# 300 Win Mag



## Zelph (Dec 2, 2007)

I was listening to gun talk a couple of weekends ago and the host posed a question to a couple of experts that if you were given a choice of one caliber for all of big game hunting for the rest of your life what would it be, and all three said that it would be the 300 Win. Mag. I was wondering what you guys know and think about that particular caliber. I was raised using the 30.06 and it has done well on different big game. I wish I could tell you about some great LE elk that I had killed with it, however I can't seem to draw. What do you guy think about the 300 versus the 30.06? I'm curious.


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## suave300 (Sep 11, 2007)

I would agree with them as well. I have a 300 WIN mag and love it. Its a very versitle gun. You can load it lightly with small loads, or you can load it heavy with bigger loads and bullets. It has a lot more energy and velocity than a 30-06. Which means that you can use it on bigger animals and not worry about if it has enough to kill it.


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## Poo Pie (Nov 23, 2007)

Zelph, I never worry about my 30.06 being able to kill anything I shoot at. I would say as long as you hit your target well an .06 will handle anything in North America. I would not trade mine.


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## ramrod (Apr 15, 2008)

the 30 06 is a good gun but the 300 will carrie further and hit harder in areas where long shots need to be made I use my 300


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## threshershark (Sep 7, 2007)

You get a few main things as you move up the cartridge chain:

- Velocity. This can either be useful or useless depending on how you hunt. At ranges inside of, say, 200 yards most of the standard high powered rifle cartridges bigger than .270 are fine for elk. Most rounds start to bleed energy pretty fast beyond 300 yards, so magnum chamberings extend effective range.
- Recoil. Calibersfrom about .243 up to .30-06 are in the "sweet spot." This means they are relatively efficient, producing good bullet velocities with reasonable recoil. Right around the .30-06 case size (.270, .280, .284, etc. are all in this area) you can fling a bullet of 130-160 grains downrange at around 2800 fps. At that point you have what is called the point of diminishing returns. Basically, to get an extra 200 or 300 fps you need to start burning a LOT more powder.
- Trajectory. Faster bullets have a flatter trajectory (provided they are well designed) at 300+ yards.

Cartridge debates will always rage. Magnums mainly extend your range, and if the places you hunt don't require long shots then there is little reason to enjoy extra recoil and muzzle blast. If your shots average 200+ yards, the .300 mag, .300 WSM, .338, etc. will retain more bullet energy and shoot flatter.


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## prettytiedup (Dec 19, 2007)

The one gun you should have is the one you shoot the best. A 300 win mag won't do you a bit of good if you're flinching because of the recoil. Recoil is a fact of life and the bigger and faster the bullet the worse it is. Find a gun you're comfortable shooting and practice, practice, practice. Any rifle .243 and larger is more than capable of killing anything you'll find here in utah.


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## Nueces (Jul 22, 2008)

It all comes to shot placement. The key advantage of the 300 Win Mag is the trajectory. Unless you are carrying a laser and guess at your yardage, the beauty of the 300 is the flat trajectory. The .30-06 is an old technology bullet, nothing wrong with it and I have killed plenty with it. The .30-30 is worse. So if you guess the wrong yardage there is a higher probability you could miss with a rainbow trajectory caliber than a flat shooting one.

Those are the criteria I look at in a gun - how flat does it shoot. Small high speed bullets are flat shooting also, every gun has it's place.

The key to the flinch is to squeeze. You should be surprised when the gun goes off, that's a perfect squeeze. Other options are to look at the pounds of pull on a trigger. Shooting from sand bags on a bench at 200 yards, you can still pull your gun off several inches if you are not pulling the trigger back correctly. Practice dry firing with an empty case in the chamber and see how you can keep the crosshairs on target.

The .300 Remington Ultra Mag is better than the .300 Win Mag, but it's newer technology.


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## Loke (Sep 7, 2007)

My favorite kind of debate. The kind that doesn't matter. With 200 yard zeros, and shooting the same 165 grain Hornady bullet, there is 3 whole inches difference in trajectory at 400 yards. I'll bet the cross hair in your scope covers more area than that. I shoot a 300 Win, but I realize that a 30-06 is just as effective at reasonable ranges. There are a lot of folks that want to be super snipers and shoot their animals at 1000+ yards. There may even be one or two that are capable of doing just that, but I haven't met them yet.


