Is 300 WSM, Win Mag, RUM, RSUM overkill for your hunting needs?

Mudduck

Mudduck

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I have a 3006 and a 270 WSM. Considering another rifle but really wondering if I need something in 300 series - at least for hunting in Ontario, considering 90 percent of hunting is for deer and moose
Anyone found that their 300 mag does too much damage or is way more power then needed? ... Or have you found some real benefits since moving up from a 270 w or 308.
 
Both those cartridges will definitely put down moose and deer without a doubt. My 300 WSM seems like over kill on deer, it does a lot of damage. 300s seem more well suited for bigger bodied animals like moose. You have 2 great cartridges already, but another one never hurts.
I'd think the RUM would be a better step up. It's really the only one that has a lot more to offer over what you already have now.
Dan
 
My buddy shot a calf moose through the ribs with his 300 ultra mag. Little entrance hole, little exit hole.

After we skinned it much of the opposite front quarter was blood shot and it wasn't even hit. I don't know what it would do to a deer!
 
If you already have a .30-06, you don't need a .30 Magnum (or the .270 for that matter). The next move should be to at least a .338, or you are just being redundant.
 
Not over power. You just need to select the proper bullet for target. It is sure that berger bullet or fragmenting type bullet will always waste alot of meat when badly used.
 
kevin9934 said:
Not over power. You just need to select the proper bullet for target. It is sure that berger bullet or fragmenting type bullet will always waste alot of meat when badly used.
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It's not that at all. I was telling my buddy to either download his 300 RUM or go back to his .308. He's killed game with perfect shots and just the shock of the 300 wasted a lot of meat.

There is such a thing as too much gun. In my camp we are primarily meat hunters. My first moose I took with a 30-06 when I was 15. After that my dad gave me his remington 760 .270 because he wanted a new rifle and I was in love with the 760.

Anyway, I've taken most of my moose and deer (and it's been A LOT) over the last 30 years with the 270 but it's getting long in the tooth and groups were opening up (it's a 1954) so I bought a 7mm mag. Been happy with that using partitions and accubonds. It's not a meat waster.

My buddy with the 300RUM showed me a 1/2" steel plate he drilled right through the center at 250 yards and some targets he nailed at 400. Very accurate and powerful caliber, it's awesome but for hunting in normal conditions and ranges?
Personally I think it's too much if you are a meat hunter like me.
 
07blackwater said:
It's not that at all. I was telling my buddy to either download his 300 RUM or go back to his .308. He's killed game with perfect shots and just the shock of the 300 wasted a lot of meat.

There is such a thing as too much gun. In my camp we are primarily meat hunters. My first moose I took with a 30-06 when I was 15. After that my dad gave me his remington 760 .270 because he wanted a new rifle and I was in love with the 760.

Anyway, I've taken most of my moose and deer (and it's been A LOT) over the last 30 years with the 270 but it's getting long in the tooth and groups were opening up (it's a 1954) so I bought a 7mm mag. Been happy with that using partitions and accubonds. It's not a meat waster.

My buddy with the 300RUM showed me a 1/2" steel plate he drilled right through the center at 250 yards and some targets he nailed at 400. Very accurate and powerful caliber, it's awesome but for hunting in normal conditions and ranges?
Personally I think it's too much if you are a meat hunter like me.
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Sorry but i harvest deer/moose and bigger with a side by side 375H&H and my 6.5 RSAUM and i have never lost meat due to the power of my caliber. i use Barnes X bullet and i aim for the neck junction with shoulder or the shoulder blade and i dont loose any meat so..
You will tell me that a 375 is too much but i hunt exclusively for meat and when i shoot i know for sure that my target will go down DRT. The 300 rum is perfectly ok , just use a good bullet and have a proper shot placement and you wont waste any meat.
1/2 steel plate could be ''drilled right throught'' with a 308..
 
kevin9934 said:
Sorry but i harvest deer/moose and bigger with a side by side 375H&H and my 6.5 RSAUM and i have never lost meat due to the power of my caliber. i use Barnes X bullet and i aim for the neck junction with shoulder or the shoulder blade and i dont loose any meat so..
You will tell me that a 375 is too much but i hunt exclusively for meat and when i shoot i know for sure that my target will go down DRT. The 300 rum is perfectly ok , just use a good bullet and have a proper shot placement and you wont waste any meat.
1/2 steel plate could be ''drilled right throught'' with a 308..
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Yup.

