Another vote for the 300wm, as others have posted, ammo availability, price,etc. I have 2 300wm and 2 06's, for me the 300 with it's flatter trajectory makes life a little easier when having to take a longer shot (300-400 yrds). Always wanted a 300 h+h, cool factor and I love the old cartridges.

300 Weatherby Magnum or 300 RUM, they are very similar.

Oscar.

I'll take headspacing the Ultra shoulder out of the gate,though case length is a bane.

Anyone mention 7WSM yet?

quote:

Originally posted by Whirlwind:

Anyone mention 7WSM yet?

Doesn't a 30 cal bullet cause your 7WSM a little pressure issue ???

Never tried,but mebbe you will and with Bullseye to boot? Lookig forward to your report(pun intended).

Now necking 30cal hulls to 284 do suit me,as I've long been a falseshoulder fan,for controlling headspace.

I have two 300's. I have the 300 ultra and the 300 Win Mag. And love them both.

im pretty sure the whole headspacing, belt shoulder thing was nothing i was ever concerned about nor heard much about before the RUM and WSM cartridges came out. now i sure could care less as there's waaaaaay tooo many super accurate 300WM, 300 WBM, 375 HH, and 300 HH out there to convince me it's something to worry about. pretty sure people are trying to sell new cartridges is it.

1) 300 H&H
2) 300 Wby

ive had a number of 300 mags through the years in weatherby norma winchester and h&h. Dont have much use for the short mags as i think there an answer to a question that doesnt exist. Not that they wont kill just as well but i just dont see any advantage and finding brass can be troublesome. What i have left is a 26 inch rem 700 in 3oo win mag that i use as a long range deer gun loaded with 165s and a 24 inch 300 weatherby 700 remington that i use with 180s and 200s for larger animals. I kept these two 300s more because they shoot so well then a matter of which one is the better round. The H&H and the norma have a cool factor but i find myself hunting brass more then game. I do wish i would have held on to my H&H rem classic though.

I wouldn't take any of them. The 30-06 AI pushes a 200 grain bullet to within 150 fps of the 300 win mag without the fuss. It basically performs exactly the same but more efficiently.

The 300's are my favorite cartridges. I currently have four: A 300 H&H, two 30-338's, and a 300 Win.

Of them all, I like the 30-338's the best, in a standard length action.

If you are going to use a magnum length action, then I would go for the 300 Win. loaded to about 3.580".

I have been shooting a .300 Winny as my go to rifle for nearly 20 years. Both for deer and groundhogs. I love the round. Now that the barrel is about shot out I have thought about stepping up to .300 Wby. or Ultra but I just don't think I will.

I've had experience with only two 300 Mags....the WSM and the 300 Dakota.
The Dakota wins hands down....you can load it up in bullet weight (and powder) without the bullet buried in powder.
Bob

quote:

Originally posted by phurley5:
I have shot them all extensively over the years including the new .300 Ultra Mag that I shot for a buddy that wanted an Elk load developed. I would stick with the .300 Winny, with no looking back. The 180 grain North Fork or Nosler Partition at 3100 fps and the 200 grainers at 2950 fps will do all I want a 300 to do. Good shooting.

I agree.

I must have been mistaken. I thought there was only one, Holland's 300 Magnum. Aren't the rest just imitators and emulators?

The 308 Norma - when you only have a short action and you want to emulate the 300H&H

The 300 Winchester - effort to copy Norma's emulation. It must be better because it has a Winchester brand

The 300 Wby - an attempt to improve a good design by ignoring the balance between pressure, efficiency, recoil, blast, and bore life

The short 300s - emulations that could be chambered in rifles 1" shorter and 2oz lighter because that makes the rifles magically better and generates sales

The 30 Blaser - an imitation of Holland's 300 Flanged version

Note: This is all meant in good fun and with tongue in cheek.

You just flew into some backwoods destination in Alaska for a once in a lifetime bear hunt or into Jo-Berg for a once in a lifetime plains game hunt. Your rifle made it but the luggage with your ammo didn't. If you're carrying a .300 Win Mag you are good to go. If you're carrying a .300 H&H or .300 Weatherby you have maybe a 1 in 4 chance of finding ammo. Any of the other .30 cal mags and you are SOL.

quote:

Originally posted by Clem:
I wonder if there is an animal that the 30 cal mags has killed that has not been equally killed by a 30-06?

+1

L

quote:

Originally posted by Brazos Jack:
You just flew into some backwoods destination in Alaska for a once in a lifetime bear hunt or into Jo-Berg for a once in a lifetime plains game hunt. Your rifle made it but the luggage with your ammo didn't. If you're carrying a .300 Win Mag you are good to go. If you're carrying a .300 H&H or .300 Weatherby you have maybe a 1 in 4 chance of finding ammo. Any of the other .30 cal mags and you are SOL.

I have hunted and traveled with my own firearms in Alaska and internationally, although not to Africa. I pack the ammo in a case, the gun in a case, and both of those cases in a larger case. If the ammo doesn't make it then the rifle didn't either. If that ever happened it wouldn't matter because then I would have to use a loaner.

If I have to pick from a half dozen or so calibers to make sure the smallest shop in the world has ammo in stock when I get there then I might as well just borrow a rifle after I arrive. If I was worried about the availability of ammo in remote locations then I would only have rifles in those few calibers. I'm not going to limit my choice of firearms like that.

If you want the power of a .300 magnum then I am sure any of them will do the job. Other than that we all have our own preferences and priorities.

I've reloaded and shot the 300 win quite a bit and respect it so if I were pressed to decide today it would be that one. Unless your shooting a mile I see not reason to punish yourself with a RUM or 30-378. The short mags don't perform any better and ultra light magnums is not my thing.

I pulled the data from the Hodgdon loads for 150, 165, 180 and 200 grainers.

The average velocities of the 4 bullet weights and for all listed maximum loads each bullet weight and all listed powders

300 Win........ 2988
300 Wby....... 3055
300 RUM........3158
30-378..........3362

The average all 4 bullet weights with load that gave highest velocity

300 Win........ 3109
300 Wby....... 3208
300 RUM........3323
30-378..........3484

I own the 300 WIN MAG and the 300 RUM. I am happy with both of them.

I am very interested in the short mags but never tried any of them (yet).

Have some experience with the 300 Win Mag and it's a quite nice cartridge. But I believe that the 308 Norma Mag and 30-338 are "better" designs.

Right now my only magnum is the 300 RUM. I think it's pretty nice but so far I can't see any benefits over the 300 Win Mag. But I haven't gone for maximum loads yet. The recoil and muzzle blast are in a class of their own.

My personal opinion is that the 300 Win Mag and Wby are probably at the limit when it comes to 26" barrels. The 300 RUM and 30-378 would probably benefit from a 30"+ barrel.

I have owned a 300wsm, have a 300 Win project being built, and currently own a 300 Wby. The difference between any of these really is a moot point. Get a 180gr bullet in the vicinity of 3000fps and you're golden for anything that walks on this continent.

The way I see it, the choice between them is more about the rifle package then the cartridge. If you're not a handloader *like my current temporary situation* then all 3 have more choices in ammo and bullets from C&C to premiums then anyone could care to test. Honestly when looking apples to apples, the Wby is only about 10-15 more per box then the others. I know everyone likes to compare the 15$ box of 30-06 or 25$ box of 300 Winny.....but you can't compare factory fodder Corelokts or Vital-shok against Barnes TSX or TBBCT bullets.

Ill keep my Bee, build my Winny and likely pick up another WSM. The way I see it, I got the best of the bunch in Short, Standard and Long actions

I have an unmolested Pattern 14 action and a 27.5" 30 caliber heavy weight barrel. I am seriously considering having Tip Burns couple the two and make me a magnum. The only one I would consider is 300 H&H. 3000fps on a 180 is plenty damn fast!

Andy

In about 1978 I had my trusty old .30-06 rechambered to .30 Gibbs. Mostly because I thought the case looked really cool.

That .30 Gibbs pushed 180 gr Partitions out at just a hair under 3000 fps. I killed two moose and a couple dozen elk with that rifle. It was my favorite "big" rifle.

Then a few years ago, I filled a life long dream, and built a .300 Weatherby. Since I also built a .375 Ultra mag recently, .30 is no longer my "big" caliber so my .300 Wby is now my favorite "medium" cartridge.

I have two of them. I have the 300 win mag.and
the 300 RUM.

I have 2 of them a Remington model 700 XCR II in 300 RUM and a Remington model 700 SPS in 300 WSM

I won a 300 rcm at our RMEF a while back. The 20" stainless model.

Not many factory loadings, and really not much reloading info. I had to channel out the stock to get it to shoot less than 2".

It was a decent rifle though, but the lack of non-hronady ammo was difficult. For example, last year the only offering of lead-free ammo for the rcm (I'm in the lead fee zone in CA) was Hornady's 150 gr gmx. The ammo was okay, and I got by with it, but it was not what I wanted. The wsm and win mag have 180 gr tsx loads (+ plenty of reloading data too).

For reloading, it was difficult to get close to Hornady's FPS without the powder they are using. Without their powder, all you really have is a 30-06 (in a case that is difficult to find ammo for and to reload for).

I traded it for new gun safe. If I bought one, I'd get a win mag or h&h (which I have long drooled over).

Not really any debate in my book. It's the .300 H&H. If you're a handloader, the options are endless, and the overall best .300 mag load is the H&H, 200 grain speer spitzers pushed at 2900 using 4831. Perfect for any big game in NA and a fantastic plains game round for Africa. All other .300's are "me toos". It'a the only belted .300 mag I would own. Mike

300 WSM for me. I've killed close to 80 head of game with it in Africa, the U.S. and Mexico. It's my go to gun. I'm having another one built for me even as I write.

quote:

Originally posted by mdstewart:
Not really any debate in my book. It's the .300 H&H. If you're a handloader, the options are endless, and the overall best .300 mag load is the H&H, 200 grain speer spitzers pushed at 2900 using 4831. Perfect for any big game in NA and a fantastic plains game round for Africa. All other .300's are "me toos". It'a the only belted .300 mag I would own. Mike

Mike, the only way I can improve on what you said is to replace the Speer bullet with a 200 gr North Fork bullet. I am shooting a 200 gr Rhino Solid Shank bullet with good effect.

Warrior

quote:

Originally posted by DougH9:
two 30-338's

What is the difference between the 30-338 and the 308 Norma?

quote:

The two are very close; I think the only difference is that the 308 Norma has a slightly longer neck.

The advantage of the 30-338 is that brass is easy to come by; 7 Rem mag, 338 Win, etc., which are just a tad too short for the Norma's extra length.

Perhaps its a curmudgeon thang! We all like the 300 H&H..it does better with long 200 and 220 gr. bullets than the others and I have a chrongraph and years of experimentation.

With 150s, 165s and 180s it equals the 300 Win and its ilk, because you have to seat the long big bullets in the powder space of the 300 win. etc and they can't cook like a 300 H&H with its big case and long neck where the seated bullet doesn't take up any powder space. and it can only be beat by the 300 WBy and only then by a tad..The new Rums etc will beat it by a little I am sure but not much and at the expense of great muzzle blast, muzzle flash, and very snappy recoil that isn't necessary IMO...

I don't care who uses what, just stateing my reason for adopting the 300 H&H many years ago and keep that ole worn out M-70 all these years, It still gets me 3000 plus FPS with a 200 gr. Nosler or Woodleigh,not bad for an old gun whore like myself that dumps most guns after about 3 or 4 months..

For those not fond of Magnum recoil, If ones 30/06 can group the http://www.gsgroup.co.za/308177HV198.html accurately, at easy 2700mv,
it hits about as hard as reg.factory 300win/180np at 400yd...

I have two 300 magnums. One it the 300 win mag,
the other is the 300 ultra mag. I wouldn't part with either one.