Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles .300 Win Mag VS. .300 Wea. Mag. Which one, why?

Nice and very accureate description of Elgin Gates. If my memory serves ,I believe Elgin took most if not all of his trophy's with the 300 Wea.

Oh, and personally, I'd choose the 300 H&H Mag. Matter of fact, I already did and really enjoy the rifle and cartridge. Very easy to load for and accuracy has been very good with several 200 grain loads shooting less than MOA. My rifle is a factory (except the stock) pre-64 Winchester M70.

In the UP of Michigan Weatherby ammo is pretty rare. My friend has to drive 60 miles to buy ammo for his and even then the Gander mountain store he goes to has a crappy selection compared to the .300 winny.
As for the freebore thing. I belive it to be a detriment to accuracy based on converstaions I have had with my gunsmith. I trust his oppinion over most others as he has proven himself in my eyes to not be a bs'er and he also happens builds very accurate rifles. he also happens to be a avid benchrester as well.
Another draw back to the Weatherby is thats its mostly chambered in Weatherby guns. Weatherby rifles IMO are garish, heavy, 60's throwbacks, and are cumbersome clubs. Just IMO.

I didn't mean in my earlier post that the Weatherby freebore caused me any great problems, it didn't. My Sako was plenty accurate even with the extensive freebore. However, being a curious person and a tinkerer, it's just my nature to want to experiment with different handloading techniques and seating a bullet next to the lands is something I'd like to be able to play with. With the .300 Wby I could seat bullets as far out as the magazine allowed and still not be anywhere close to the lands. I have no misconceptions, though, that switching to the .300 Win. will somehow allow me to kill more animals, it certainly won't. It simply adds another variable to my reloading, which to me makes it (reloading) more interesting. Plus, I had loaded for the Wby longer than any other cartridge and was growing bored with it.

If you really wanted to be cool, you'd get the H&H.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Yes, the rifle Elgin used for most of his hunting was chambered in 300 Wby Mag. Even used it to take his largest Elephant...

Yep Elgin and most of the other Wby awards winners did get around a bit...

Mark D

Well I gotta tell you all a big thanks, I've been flipping back & forth up & down over & over of what to get. 1st of my back up rifle is always the great 30-06 with a 165 gr Nosler for anything I can hunt in the GREAT USA. But I wanted to get a little more specific with deer & antelope so I was deciding between the 257 wby mag & the 25-06 with 100 grain bullets. Ballisticlly they are the same so I went with the 25-06.
Then for elk & moose I wanted something bigger. I love my 300WM but all the hoopla of 300 WBY had me wondering. After reading this I have decided to stay with / go with the tried & true 300 WM.
NOW ALL I NEED TO DO IS DECIDE ON A 300WM OR 300WSM, why oh why do they give me choices???

I think we have differing opinions of basic ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

While I have a 25-06, I'd really like to have the Roy version someday!!!

With the given weight and barrel length parameters,my choice would be the 300winmag.If you really want more performance,skip over the 300wby and go directly to the 300ultramag,as it offers slightly better performance with similarly priced brass,and the same magazine capacity.But in that case you would want a 26" barrel.

George,
Keep looking.... I'll let you shoot mine when you get here. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
I am going to try Ramshot Magnum and 100's but the 110's will light matches.
BTW- the 77/17 was fine....

I would vote "Winnie". Personally, I've never shot a .300 Wea ( have a .270 and .340 Wea though) but have worked extensively with the Winnie. From an aesthetic point of view - more pleasing to my eye - I would choose the .308 Norma second, after the Wea. but we're being practical here.

Most of the reasons have already been given here with the exception I think that the Winnie is shorter (case length is 2.620 vs 2.825 for the Wea) and can be fitted into a .30-06-length action if that is of any interest.

No offense to all the world-wide trophy hunters who used the Roy and not minimizing their experience but all things being equal if that were possible - and that means the only difference is a 100 fps - does anyone think the outcome would have been any different with the Winnie? There are cartridges with greater differences among their own factory loads.

The .300 Wea is no doubt a great cartridge but as we know much is in timing and press and Roy's hit the glamour payload with Roy Rogers, the Duke ( I think) and other Hollywood types and even Royalty taking it all over the world.

Another tastes great less filling argument. Either one is fine, it boils down to the type of rifle you want, as for me, hell, I would just stuff a rifle with 200 gr Noslers out of a Roy and forget it. The Roy is loaded by a whole bunch these days. The Great thing about Gates is that he had the post War 2 world to play in, and a lot of money to play with. And so did Herb Klien and the Late Shah's brother. Those guys really got to play. A lic for Kenya was you could shoot 50 head or so. Now you have to write a check with so many zero's that your hand will go numb. Oh well on the other hand just about anybody that really wants to can go to Africa or any were else.

Dave, glad to hear the 17 is a keeper! ... went last week-end to pick up the 257 we discussed in the past ... and after a friggin' year it finally sold!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

I snooze I lose.

For killing,I can like the 300WSM pretty damned good and I've had a herd of Big 30's.

Can still like the 257Wby better than any of them.......................

Goodnews, in my experience, the 300 Weatherby is about 100 fps., on average, than the 300 Win. Mag. when both are loaded to their full potential. I've never seen that the 300 Weatherby kills stuff any better than the 300 Win. Mag., though, but it does burn more powder, make more noise, and kick harder. I don't need it, and I'd rather simply stick with the 300 Winchester, as I have for many years.

Weatherby Award winner James Mellon used the 300 Win. Mag. to take literally ever legal-to-hunt species of the world's big game, and he spent five solid years in Africa (basically one big safari across most of the continent) and he used the 300 Win. Mag. much more than anything else, and also all across Asia, North America, etc.........

Quite honestly, I don't think there's any practical difference on game between the 300 WSM, 300 H&H, 308 Norma, 300 Win. Mag., or 300 Wby. Load a 180 gr. bullet @ 3000 fps. + out of any other them, and you've arrived with all you need for just about anything...........

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Do the W.B. & if it bucks to hard, download it to Winnie specs. Neither you, the target, or anybody watching will know the difference and you can truthfully tell everybody that you shoot a big W.B. The macho thing.