Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Useless .325 WSM?

I just finished re-reading Mike Thomas's article on cast bullets in the .411 Hawk. I don't even play an expert on tv but after seeing what can be done to a humble 06 case I was wondering how much short mags can be necked up? I too like 8mm and hope the new rifle finds a niche. <.400 WSM??>

I just got my latest issue of NRA - "American Rifelman".

And it featured an article on the .325 WSM. They clearly stated that winchester was trying to meet or exceed the long action .338 win mag. And they did it. At least on paper.

Why would they NOT market this? After all they have duplicated the .270, 7mm mag, 300 win mag all with a shorter case and they are selling like hot cakes for whatever reason.

They also have made the super shorts to duplicate the .223 and .243 and again with good succes.

So I ask again. Why wouldn't they want to offer a duplicate to the veneralble long action .338 win mag?

Remington is offering "reduced recoil" ammunition and the short magnums are supposed to by all reports also have less felt recoil than their long action bretheren.

While I may agree these "duplicates" do nothing particularly better than their long action brothers, with less felt recoil, short action throws, and please do not forget that they are in the business to sell new guns and ammunition.

If you sell mouse traps you always must sell a "better" mouse trap. Even if the new one does nothing dramatically different than the old one. If you don't you go bankrupt because your competitor will.

I'm not buying. I just don't see that the .325 will do anything that can't be done with the .300, nothing. I frankly don't see enough advantage of even a .338 over a .300 until the 250 gr bullet is used. Over the past 26 years, most of which I worked as a guide or outfitter, I have observed a couple of hundred elk killed, and it is my opinion that unless one is shooting past 300 yards, a magnum is really not necessary anyway. I never shot premium bullets in my '06, but I do in all my magnums because otherwise the bullets blow to pieces on shots closer than, say, 250 yds, ruining way too much meat and failing to give complete penetration. Almost all of the elk I have personally shot have been well within 200 yds. I'm planning to load my .300 WSM with 180 gr bullets at around 2700 fps; '06 velocities.

flyingfool, Re-read my original post! I am not saying the .325 cartridge is useless, I just don't think that a heavy barreled varmint rifle is all that usefull!

A 325 WSM seems logical if you consider that there was not much room between the 338/06 and the 338 Win Mag. Too bad that Winchester doesn�t make a featherweight in 338/06. Hopefully the 325 WSM might inspire bullet makers to create some better 8mm bullets. The only thing I use in my 8mm Rem. Mag is the 220g Sierra. I sure would like a 230 or 240g 8mm bullet.

I think the 325 (8mm) would make a lot more sense with a 240 gr bullet.

I too have an 8x57, a custom built Mauser rifle, sporting a scout scope set-up. I enjoy this rifle quite a bit.
I'm interested in a heavy 220+ grain bonded round nosed bullet, but won't hold my breath for one becoming available by the major U.S. ammo makers in responce to this cartridge. Most people like speed ie lighter spire pointed bullets, then heavy slow ones, so the ammo makers will go where the most money is. ~~~Suluuq

Rusty..Speer made 225 grn RN 8mm at one time. I picked up two boxes at a gun show some years back. Keep your eyes peeled..

Or Hawk Bullets will make you some. Check out their web site.

For those who read the American Rifleman article, did you see the difference in published and actual velocities? Published velocities with the 200 and 220 respectively were 2950 and 2840. What Bryce actually recorded for velocities were 2852 and 2652. SOOOO, why did Bryce continue to highlight the 325 in terms of its published velocities? The difference between published and actual velocity with the 220 grain bullet translates into a loss of 500 foot pounds of energy.

I don't normally get ugly on forums, but Bryce is full of schidt for knowing the actual performance figures then heaping praises on the cartridge based on its published figures when the difference is significant. He didn't even have the decency to bring that little 200 FPS 500 FPE difference to the readers attention. Let me add that USRAC is full of schidt for publishing a set of figures, when the only guns they produce aren't capable of coming close to those figures. I like the 325 just fine as it actually performs, but I don't appreciate corporate deceit.

it must be pretty good world seeing as how us gun nuts are agueing over whats usless and redundant. seems things are just the way they need to be <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />