You read my mind savage. A "short" mag with an oal of 3.34" would certainly get me to buy one. I feel someone needs to make a line with a case exactly in between the WSM and RUM. You have a slightly shorter action than the RUMs with the kick of a 300WM, and you have more velocity than the WSMs.

Does anyone have any insite on the next WSM. I am hoping for a .35 (no chance). I have heard the 338 is getting a close look. Thanks for any info.......

It seems as though a .338WSM would be a natural fit.

AD

You know that is a good question, I know what I would think would be an intelligent way for Win to go but after their deal with going to the 25 WSSM who the heck knows...

I have a 338/300 WSM ( a gift from a guy I guided for bear last fall). It is a M70 with a 21" Schneider 3 weight on it. It is a nice rig and it runs about 100 fps behind the 338 WM. I think it would be a good seller for Win but it would not have the sales appeal of say a 25 WSM, at least not in the area where I live.

The way I see it the only small problem with the 338 WSM is the fact that it just isn't a rocket when it comes to speed and around here that is what so much of the new gun sales are built around.

It would do well for them but not as good as the 25. But, with them doing the 25 WSSM, me thinks they would not go that way.

The 6.5 would have some appealbut not sure it would make it either.

I am just rambling now but I do believe that Win's super shorts will be dead an gone in 5 years or less.

Have a great day gang

"GET TO THE HILL"

Dogz

How bout a 45 or a 50 WSM? .... for groundhogs at 1500 yds....with ballistic tips....MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Winchester hit a home run with the WSM's. Well almost. They started a 7mm WSM and then redesigned it so as to make sure it did not chamber in a 270 WSM.

Now after a year or so of looking at the WSSM's over there I am thinking they are long on overhead and little short on common sense.

Of course a .338 WSM would be powerful and useful but when your up in that bore diameter it's power the guys want and it's not going to run with the .338 WM.

Winchester might do well to market a 3.34" long cartridge on the WSM profile. It would have made a better .30 magnum and will make an excellent .338" and up. Sort of like what Newton did a hundred years ago it seems. The Dakota line is out there but they don't have critical mass.

I can see the marketing now on how they kick less than a RUM or Weatherby.

With Winchester introducing the 25 WSSM that pretty much says .270 is about as small as there willing to go and due to the size of the case and neck I wouldn't think it would due very well any larger than .338................am I wrong?

Isn't that what a .300 Win mag and 7mm Rem mag are basically??

YES, BUT........ as you must surely know by now, the WSMs are "inherently more accurate", MUCH lighter to carry, have an all-important half-inch shorter bolt-throw (indeed, a miracle in and of itself!), do away with that gawd-awful, problematic belt (you've had problems with belts, haven't you? Hasn't EVERYONE?), and EQUAL OR EXCEED belted magnum balistics in a short case! The stuff the dreams are made of...... Sort of like buying that fifty-foot yacht that measures only thirty feet on the outside!

AD

Hey AD you forgot one they kick less....grins, it kind of sounds like you feel about these things kind of like I do. But hey some marketing guys at Win still have jobs and are putting their kids thru college eh.(although after the 25 WSSM I feel they should be in the soup line)

Have a great day

"GET TO THE HILL"

Dogz

I'd like to have a dollar for each time I heard one of those you mentioned or the one I mentioned and we'd be taking a trip to Sonora to hunt "cows" for free. (It never ceases to amaze me what people will buy into) Just spend a bit of time behind a gun counter for a while and you all will see what I mean.

BC,

Yes, but the improved shoulder and no belt. Yah, probably not much improvement over my 300WM, but I want a new rifle in the future, and heck, if they made one I would buy one. I would like to see them also increase the length of the neck though.

Actually, if they were to keep the same case taper (or lack thereof) and stretch it from its current 2.8" OAL to 3.3" OAL, I would expect a SUBSTANTIAL increase in performance! It is already right there with the 300Wm and 7Mag, so a .5" increase in case length would be a lot more powder!



I don't see it happening though, as the whole point of a shorter lighter rifle plays against the bigger case idea. Having a mag case in a 1/2 pound lighter short action rifle is tolerable, but an Ultramag/Dakota capacity is getting beyond what most consumers (present company excluded of course) would buy at the local WallyWorld/Academy/Oshmans etc.



IMHO, of course.



I don't see a .338 or .35 WSM as a factory offering either, insufficient demand. The wildcat option is always open, though, and there are quite a few out there, judging from the comments I have been reading on this and other forums.

Honstly, I cannot think of any one serious hunter I've met over the last couple of years that has bought a WSM because he aspires towards precision shooting. (Not a poke at you Savage 99 but just calling it the way I see it)

To me the WSM's are a great marketing game, the have sold a ton of the rifles and my hats are off to them for doing so. But that to me in no justify's it, if they made them a ton load lighter than the average mag I could see there value. But with the exception of the coming Kimber/Big Sky they haven't yet hit that light weight,and that rifle is not on the market or proven yet.

The serious hunters I know are still using the old mags whether they are ones they already own, or are ones that they want to pick up and start with.

Honestly I am glad for the fact that Win has had success with the WSM's. However I still believe anything that is said for the WSM's benefit comes strongly under the title of micro mgt.

Just my thoughts and isn't it great that we all can agree to disagree.........grins, have a super day

"GET TO THE HILL"

Dogz

The rifle pictured below is a PSA action with a Hart barrel twisted 1-10 and set up to shoot the 200 gr MK at 1000 yds. It's in a final tune up for the National Matches by very serious shooters. The cartridge is the .300 WSM. They don't use the belted magnums any more because they are not as accurate.

It will be interesting to see what Win does with either the WSM or WSSM next.

I would not be surprized to see either in 6.5, or the WSM in .25 or .338.

That is if Big Green dosen't beat them.