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## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

Better part of 20 years ago, I had a .300 win.
I was devoted to the sniper mentality. I had three different load combinations that all shot to the same zero, and if you think that is easy, try it. A 150gr, a 165gr, and a 180gr.
That means, if you aren't clear, that three different bullet weights, followed approximately the same path downrange and hit the target in the same spot without adjusting the scope. At the point blank range of 300 yards. Beyond that they started to vary somewhat. I did not have to worry about holdover or such things out to about 400 yards.

I had two loads that would do this in my 25.06 as well. One big game and one Varmint.

Anyway, I fired that gun every week, and got to where I could hit a 1000 yard target every time. (I always used the 165gr for this.)
Said target being no bigger than a pie plate, which is what I actually used most of the time.

I won a lot of money off of guys that thought I was full of crap, and within a year paid off both my .300 and my 25.06. (won as much as I had spent :mrgreen: )

I used a 30.06 for a long time as well. 
I had the advantage that my .300 was an extremely accurate rifle, so it was my hands down favorite of the two. That being said, I talked to a guy who guided for grizzly in Alaska, and he told me that he would rather have a guy show up in camp with a 30.06 he could shoot accurately and quickly, than a guy with a bigger caliber that he was scared of.

So out of the two, go with what you are MOST comfortable with. A 30.06 will kill any animal on this continent and most of the animals in the rest of the world. The few animals that it probably would not kill effectively are just as unlikely to be clean kills with a .300win.

_*That *_being said, while a 30.06 will kill say, a moose, or even a Kodiak, I would just as soon have a .300 in my hands for those, if not even bigger. But would be perfectly willing to take a moose with my 25.06 if the shot I needed was available and that was all I had.


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## flyguy7 (Sep 16, 2007)

Or you could slice the pie right down the middle and go with the 7MM rem mag. Less recoil and blast than a 300 mag and a flatter trajectory than the 30-06. The 7mag carries more energy than the '06 and at longer distances is right at the heels of the 300.


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## Guns and Flies (Nov 7, 2007)

flyguy7 said:


> Or you could slice the pie right down the middle and go with the 7MM rem mag. Less recoil and blast than a 300 mag and a flatter trajectory than the 30-06. The 7mag carries more energy than the '06 and at longer distances is right at the heels of the 300.


This is what I have decided on, I am a buck 50 dripping wet and hate recoil (maybe a buck 55 after Thanksgiving), but want the power at longer ranges.


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## James (Oct 7, 2007)

> What do you guy think about the 300 versus the 30.06? I'm curious.


The 30-06 is a great cartridge. It is enough for any game in Utah for sure. The ammo is readily available and at a much better price than the 300. You couldn't go wrong with it.

The main thing (BAD) I see with the 300 is that recoil. So many guys I know, who have magnums, have right off the bat, and maybe the first shot, got a scope ring around the eye. After that they can't hit the side of a barn if they were in it. "Flinch". Another draw back is the cost of ammo. Yes, its a little faster and flatter shooting, but you have to ask if its worth it?


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## sagebrush (Sep 8, 2007)

I have a 300 win and do not see the problems that some of you are stating with this caliber. i like this gun rather well. over this past weekend I have shot an easy 200 rounds -8/- and do not feel any ill side effects from it. More pleasue than pain. _O\


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## James (Oct 7, 2007)

200 rounds in a weekend? I sure hope you reload for that bad boy? Otherwise your wallet will be feeling the bad effects. :lol: 

Years ago I sighted in a new 300 Win rifle for a young friend. I really liked the rifle. I also coached him some in its use. I never heard anything but praise for that rifle. 

Of more importance than caliber is learning to hit the target. The way we learn that is by shooting. 

What is your rifle and scope sagebrush?


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## sagebrush (Sep 8, 2007)

James said:


> What is your rifle and scope sagebrush?


my weekend started with Wednesday
rem 700 adl Burris full field II 3x9x40 (as of right now) I recently bought a Burris black diamond for it , but the scope seems to have some problems I sent it in last week for Burris to look at it. one of the reason for so many rounds this past weekend


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