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

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.