Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting what grain bullet for 300 win mag?

It's more about accuracy in what load you should choose. Then I look at downrange performance.

I shoot:

180 gr in 300 win mag.
165 gr in .30-06
150 gr in .308
130 gr in .270

As somebody else pointed out, each caliber has a sweet spot. Why screw with it. Any of the above will smoke a deer and won't explode on impact from being driven at warp speed.

the 180 is more than likely what im going to go with just for the versatility of that round..itll perform on any animal i plan on hunting..and im going to get a 243 for some long range varmint and antelope someday and prolly will give it a go on whitetails too

Years ago when I was carrying the 300 WM. deer hunting I was shooting 180's. I shot one deer with it and it was pretty much like the hammer of Thor hit it. I generally like 180's in my 30.06 also.

if the bulk of your shooting is going to be for deer, there is no reason for a premium bullet. i used to shoot 165's for deer and 180's for elk and have finally settled on 180 hornady's for both. several deer and only one cow elk later, but nodoby will ever convince me you need more than a cup and core like hornady, or sierra or speer in 180 grain for elk.

I'm with you on this. Why use a 300 mag to shoot deer in the first place?

I'd load up some 180 or 200gr bullets for that .300, then buy a .257 Bob or a .243 or a .260 or a .270 or a 7mm-08 for the deer.

168 TTSX with RL 22 to about 3200 fps or so. You're done.

That load could be used to take just about anything on the planet.

A man after my own heart . Don't leave out the 200 gr in the 300 though. Oops, forgot we're talking deer here. The 200 puts the elk down in a hurry. Who uses the 300 on poor old deer anyway . I've actually used the 165's in the 300 winnny with good luck. The 180 is probably the better bullet though if your using the oldstyle bullets and worry about bloodshot meat.

im thinkin im gonna go w/ 180 grain for bigger/longer range game..and a 243 for everything deer and smaller..should be a solid set up

Damn hard to beat a 180 partition or similarly constructed bullet for the 300 win mag. I've just about settled on the 180 and 200gr. partitions in mine. They are both accurate as hell and stout too.

im lookin at either the partition or the nosler ballistic tip..heard great things about both..just depends what shoots best out of the gun

Last Fall I shot 3 deer with a 180PT/300WSM, they all died.
Two weanlings at 100-150 yards, bullet opened, toasted the lungs and left a minimus exit, no carnage.
Shot a big bodied mule deer 3 times at 420 yards. He kept walking after the first shot but dropped at the third. One of the bullets didn't exit(quartering away) but it was dark and I didn't find it boning out the meat.
I also shot a coyote with that combo and it died also.

.300WM story.

When I was using mine I bought a bunch of Remington 150gr Core-lokts just to shoot them and get the brass without a lot of recoil. They shot better than good in that rifle and one season I thought why not give them a go.

Not exactly sure how many Deer I shot with that combo, guessing somewhere around 15 or a few more. Only two ever took another step. One ran about 35 yards and another an old mature Wyoming Mulie just stood there after the the first hit with his legs splayed out-I could see his muscles rippling in the scope as he tried to stay upright, and it was one of the most impressive examples of pure will I have seen-he took two more before he just gave out.

Don't expect others to use the same bullet, and today I probably wouldn't either, but it worked well.

Well....because we could.....and did

Pals and I used to get a load that would handle both elk on down because we frequently hunted elk, and deer in the same season...so there ya go...we used all kinds of bullets in the 165-200 weight range but the 165 Nosler Partition and the 165 BBC driven to 3250 or so worked so well on big bodied mule and whitetail deer(and elk),in so many places from Central Canada through eastern Colorado, that we just grabbed it for everything.

I would respectfully disagree with the notion that a bullet kills these big deer better if it comes unglued and stays inside....I've had some very devastating results(much more than once)with the 165 Partition(you won't recover many),and the BBC(which fragments not at all),that it dispells the notion pretty thoroughly in my mind.

Chest hit with these from a 300 WM,nothing goes far, if it moves at all.....

Ill have to give the 165 partitions a try..im not sure if im goin to go w/ 180 or 165 for primarily deer sized game and occasionally elk

navyman: We used the 180's for the same purposes and of course they work really well also.....but on big mule and whitetail deer, that 165 NPT is a bomb....

One of my pals knocked the snuff out of a 220 gross B&C whitetail in Eastern Colorado with that load....if there was ever a deer that you want "DRT"....that was it!

In my 300 Wby...I have shot the 180 TB, 200 BBC and 220 NP...my favorite 300 Wby load is the 200 BBC loaded to 3000 with H870...seems to just kill critters..

seems like that might just be the ticket for me then..as long as they shoot straight out of my rifle...im gonna do like 90% whitetail sized game(hopin to do a muley hunt if the govt gives me the time off and a pronghorn hunt sometime too)..and my rifle would def shoot pretty darn flat w/ 165s

180gr partition.

i think im going to load up some 165 and some 180 partitions, and see what one groups the best out of my rifle..but if whichever one i buy first, prolly the 165s, shoots good w/ that bullet, im not gonna change anything...im happy w/ 1-1.25 moa..obviously smaller groups are better, but realistically in a hunting rifle if i can shoot 1 inch +/- itll be more than enough if i do my part down range