I need some others thoughts on this as I may not be considering all I need to make an informed decisions.

I have 300 win mag with 25" bbl that is magnaported. I'm thinking of cutting it to 22" and adding a brake (maybe saving some weight and gaining some ease of handling). I wear electronic protection when hunting anyway so that is not a consideration (I think?). Is this an exercise in futility and waste of money?

I love the round and like to have stuff DRT. I reload 4064 and R17 so don't run it hot. I hunt deer and elk, but like I like to see DRT's. I don't think I'd get that with a lesser round but am trying to minimize recoil as I get older.

I also have a 6.5 PRC I like and load 129 ABLR's but have not killed anything but a large buck. I don't know that I'd get similar results on elk so am reluctant to use it solely and quit using the 300 (thereby negating this whole thing).

Both rifles are accurate, and I've been shooting for 60+ years and hit what I aim at without any undue excitement. I stay within 600 yds on game.

Thoughts?

The bull elk I shot with a 140 VLD out of a Creedmoor did not go anywhere. A brake on the 300 is certainly not a bad plan. You'd never have to wonder if you brought enough gun. Though in weighing out your options I would not underestimate the lethality of a well placed 6.5 bullet. Which rifle do you like better? Now that I've seen for myself the wound channel from a 6.5 I no longer worry about it. Having the rifle I want would be my deciding factor.

You're in the sweet spot -- just can't go wrong . Me? I'd get the 300 rebored/rebarreled into something fun and use the 6.5 for long distance work. Or sell the 300 ... if you are a righty not much way to go wrong. Little you can do to the 300 to make it as pleasurable as the 6.5 to carry and shoot.

Cut the barrel off, load down to a 30-06, to hell with a brake.

Burning 65 grs of powder to recreatea .30-06....nahh

Actually, 65 with a 175 LRX gets you about 2900...

I'm talking about downloading though. I would rather have a smaller cartridge running normally that kicks less then down load the big gun.

Mike

Gotcha, thanks Mike!

Thanks prm, curious, where did you hit him? Exit?

Thanks all, good thoughts!

130ttsx around 3300 out of the WM would be a hoot. Wouldn't kick much.

Loading some 155 Scenars over 4350 for a friend. Haven't shot them yet but I'd bet they are around 3200 and likely pretty easy shooting.

Those 130TTSX are no joke...

I use them in a .308 and dump all the magnum BS. No recoil. Plenty of killing power.

Yeah, the OP needs to trade his 300 boomer in on a 308 win. Forget about cutting his down and installing a brake. Send it down the road, would be my best suggestion..

been there done that

it's called a 7mm-08 with 120's

Haven’t shot an elk with a 6.5 PRC but have shot a handful with a 270 win. and it has worked great. Doubt the outcome would be any different with a 6.5 PRC.

Probably good advice bsa...

There's a couple good suggestions,, mine is to use 165 NP @ 2700 fps and kill anything handily in North America. I've seen it with my own eyes!

Do the 300 WM down to 23" add the Brake and be at just over 24'
Load 165/168 I use Barnes but any well constructed bullet that groups well in your rifle .
I was using RL-19 and pushing just under 3200

I had a Ruger M77II set up that way, light recoil and hard hitting flat shooter for big open timberline hunting in CO,this rifle always liked near max loads for groups something you have to figure out with yours

The advantage is that you can also adjust that 300 up or down with bullet weight

While I am more of a 6.5 guy. I have a couple of 300 Win Mags, I bought long ago, when I thought more horse power was never a bad idea...

then I got older and wiser...

But then with cast bullet manuals, I've loaded my 300s with equivalents of the 30/30 using Unique and 150 SPs, at 2000 fps, 22 grains of a bulky powder and pretty low recoil
up to 300 Weatherby Equivalent using H 1000...

From a 300 Savage equivalent to a 30/06 equiv.... 4198 and 3031 either would work nicely to accomplish that... or RL 7...

just bringing up some more possibilities.....

Why don’t you use the 6.5 PRC on a bunch of deer/elk, and then after you’ve got a better handle on what sort of results you can expect with it, you can decide what to do with the .300. I have a feeling it’ll become clear to you after you’ve shot a bunch of critters with both.