Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Reduce recoil on 300WM or use 6.5 Exclusively

I owned a 300 win mag and it was absolutely punishing to shoot and I hated it. I also ran a 30-06 for years.. then I started shooting medium cartridges and killing game easily and I realized even a 30-06 is more pain than gain for hunting. Deer are not hard to kill... Biggest bodied deer I ever killed was with a 95 grain out of a 243.

That’s what makes a 7mm-08 Rem and 308 WCF so nice. Big punch way out there with low recoil, short barrels and easy portability. Both have multitudes of bullets to choose from so you can match needs from mice to moose.

Cutting a 300 WinMag to 22"and using 4064 is desecrating the very essence of a 300 WinMag !!!!!!!!!!!! If you want to keep it cut off the worthless magnaport and shorten to 24" and have a good brake installed, then try H1000 or RL26 with 180-210gr bullets.................if this does not sound good , you would be much better off getting rid of it and using the 6.5 exclusively.
I love the 300WM myself and with a proper brake the recoil is not that bad.

Biggest bodied deer I ever killed was with a 210 grainVLD out of a 300 WinMag at 900 yards.

^ My thoughts too, the OP already has a 6.5 PRC, might as well give it a try and see whether he's satisfied with the performance on elk, if so ditch the .300. I don't shoot animals very far out, but I have killed two elk with a 6.5 CM (127gr LRX and 140gr AB) and one with a .270 (140gr AB) and was satisfied with both. With the right bullet, the PRC should be at least as good of a performer, although personally, I do think I'd try the 142gr ABLR over the 129gr for elk.

If you just really like the .300 WM and don't want to let it go, no reason not to chop it down a little and run .30-06 level loads, they kill very well too. Another option would be picking up a suppressor to use with your cut down .300, the big reduction in recoil and blast make suppressed hunting a lot of fun.

Killed a bunch of deer with everything from 243 to 300; couple bear with 7mmRM's; several elk with 264, 7mmRM, 300 Wea, 338; moose with 264. Just getting opinions. Good thoughts all! Thanks guys!!

I agree on 142's over 129's but you take what is available these days.Thanks

I can't imagine a 6.5 PRC and a good bullet not being enough for about any thing in North America. If I was regularly bumping brown and grizzly bears up close or poking at elk at 500 plus yards then some thing bigger would be my choice. Which is why here in Alaska I usually have my .338 or 30-06 in my hands. I have never in 55 years shot out to 500 yards at game and probably never will, except at the range.

In the last 2 years I’ve shot the 6.5 CM more the my 06 and 270 last 10 years combined.
I still use The 06 for elk as it simply works. But off season, the 6.5 with 130 game changers gets the trigger time

Great idea. The ranger recently sent me his 300 Win Mag Ruger No. 1 as a gift for my son Robert who is now 22 and panting to go elk hunting. That might be a way for him to get some experience with it before we seek a tag.

Norm

Good thoughts guys!

Again, thanks all. This was a kind of "intervention" as the rifle Looney in me was going a bit too far past reason. I will continue to use both and just expand loads up and down the scale to take advantage of a particular bullet/ game animal and I've saved hundreds in the process...may use that to add a 308 to the mix just for a really light and handy carry gun to take advantage of those 130 TTSX's. Mike