instantly, it's in a different recoil catagory than the others. I have plenty of hard kicking rifles and occasionally use them on deer for kicks and grins, but every now and then is enough. For a day in, day out deer rifle a 300 mag is too much for me. A 7mm rem mag is "just right".

I have probably blown more egg money on these two categories of cartridges than any others and have been using both since the late 70's IIRC.I've been loading for and hunting with both since then, too.

Most of my rifles were chambered for the 300 Win Mag,300 H&H,and 300 Weatherby;(these three are separated by 50-200 fps,depending on barrel length,throating, how hot you load them, etc);in the 7 mag category I've mostly used the 7RM,the 7mm Dakota,and the 7mmWSM.

Back in the 80's,I had it all figured out....the 300's were "better";used heavier bullets at the same velocity the 7RM gave lighter bullets, the paper ballistics showed the 300's to be more powerful,and I used the 300's up close and to quite long range to flatten elk and other stuff.The 300's are splendid cartridges, among the best as general purpose BG cartridges IMHO.I always felt that with the heavier bullets they really are more of a "medium" bore, like a 338 IMHO.

But the extra "advantage" of the 300's came in the form of heavier rifles,more recoil,and greater powder consumption to move bullets of roughly equal ballistic properties to the 7mm's at the same velocity.This, of course, means they kick more,and I agree with Crow Hunter on the issue of recoil thresholds.I have watched some pretty bad 300 mag shooting by some guys who were better served by a 7x57.It always struck me that the 300's were a bit over the top for a lot of people and are best reserved for seasoned, hard core riflemen,and not for those burning a box or two of cartridges per year. This type should avoid a 300 mag like the plague IMO.

I've had numerous factory and custom rifles for all these calibers and found that I could build a 7RM(Dakota,WSM,etc)to be lighter and still be easy to shoot.A comparable 300 mag had to be heavier;I tried building a 7.5 pound 300 Win Mag (once)and it turned out to be pretty unsatisfactory.It kicked like 3 mules.

Creeping doubt entered my mind on an elk hunt in the 80's where I watched a little gal weighing 110 pounds soaked in oil, flatten a big herd bull in mid-bugle at about 500 yards with a 7RM and a 160 Partition.Since then I used the combo on elk myself,and seen it used many other times on a variety of other stuff,and IMHO,the game ends up quite as dead from the 7's as it does from the 30's,especially if you stick with well constructed 160 to 175 gr bullets in the 7mm's.

I've got a 160 gr 7mm Bitterroot here that traveled the length of an elks neck from behind and stopped under his chin; it smashed vertebrae and tough neck muscle all the way,still weighs over 155 grains and is expanded to over 60 caliber.The wound channel was a complete train wreck, fully the equal of anything I've seen from a big 30,including the 200 gr Nosler Partition, which I have driven from forward of the hips of a big bull clear to the off-side shoulder,breaking it.

I have a hard time drawing a fine line which makes the 300's a more suitable class of cartridges for elk sized stuff,as I firmly believe a properly loaded big 7 is fully capable of taking on large soft skinned game,and I would not hesitate to take one against any game available here.

Looking back on all this,if I had it to do all over again,one rifle for all mountain and open country hunting of trophy soft-skinned game from pronghorn all the way up,I'd likely do what Page did decades ago and get a 7 Mashburn ,Dakota,or 7mag of similar capacity,load a great 160-175 gr bullet,and shoot everything.(For those rare circumstances where this is not "enough", my second rifle would be a light 375H&H).

I know I could have a lighter rifle that recoils less,kills stuff about as well,and is generally more easily managed.With todays great bullets, the situation is even better.JMHO and YMMV

Sorry for being so "long"!

I've owned and shot both...for whatever reason, in similar rifles, there is a noticeable step up in recoil from the 7 Rem Mag to the 300 Win. I currently have a SS 700 in 300 Win that I had plans to make my one and only big game rifle. I just can't get used to the recoil to shoot it well. I take it with me on every range trip and shoot at least 20 rounds each time, but accuracy is still suffering. If I can't get the hang of it, I'll probably rebarrel to 7 Rem Mag or 270 Wby. I've also considered having a brake installed, but I really prefer not to have one on a hunting rifle.

That being said, I think the 300 Win is a much more versatile cartridge. In my neck of the woods, you see at least 10 7 Mags for each 300, but it's mainly open country/beanfield hunting where a 7 Mag/140gr combo is fantastic. In my opinion, a 300/165gr combo is great for open country, while 200gr partition/accubond is perfect for elk

The short answer is anything you can or should be hunting with a 300 mag, you can hunt with a 7 mag. I doubt any animal will know the difference between a 200 gr bullet from a 300 and a 175 from a 7 mag. Both are moving fast enough to do some major damage to any CXP 3 game.

BobinNH - thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience. I came to the same conclusion - that I personally shoot the 7mm RM better than I do the .300 Win Mag, and that it does all that I need in a flat shooting mid-size magnum. I'm loading it with 160 Nosler Partitions at 3050 fps, a Ruger Number One. I've only shot one big bull elk, but the 7mm RM/Nosler Partition had no trouble dealing with that challenge.

Regards, Guy

Guy, I ain't too bright but I have figured out over the years that I can only carry one of these things at a time.

A 7 mag is a good place to be...it balances moderate recoil,light rifle weight,sufficient bullet weight and diameter,flat trajectory, and solid lethal effect in a combined package most of us can manage. The track record of things like the 7x57 tell us we have enough caliber.

Go down in caliber, bullets get lighter....go up in caliber while maintaining the same speed,and recoil and powder consumption goes up. How much in each of these categories we are willing to tolerate is an individual decision.The 7 mags are a good balance.

Just use good bullets!

One advantage I believe the 30 s have is longer throat life than a 7 mag , if you intend to shoot a particular rifle alot....

sd, I think you may be right on this.....I've only been through one 300 Mag barrel;more 7 mags. But I'm not sure whether this is because the 300's are easier on throats...or the 7's are easier on me....so I shoot them more,wear them out quicker

Yep, the .300 Win mag kicks more; you just can't get around the laws of physics.

In one of the old Hornady manuals, I can't remember which one, they had an article about throat erosion in the 7 Rem. mag. They shot a new rifle and chronographed it and then shot the same rifle after 1,500 rounds had been put through it. The velocities with the same loads had dropped roughly 200 fps., IIRC.