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who likes the 300 wsm ?

B

Big_les

Private
Minuteman
May 19, 2024
25
5
67
new zealand
#1
So mate is going to sell his .270 .
Hes in the market for a new rifle .
Bergara, tikka , springfield arms , savage he,s thinking .
He likes my Sako 300 win mag , and my mossberg 7mm prc . But he wants to know about the 300 WSM ....
What he is actually after is something that has the power to deliver a fair whack out to (say ) 600 mts , because my rifles can do that , and sometimes i do shoot that far . ( on his place !) But where as my rifles are full length magnums hes after a "shorter " barrell (say 20 inch ) for the roar as his new bush rifle thats capable to shoot out to 600 mts .

So, whats the story with the 300 WSM ?
cheers
les
 
#3
spife7980 said:
Does deliver a fair whack imply this is for hunting? If so 300wsm is fine. Think of it as a short 30-06
If all youre shooting to is 600 meters is targets then just get a 7 or 8 twist 223 and shoot some 70-80 gr bullets. Save on money and recoil.
Click to expand...


It's a fair amount more power then the 30-06. You may be thinking of the 308win, which is a lot closer to the 30-06 then the 300wsm is. It's a lot closer to the old 300h&h. My factory 300wsm ammo is federal TLR which is 200gr at 2836fps. I haven't done a bunch of reloading for it yet. So there may be room to improve, but the accuracy node for 180gr bullets was 3043fps for the one bullet and powder I tried.
 
#4
jbuck88 said:
It's a fair amount more power then the 30-06. You may be thinking of the 308win, which is a lot closer to the 30-06 then the 300wsm is. It's a lot closer to the old 300h&h. My factory 300wsm ammo is federal TLR which is 200gr at 2836fps. I haven't done a bunch of reloading for it yet. So there may be room to improve, but the accuracy node for 180gr bullets was 3043fps for the one bullet and powder I tried.
Click to expand...
Guess I didnt word that very well did I? A short barrel length 300wsm is like a normal length 3006 I suppose is what I was trying to say, something to the order of 10-15% more case volume to the wsm
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#5
I don’t have any personal data as of yet, but from what I’m reading, a 20” 300 WSM should get 200 grain pill moving a bit over 2800 fps, while a 30-06 with a 24” barrel is still around 2675 fps. It should be somewhere in between a 30-06 and 300 win. I do have a 20” 300 WSM PVA Osprey barrel ordered for a hunting rifle, but I don’t have it yet.

It should be a good combo out to 600.
 
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#7
I have zero ew experience with short barrels either. I have 2 done by LRI, 1 is a proof carbon the other is a ss in rem Varmint that i forgot the brand. both are 24"

I just happened to trade into cases of ammo so I've never needed to load for them. I will for this fall though.
 
#9
300wsm is a fantastic cartridge but really shines when built on a long action so the projectiles can be seated farther out. I shot and competed with it for years. My dept issued sniper rifles was chambered in 300wsm. I only parted ways with the round when 300 prc became more mainstream and more supported by the industry.
 
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#10
In my mind, the .300 WSM is a fat .308. Essentially something of a short action with some magnum-ish punch.

More to the point, what can it do?

Mark Boardman at Vortex Nation Podcast, long favors the .300 WSM. In fact, he gets lots of ribbing from cohorts Ryan Muckenhirn and Jimmy Hamilton. But also some love. He still has his Browning A-Bolt .300 WSM that he has hunted just about everything with, including a successful black bear hunt.

Another effective use of that caliber I have seen in New Zealand. There is a channel on YouTube called Rogee Productions. These kiwis take down Reds and some big horn sheep with the .300 WSM. And the way the landscape is, there is no sneaking up on the animal and putting salt on it's tail. Most shots are a few hundreds at the minimum, sometimes farther. Two shooters to make sure the beast goes down. But the lead guy has a .300 WSM with a Zerotech Trace optic on it.

Just depends on what you want to do. The 7 PRC will also do it. With the Mossberg, you can get better results of you at least bed the stock. Their poly stocks have a problem. Put it in a chassis or even a Boyd's with aluminum pillar bedding and you have a good hunting rifle. That being said, I have seen at least one person get really good 3 shot groups with the factory polymer stock.

TLDR, I don't think you can go wrong with the .300 WSM, especially for hunting. I have not seen what it does at ELR.
 
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#11
Sure he can do it, but why not just go with a 300WM for more flexibility on projectile selection and better factory ammo support? Technically the 300 WSM should be slightly more accurate and have little less recoil but most people won't be able to shoot the difference in a hunting gun. Your friend might even be a good candidate for the new 7mm Backcountry if it lives up to the hype.
 