I agree with everything you say. The steel plate comment was simply to show that he thought he needed bigger than a .308, that's all.

And no, I'm not going to tell you that the 375 is too much. I'm just saying that for the size of animals WE hunt the 300RUM wasted a lot of meat. You can't always shoot them in the neck but I'll tell ya, the head or neck is the only place he'd shoot a deer with it.

When you say Barnes bullets, I agree. No matter what bullets he tried in the 300 (he's cheap so they were mainly cup and core) they'd grenade mostly. I emailed Barnes his address and asked them to send him their nifty package with the video and all that 5hit. He ordered some but I haven't talked to him since so I don't know how they worked out for him.

Oh and for those following this thread I highly recommend emailing Barnes and asking for their package, the DVD is awesome and it's free.
 
I used a sierra 130gr in the .270 WSM this year, blew a nasty hole in the deer. in the ribs, and out through the shoulder of the other side. It has plenty of power. And from what I recall from looking at my ballistic software, the .270 WSM has more power than the .308, and almost as much as the .300WSM.
If you want a new rifle.. go for it.
 
rral22 said:
If you already have a .30-06, you don't need a .30 Magnum (or the .270 for that matter). The next move should be to at least a .338, or you are just being redundant.
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I would agree with this, the 30-06 is more than adequate for everything OP has said he hunts and the 338 is a big step up to bigger, heavier bullets that hit harder for the larger, tougher creatures.


Mark
 
I had a 300 Win mag, it kicked a bit, other than that it was no better on deer than my 270. That 270 WSM would be plenty of gun for a moose with 150 gr bullets. And the 30 06 is no slouch either. I'd like to prattle on about how useless magnums are, but I have a 257 Weatherby that I'm a big fan of. All the flat shooting without the shoulder thump. If you want one, get one. If not your other rifles are good enough.
 
The calibers you have will knock down anything that walks in north America. Don't waste you money on a new rifle when you could be buying ammo and practice time for the ones you already have.
 
We need to stop equating meat destruction with bullet diameter, meat destruction is a product of velocity and/or bullet construction. A 130 gn Sierra in a 270 at 3000 fps will destroy more meat by far than a 270 gn TSX in a 375 @ 2800 fps or a 416 400 gn @ 2500 or a 458 500 gn @ 2400. If that same 130 gn in the 270 @ 3000 fps is a Nosler Part the meat destruction will be less with an identical placement, but will still be significant if the impact velocity is over say 2800 fps.
My 257 Wby is without a doubt the most meat destructive cartridge I've ever used on game followed closely by the 300 Rum and 165 gn Accubonds, in both these cartridges the velocity is extreme and I don't care if you used solid bullets the blood shock would still be extensive. On the other side of the coin you can pop a deer or what ever with a 30-30 (muzzle velocity about 2200 fps) and a quite rapidly expanding bullet and eat right up to the hole, as they say.
If you want to use a 300 mag for smaller game like deer (as I do, a 300 Wby because I love it and trust it implicitly) and want to minimize meat loss use a heavy premium bonded bullet. I use 200 gn accubonds and find meat loss to be no more than a 180 gn '06. I have also used 200 gn Parts and 200 gn A-frames and all work well and do not destroy an outlandish amount of meat, DEPENDING ON SHOT PLACEMENT and this is always one of the biggest determining factors. However these bullets will do less damage than say a 165 gn Sierra or Berger out of my Wby with the same shot placement, where ever it may hit.
 
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