Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Tell me about the 300WSM

This post only goes to show not all opinions are created equal.

Exactly^^

It boils down to "do you like the rifle its in"? If you like and admire the rifle, go for it. Load it like a 30-06 if it kicks too bad, you still have your nice rifle!

It does shoot real well.

The rifle needs to fit you or you will feel the recoil more.

I built a rifle on a Mauser and when load testing found out that even the 190 grain Sierra bullets felt like some of the lower weights.

Fit is king.

I just picked up another the other day. I was intentionally waiting for a Montana in 300wsm but came across a fair deal on a Remington 700 CDL SF in .300 WSM with a Timney trigger. Its a dandy of a rifle. Looking forward to shooting it. My other 300 WSM is a Winchester Model 70 FW. I hunt elk with one of my 300 Win Mags, but would not hesitate to use the .300 WSM. I used to hunt whitetail with a 7.82 Patriot Lazzeroni in a custom made rifle Great cartridge and was a slightly badder (faster) version of the WSM, before there was a WSM. Still have the Patriot, but dont use it much

Have a Kimber classic 8400 in 300 WSM and love the thing, one of the most accurate factory guns I have ever owned, shoot 180 grain Accubonds and I don't think it kicks any harder than the 300 win mags I have shot.

I guess I figure any 30 caliber magnum is a reloaders cartridge..........and once you have a supply of a few hundred pieces of brass for a rifle , you are set........these are not guns for shooting gophers


I cant imagine having to run a 300 win on walmart sale ammo


but I will say the price difference between 300 win ammo and 30wsm is not alot at the local Runnings store

Can't give you much of an argument on the handloading as I do all mine. Their are alot more people who buy factory ammo than those of us who handload. It will be along time though before you hear me bad mouth federal bluebox, rem and ww ammo bought at Walmart or where ever purchased and they sell alot of it. I watched a guy buy 3 boxes of 300 wsm one time, he gave the clerk 2 c notes and got back damn little change. In my book that sucks. Again more users of 300 wsm are not handloaders but buy factory ammo. So that is how I see it. We both deal with the same stores here in SD..mb

I would add they get more 180 anything or the Terminal Ascent 200gr. As mentioned above, this ain't no plinker anyhow, ha! Good luck to you, can't hardly wait to get mine back from the Smith (lightened trigger...although I may end up getting a Trigger Tech later on... and my Burris FFII spare scope mounted). No brake on this one (or that other Kimber for that matter) I did have a brake put on Pastor's rifle as with conjunction with the heavy barrel and heavy weight (like a Sendero is) Varminter one could see your bullets strike, or miss. Very helpful on deer shot near "the edges" and coyotes/prairie dogs, Marmots all the time! Have a ball man!

I also have a Kimber 8400 Classic in .300 WSM. I agree, it’s a very nice rifle. I only wish I had a use for it. For the hunting I do now, my .308’s handle all my needs nicely. I would kind of like to send the .300 WSM down the road, but seem unable to make a serious effort to do so.

IF ammo price was a deal breaker, Weatherby would be out of business.

That’s for certain……….and a long time ago too.

I could have written the original post myself. I was in the market for a lighter 300 magnum and really liked the idea of a Kimber rifle. I saw a used one in the gun rack at the local gun shop and knew the previous owner. The walnut stock looked great and the rifle looked unused. The original oner said he couldn't get it to shoot very well.(It Kicks!) I bought it. It shoots great! It does kick! I have found that over the years I have spent much more time carrying my rifle than actually firing it. This one carries very well and points very quickly. Not once have I ever shot a game animal and thought to myself, "That rifle really kicks!" I never notice the recoil. I have used a Ruger 300 Winchester Magnum for years as a traveling rifle. It is heavy and has been moved to the back of my gun safe. The Kimber 300 WSM will be with me, if I get to go on another hunt.

i've sort of downsized alot. my 2 main, general purpose Big game rifles are now, a Winchester model 70 FWt in 280 rem shooting 140 gr partitons at right around 3000 FPS and &00 BDL in 30-06 shooting 180 grain Partitons at about 2800 fps.

This is what caused me to bring home a Christensen Arms Ridgeline FFT in 300 WSM. It has a 20 inch barrel and my Silencerco Harvester EVO gives me a barrel length that is very handy out of a blind. Recoil is negligible, and my limited experience with on game performance has been very encouraging.

Were I younger and had a lot of hunting in front of me, a 300 WSM with a suppressor would be a no brainer. The SA gets you a 1/2" less than a LA, and I'd cut to 18." Ditto with a 6.5 PRC.

I have a Kimber 8400 300wsm I love so much I had it restocked to go to Africa. I was surprised the original stock was hollowed out to save weight. With the new stock, it’s just a touch heavier, but it still handles great. While I haven’t killed nearly as many animals as many of you have with a 300wsm, it’s taken a nice mature CO bull elk (65 yards with 200gr Federal Edge TLR), Kudu, waterbuck, puku, and zebra (200gr Accubonds.). All one shot kills, and I never felt the recoil on any of the shots. IMO the 300wsm really shines with the higher BC 200gr bullets. A 200gr Terminal Ascent with a BC over .600 and over 2800fps is an absolute hammer.

I think I'm going to pass on it. More recoil than a 30-06 is just not fun for me anymore. Even a box of ammo through the 30-06 is enough for the day. IF anyone (else) is interested in the rifle, PM me and I'll get you info for the shop that has it.

I have a 300 WSM in a Tikka T3 Lite. I put on a new recoil pad and shoot it quite a bit now. I also handload for it and my .300 WM. The .300 WSM gets out hunting a lot more than the .300 WM does these days. I had a Remington 700 BDL SS in .300 WSM that shot 3 shot groups into 1 bug hole with 165 gr. SST’s and IMR 4320. The issue, when you loaded anything above 165 gr. bullets, it didn’t feed correctly. It seemed to be an issue with WSM’s and REM 700’s. My son had a co-worker that wanted it, so I sold it to him.

With the Tikka, I put a LA bolt stop on it and bought a Mountain Tactical mag for it. I can seat my bullets out further now, and get a lot more accuracy from my handloads.

I like the round and if I felt the need for a magnum rifle it would be the one I'd go back to. I ran across a used SS model 70 in 300 WSM quite a few years ago with a screwed-up stock. Got the rifle dirt cheap and found a used McMillan Edge in the classifieds here. Since the bottom metal was wrong for the stock I put aluminum PTG bottom metal on it. With a Leupold VX2 it was 7 1/2 lbs. The bare rifle was right at 6 1/2.

Accuracy was good and recoil was tolerable, hardly more than a comparable weight 30-06. When you are using 10-15 gr less powder and giving up 50-100 fps to a 300WM the difference in recoil is noticeable. The 50-100 fps is not IMO.

But looking hard at reality I just had no need for that much rifle. In fact my 30-06 has been long retired and I've found that a 308 simply does all I need a rifle to do. I don't have the skills to shoot far enough to need a magnum rifle so I let it go.