#15
KYAggie said:
I don’t have any personal data as of yet, but from what I’m reading, a 20” 300 WSM should get 200 grain pill moving a bit over 2800 fps, while a 30-06 with a 24” barrel is still around 2675 fps. It should be somewhere in between a 30-06 and 300 win. I do have a 20” 300 WSM PVA Osprey barrel ordered for a hunting rifle, but I don’t have it yet.

It should be a good combo out to 600.
Click to expand...
300 WSM rocks! I agree with it falls between the ‘06 and win mag. Personally I think it shines in the 180-200 gr weight class

I have 2, one with a 24” and another with a 20”. Haven’t shot the 20” much, 50 rounds or so, but so far I’m getting 2775 out of a 200 eldx with h1000. Might get more speed out of it with a different powder. We’ll see as it speeds up.

The 24” I have a bunch of data on. With 200 eldx it has a node at 2850ish, but have gotten it over 2900, just accuracy wasn’t there. 208’s I had trouble getting to shoot. Nodes for my barrel are: 176 Atips are at 3100, 165 tgk’s at 3175, 180 juggs at 3080. One of these days I’m going to work a load with some mono’s, maybe pva’s caygua or CE MTH.
 
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#17
I picked up a Win M70 classic stainless in .300 WSM because I wanted a short-action rifle with .30-06+ performance. It shoots incredibly flat and accurate easily 1/2 MOA with 180 gr ABs over 69.5 gr of WXR at 2970 fps. It’s taken moose, elk, black bear, and wolf. In my opinion, it’s one of the best cartridges developed in the last few decades great factory ammo selection, super versatile, easy to load for, short action, and capable of handling any North American game.
 
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#18
i’ve shot out quite a few 300 wsm barrels in my life. it’s been my favorite all around cartridge for years. i had my own reamer made to optimize the cartridge and my 215gr berger’s years ago in shorter actions. the 300wsm is very efficient compared with the larger belted 300 magnums. i used to shoot 1000 yard benchrest and the 300wsm just always outshot the 300wm and was easier to tune in general. that’s when i converted to the 300wsm. the only drawback was brass. the only decent name in the 300wsm brass game for a long time was Norma but that was changed of late with newer manufactures picking up the 300wsm. with the advent of the newer 230 and 240 grain high bc 30 cal bullets i can see where the 300 prc and 300 norma would have a ballistic edge over the 300wsm nowadays, however i think people get caught up in getting the newest and best thing on the market and put less effort into the art of shooting and the newest and fastest cartridges will never be able to overcome a poor shooter.
 
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#19
Gunny89 said:
I picked up a Win M70 classic stainless in .300 WSM because I wanted a short-action rifle with .30-06+ performance. It shoots incredibly flat and accurate easily 1/2 MOA with 180 gr ABs over 69.5 gr of WXR at 2970 fps. It’s taken moose, elk, black bear, and wolf. In my opinion, it’s one of the best cartridges developed in the last few decades great factory ammo selection, super versatile, easy to load for, short action, and capable of handling any North American game.
Click to expand...

The other good thing about the winchester is the 3.1" short action mag length.
 
#21
Peterpan said:
i’ve shot out quite a few 300 wsm barrels in my life. it’s been my favorite all around cartridge for years. i had my own reamer made to optimize the cartridge and my 215gr berger’s years ago in shorter actions. the 300wsm is very efficient compared with the larger belted 300 magnums. i used to shoot 1000 yard benchrest and the 300wsm just always outshot the 300wm and was easier to tune in general. that’s when i converted to the 300wsm. the only drawback was brass. the only decent name in the 300wsm brass game for a long time was Norma but that was changed of late with newer manufactures picking up the 300wsm. with the advent of the newer 230 and 240 grain high bc 30 cal bullets i can see where the 300 prc and 300 norma would have a ballistic edge over the 300wsm nowadays, however i think people get caught up in getting the newest and best thing on the market and put less effort into the art of shooting and the newest and fastest cartridges will never be able to overcome a poor shooter.
Click to expand...
A buddy of mine built a WSM on a LA throated for the 245’s. His speeds aren’t all that fast but he’s done some impressive ELR stuff with it.
 
#22
Franko said:
but why not just go with a 300WM for more flexibility on projectile selection
Click to expand...
How so?

Ronws said:
I have not seen what it does at ELR.
Click to expand...
It does just fine. 208 ELDMs in mine...

Sunday GunDay: .300 WSM Pending 1K World Record Heavy Gun « Daily Bulletin

This Sunday we feature an impressive .300 WSM Heavy Gun shot by a superb long-range shooter. With this rig, at age 83, Arizona benchrest ace Charles Greer drilled a remarkable 2.862 100-10X group, beating all known 1000-Yard HG 10-shot records on the books.
bulletin.accurateshooter.com bulletin.accurateshooter.com
 
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#23
Wannashootit said:
How so?


