Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles .300 Win Mag - The one rifle battery

Yeah, the east has really changed. Leverguns are unusual but boltguns with 24" tubes are common.

"From what I understand the short neck on the Win. mag causes problems with the heavy bullets."

Well, my pet load for my .300 Win. Mag. is either the 200 gr. Speer Hot Core or 200 gr. Nosler Partion over a heavy charge of WMR powder. Velocity is 2900 FPS plus a few and accuracy is sub MOA in three different rifles chambered to the round. A fourth rifle has yet to be tested but I have no doubt it will shoot right along with the others.
My point being I had seen and had NO PROBLEMS due to the supposed handcap of that short neck. I consider the problem total BS based on personal experience and load for friends who have .300 Win. Mags.
Paul B.

Interesting. I always heard the short neck caused handloaders fits.

moose, sounds like you are suffering from the misinfo. of magnum haters.. I have handloaded for the .300 since I got my first about 1969 or 70.. It is on its third barrel and it is maybe at or near its half life.. Mine is a 700 so the magazine box will let me make full use of the mag. case as I can seat the bullet out as far as necessary.. Often a short magazine box like M77's do not permit you to seat the bullet even close to the rifling..
We have shot everything from 125's to 220's.. the bullet I fool with least was 180's.. It is a great caliber, but not for everyone.. Recoil is a problem, when I shot my first one, I expected to be knocked silly.. I had shot a whole lot of military rifles that kicked much worse..
The short neck has never caused one bit of problem for me when reloading..

Not at all...

Good to know. Right now I have a 7 mag and a .338 mag to play with. A .300 Win mag would fit right in and fill the gap. I never fooled with the Win mag but I have the .308 Norma mag and really liked that one.

If I had the Norma, I would use it at least until the throat is gone.. BUT I decided I wanted a model 70 in .300 WSM.. Need was not even remotely and issue.. I haven't shot it much, maybe 10 groups.. All have been excellent.. I am impressed with the WSM and the model 70.. I think I might want more...

Interesting WCH,I only used 180-200 gr bullets in a .300 mag. Just trying the 220 gr as I might use the .300 H&H on elk at close range. That is IF I get drawn next year.

C'mon just say it. "300 Winchester Magnum" that's right, it rolls off the lips easily....

"300 Winchester Magnum", it just conjures up images of western big game hunting now doesn't it. Big bulls echoing their love songs across high mountain basins in early October. The pungent smell of sage with a cool breeze on your face while stalking that 30" mulie on Colorado's western slope. Or the hot, dry, dusty days sitting a top the rolling plains of Wyoming glassing for "speedgoats".

"300 Winchester Magnum" - no other cartridge invokes those types of memories more than the "300 Winchester Magnum"! Not one caliber, not even my beloved 340 Weatherby in an old push feed Model 70 comes close to getting my blood going like the sound of "300 Winchester Magnum".

"300 Winchester Magnum" is the common mans western caliber. My "elk killing machine" of an uncle carried his "300 Winchester Mgnum" for 40 years. Oh yeah, the 300 Weatherby is a little faster, I agree, but it's more of a high society rain down your nose type of round.

My Brown stocked Model 70 "300 Winchester Magnum" tips the scale at 7 lbs 12 oz with sling and 3 rounds in the hold. Her weight is just right and she feels like the first time you held that pretty girl at the high school dance. And she's fast too, 200 Partitions at 2900 fps or the 180 Partition at 3150 fps always make easy work on the killing side. She's a dream.

Just don't try to tell me that my 7mm Weatherby Mag doesn't kick just as hard. That's pure BS. A 160 Partition rolling coal outta my Model 700 at 3200 fps will get your attention pretty quick. She comes back just as hard as my "300 Winchester Magnum" and she loves to dance off that front rest like a pretty 100 pound Russian ballerena.

Everyone on here always makes that perfect shot with their "favored little peashooter of the week" while sitting behind their comfy computer. Always stating "put it where it belongs and it will kill". Phoeey and a bunch of hogwash! Reality is different from internet chatter. With a pounding heart, cold toes and frozen fingers and a few split seconds to shoot a bull is when sheet goes bad in the timber. Slop a "super little bullet" from a 7-08 into the wrong place on a bull elk and you have trouble on your hands. And I know many hunters who have done that and walked away telling stories of how they missed clean. Little bullets make little holes and without the "ticket punched thru the lungs" little to no blood trail results. And all these internet cowboys sypher the conclusion that they missed when they really didn't.

Following up an animal shot at 10,000'+, up some steep blowdown filled hell-hole is something that can only be appreciated by those who have done it. Most tire quickly and slink off with an excuse of a miss. And another internet fairy tale to tell all who listen to such silliness.

