Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting .300 Short Action Ultra Mag vs .300 Ultra Mag vs .300 Win. Mag.

I must disagree. These are three round I know practically nothing about besides ballistics. I take all comments into consideration. From the comments I now know: The UM is a master's rifle, i'm not a master. The. 300 SAUM is effective but unavailable. And the .300 Win. Mag. is balanced, as in decent recoil and good accuracy. I could honestly say that from the comments I've learned that knockdown is not as important as accuracy, but still needs to be relevant(Although the reason is significantly more than that). I've also learned from what i've read that 7mm SMs and .270 SMs give me a unique gun with great results. Honestly if i were you i'de be more worried about me trying to get away from the crowd and changing my opinions from other people's opinions and facts too easily. At my age(now days) when you ask about one caliber, another one I've never heard of will come up. But in all rwality, you shoot a deer in the heart with a .223 it dies, same thing with a. 50, that to me proves accuracy is more important than knockdown no matter what. That shows me that if you put that gun in your shoulder alittle more, that could effect your shot, same with flinch. So I guess i'm saying, if I'm elk hunting with a. 270, and my friend has a .375 I could care less.

BagABuck,

Just a couple thoughts because I was a ballistics hound as a youngster as well. Presently, I am infatuated with the .325 WSM for reasons that escape me at the moment. But, I don't really need one. Same for the 6.5 Swede, though that one I may really need.

As somebody said, though, "only accurate rifles are interesting." And that got me thinking about optics, which I hope you haven't left out of the equation.

I'm not an optics expert by any means, but I'd be in favor of getting a good rifle/cartridge combination that you can shoot all day at the range with an absolute primo scope.

I've a Iraq vet friend who owns a Class III manufacturing company. The firearm he has the most fun with is a customized, integrally-suppressed CZ bolt action in .22 lr with a mil-dot Nightforce scope on top. "See that leaf at 100 yards out on the lake?" Click, click, hits the leaf. Then he chooses another target, adjusts again, and hits it. This from the picnic table with a bipod.

I know you're not looking for a .22, but I'm thinking a nice traditional cartridge in the .270, .30, 7mm area (short action and/or mag if you like) in a good platform with an absolute "bomber" scope will let you shoot enough rounds to be lights out. You may not have the biggest ballistics on the block, but you'll be able to do more with what you do have.

Because it's not beating you to death, you'll get lots and lots of good practice, limiting flinches and bad habits. Because you reload, you'll have a wide variety of bullet and powder combinations to test out.

I'm not recommending a Nightforce or any other particular scope, but what I am recommending is get a really, really good one, and learn to use the combination. A nice rifle, with an even nicer scope. Us old farts have a saying (one of many), "it's not the wand, it's the magician."

Just my .02.

Good luck to you.

... get back to us in a decade or so , go learn the lessons on your own that all these folks offered up for ya..........

Yes, that's right aalf we are now memorializing him with all the care and dedication we'd give another member's cat if it got run over.. by a car. MB

Cat hit by a car- sounds like a good description of knockdown power.