It does just fine. 208 ELDMs in mine...

Sunday GunDay: .300 WSM Pending 1K World Record Heavy Gun « Daily Bulletin

This Sunday we feature an impressive .300 WSM Heavy Gun shot by a superb long-range shooter. With this rig, at age 83, Arizona benchrest ace Charles Greer drilled a remarkable 2.862 100-10X group, beating all known 1000-Yard HG 10-shot records on the books.
bulletin.accurateshooter.com bulletin.accurateshooter.com
Click to expand...
The 300WSM is standardized for a short action which does not work as well with long heavy for caliber projectiles. This means that the hypothetical purchaser of this 300WSM is going to have significantly fewer factory ammo choices and they are going to be limited to lighter projectiles.
 
#25
Franko said:
The 300WSM is standardized for a short action which does not work as well with long heavy for caliber projectiles. This means that the hypothetical purchaser of this 300WSM is going to have significantly fewer factory ammo choices and they are going to be limited to lighter projectiles.
Click to expand...

I see what you thinking, if the op doesn’t reload, you’re probably right, a 300 win mag or even a 300 PRC would offer more choices in factory ammo. Looks like the op is in New Zealand, I’m not sure what the ammo availability looks like there, but Federal and Hornady load ammo for the WSM with 200 grain bullets here.

It does say he wants this to be a 20” hunting rifle out to 600 yards and it looks like he is looking at production guns; I’m not sure if anyone has a 20” option for any of the discussed rounds though.

If he loads his own, builds off a custom action, or buys a production gun like a Tikka that allows a longer OAL, then a 20” 300 WSM would fit his needs very nicely without the increased muzzle blast from a win mag or PRC. I’m sure a 20” WSM is bad enough muzzle blast wise; perfect set up for a suppressor.
 
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#26
KYAggie said:
I see what you thinking, if the op doesn’t reload, you’re probably right, a 300 win mag or even a 300 PRC would offer more choices in factory ammo. Looks like the op is in Nee Zealand, I’m not sure what the ammo availability looks like there, but Federal and Hornady load ammo for the WSM with 200 grain bullets here.

It does say he wants this to be a 20” hunting rifle out to 600 yards and it looks like he is looking at production guns; I’m not sure if anyone has a 20” option for any of the discussed rounds though.

If he loads his own, builds off a custom action, or buys a production gun like a Tikka that allows a longer OAL, then a 20” 300 WSM would fit his needs very nicely without the increased muzzle blast from a win mag or PRC. I’m sure a 20” WSM is bad enough muzzle blast wise; perfect set up for a suppressor.
Click to expand...
If reloading was going to be on the table I think the 300WSM in a Tikka action (for a little extra COAL) with a 20 inch barrel would be an excellent choice for all the reasons you highlighted. Particularly now that brass from Lapua and ADG is an option.
 
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#27
Big_les said:
Bergara, tikka , springfield arms , savage he,s thinking .
Click to expand...
Between those, Tikka by a mile.

Maybe I missed it elsewhere in the thread, but what exactly is he planning to shoot at 600m? Targets? Prairie dogs? Elk? Elephants? Graboids? For just target shooting, 300 WSM is massive overkill for 600m. You can do that with a 22 or 6mm cal cartridge that is much milder and less expensive to shoot. For hunting big game, you'd be good to go on just about anything in North America (I personally wouldn't hunt brown bear with it, but it would probably work).
 
#29
Big_les said:
sorry about that poor info. WE are hunters , in New Zealand . Red deer , fallow, sika and pigs
Click to expand...

Thanks. Also, from the listed manufacturers above, is your buddy wanting a 20” production gun, or cutting a barrel on a production gun, or is he using a production action and a custom barrel? Suppressor? Loading your own ammo or factory ammo?
 
#31
From NZ...

.300 Winchester Short Magnum

.300 Winchester Short Magnum
www.ballisticstudies.com

The .300 WSM achieves what its designers intended, duplicating the velocities of the .300 Win Mag from a short, lightweight rifle platform. Generally, the savings in length are approximately 2.5” when using a 24” barrel as opposed to the optimal 26” barrel length for the .300 Win Mag.

Again, the WSM and the WM are ballistic twins. Anyone comparing the WSM to a .308 or .30-06 is on drugs...
 
#34
I recently put together a 300WSM in a short action Origin for steel shooting out to 1,000 yards. I wanted a 30 cal with more power than a 308. I have 7 and 300 PRC's for farther out. The 300WSM is best suited for 200-ish grain or less bullets IMO. I find it easy to load for. A big plus for it is that it works well with easier to find faster powders than the bigger 30 cal magnums.
 
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