Slop a 200 grain Partition out of a "300 Winchester Magnum" into the guts of a big bull and you have a good chance of that bull going down pretty quick and a decent blood trail to follow. How do I know this? Because I've done it. We all miss, we all make that bad shot that "somehow" went wrong. And that as Bob Hagel preached to us, is the sermon. It's not what works when everything goes right. It's what works when things go wrong.

And that my hunting friends is where the "300 Winchester Magnum" excels.

One more time....

"300 Winchester Magnum"

I started with the .30-06, handloading 125 gr Sierras over IMR-4064 for jack rabbits in the desert. Sierra used to be in Santa Fe Springs and my Dad would go buy "seconds" by the pound in brown paper bags direct from the factory. I stuck with the '06 for a number of years. I was gifted a Rem 700 BDL in .300 Win Mag from my father-in-law when he stopped elk hunting in OR, and it became my go-to gun. When the barrel went south, I had a .300 Wthby barrel put on. It was a bit more of the same. In both mag versions, that 700 accounted for a ton of deer and pigs as well as a couple 6x6 elk. Now, I shoot a Tikka T-3 in .300 Win Mag and enjoy it. Shooting off the bench with that light a rifle is work, though. I get it sighted in and then start shooting from field positions and shooting sticks where the recoil is not so noticeable.

For me - other than varmints, the .300 Win is the first one I take out of the safe for a big game hunt. But my old .30-06 goes along as back up.

There are so many different cartridges that can be the do it all cartridge it's silly.

Creek Warrior: Most of my bull elk have been killed with a 300 win mag.

I had a 700 in 300 win. That rifle shot really well but I decided I wanted to do something different so I built a 358STA and sold the others. Its my one and only now but I've been toying with rebarreling to 300win. Hard to justify doing it since its more accurate than I am.

Bob, That does surprise me.. I thought the .270 would have dropped more bulls for you.. I only killed one with my .270..It did the job, but ran a bit farther than I am used to.
I could be pretty happy with just three centerfires: a .22-250, .25-06 and .300. But after playing with the 26" barreled .270 it could replace the .25.. I would certainly be better if one was going to shoot more deer/antelope with that rifle.. But if it were more coyotes, then the .25.. Heaven forbid I would have to empty the safe down to three centerfires..

Bob - I'm sure you have! And like you, I have gravitated to the 7's just to see what all the fuss is about. And most of it is true, as my little 7 WSM has popped a lot of elk.

But I disagree with you about the recoil of the 7 magnums, as my new 7 wby really makes a fuss off the bench! She's 200 fps faster and holds 13 grains more powder than my WSM shooting the 160 Partitions, but that difference is noticable! She was knockin' the snot out of me the other day while working up an elk load. My son agreed with me saying that she felt just like any of our "300 Winchester Magnums"

Just had to say it one more time

WCH: I have used the 300 Win Mag and Weatherby for a lot of hunting. I just don't mention it that much.

I am down to 4-5 cartridges these days.

Is it a real lightweight, or does the stock just not suit you?

My old MkV 7mm Weatherbys are a pleasure to shoot compared to the 300 Win. mags I've shot.

I have thought of getting rid of some of my stuff, but then I miss it.. Also, I will never get the $ back out of the rebarrel jobs, and custom stocks.. So I have decided they will go to my best friend, his son, my namesake, and a couple kids I taught in school.. they aren't eating anything, and I usually get to shoot most of them in the course of a year..

Creek, I haven't messed with the Mashburn, something I have thought of many times.. But I have a Rem. 7, and a custom barreled 7 Wea.. And as you say, it does kick.. I am going to try some 168 grain Bergers next.. But right now it is loaded with 160 Sierra HPBT and Nosler 160 Part.. I guess I could be pretty well satisfied with my big 7 for most of my hunting.. I would pick the Weatherby case though.. The Remington was my wife's big game rifle for the last 10 or 12 years of her life..
For someone who never shot target, she made some excellent shots with that old rifle. No flies on the 7 mags..

Dang Creekwarrior, you should be a salesman! You have me about ready to go get myself a 300.

I purchased a .300 H&H in 1962 and my first .300 Win. mag. ten years later. I have shot .300 Win. mags. a great deal and have killed a lot of elk with them over the years. It is a good cartridge. But, I don't believe any of the elk I killed with a 300 Win. mag. would have fallen any differently had I been using a 30-06. Today, I carry a .30-06 for my serious hunting and a .30-30 for my fun-hunting days. CP.