Thoughts on the 300wsm?

I had a 300 wsm in a kimber 8400. Beautiful rifle and soft shooting.
The tight kimber chamber and short fat cases gave me fits loading or it.
 
JDForBrkFst said:
Marlon, thanks for reminding me.

I shoot my 300wsm to a km (not that far on game). But I have it doped out to that far and can engage my 12 inch gong without much effort. I roll my own as it's an expensive round. You can get the most out of it by doing that. Also it's short and fat design makes it efficient and allows for a lower loss of velocity with a shorter barrel. I run mine at 20 inches and I have two friends who run their 300wsm's at 18.5".

175gr Berger VLD with 65gr of 4350 has been my go to for a number of years.
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Can I ask what the twist rates are for these barrels ? Ive been thinking about getting a 300 wsm barrel cut shorter to the 20 or 18.5" length.
 
I got a Tikka T3 in 300wsm.. I love the round. Shoot 180g Winchester accubonds and 180 federal nosler.
Have taken deer, moose and elk. Deer and elk all with in 110 yards and
Moose from 50 to 480 yards.. great cartridge in my opinion.
That being said I hunt with 308 as well and it’s a great cartridge too. Personally for what you are wanting I’d
Stick with the 308.
 
bdb.hunting said:
Can I ask what the twist rates are for these barrels ? Ive been thinking about getting a 300 wsm barrel cut shorter to the 20 or 18.5" length.
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I had to look it up. The book says 1-11 twist rate. Accuracy if anything improved with the barrel cut. It was already shooting .5-.75 moa with my handloads. Mine is a T3 Lite in a varmint stock with upgraded recoil lug and flush cups installed. Dope chart on rite in the rain paper on the stock. Has a Nightforce SHV 4-14x. It really is a jack of all trades hunting rifle. I hunt the mountains, foothills, prairies, and northern boreal of Alberta.
 
JDForBrkFst said:
I had to look it up. The book says 1-11 twist rate. Accuracy if anything improved with the barrel cut. It was already shooting .5-.75 moa with my handloads. Mine is a T3 Lite in a varmint stock with upgraded recoil lug and flush cups installed. Dope chart on rite in the rain paper on the stock. Has a Nightforce SHV 4-14x. It really is a jack of all trades hunting rifle. I hunt the mountains, foothills, prairies, and northern boreal of Alberta.
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Perfect. I picked up a stainless lite tikka barrel with the 1-11 twist and wasnt sure how it would perform cut short. Its going to get the chop before fall :D not sure if I will thread it or just add a heavier stock. Currently running a CTR stock.
 
I found a Limbsaver brand recoil pad helped tremendously. It was admittedly a bit unpleasant to shoot before that, but man what a difference after. The varmint stock is the same as the regular lite stock but with an added cheek and forend piece. So a pretty light stock. My rifle is set up to be light and handy with a bit of an exception in the optic.

The outfitter I work for has his rifle cut a bit shorter than my 20" at 18.5". His is in a varmint stock as well. He doesn't have the limbsaver pad but got it integrally ported when he had it cut. I find it unpleasant to be around as it's loud. I've been with a couple clients shooting it. I just swapped optics and zero'd it in anticipation of a clients hunt last month and found it recoiled about the same as my slightly longer and unported rifle. The felt recoil was about the same. I think I made the right choice in going limbsaver instead of porting.
 
bdb.hunting said:
Can I ask what the twist rates are for these barrels ? Ive been thinking about getting a 300 wsm barrel cut shorter to the 20 or 18.5" length.
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Depends on the bullet weight you want to shoot. the 300 WSM has a broad range of use. If you are planning for 180+ gr, than 1-10 seems to be the go to. Some folks use 110 gr bullets for varmint hunting and are running 1-14s.

IF you are planning on hunting bigger game, or doing longer range target shooting, than you will probably err towards the heavier bullets and so would want the faster twists. 1-10 is probably the most common I've seen. You'd probably be fine with 1-11 or 1-12, unless you are planning on handling bullets over 200 grs.
 
JDForBrkFst said:
I found a Limbsaver brand recoil pad helped tremendously. It was admittedly a bit unpleasant to shoot before that, but man what a difference after. The varmint stock is the same as the regular lite stock but with an added cheek and forend piece. So a pretty light stock. My rifle is set up to be light and handy with a bit of an exception in the optic.

The outfitter I work for has his rifle cut a bit shorter than my 20" at 18.5". His is in a varmint stock as well. He doesn't have the limbsaver pad but got it integrally ported when he had it cut. I find it unpleasant to be around as it's loud. I've been with a couple clients shooting it. I just swapped optics and zero'd it in anticipation of a clients hunt last month and found it recoiled about the same as my slightly longer and unported rifle. The felt recoil was about the same. I think I made the right choice in going limbsaver instead of porting.
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I put a limbsaver on my custom Tikka T3 and it helped quite a bit. The rifle already had a 28" heavy contour barrel. What really helped was when I dropped it into a custom Robertson Composites fibreglass stock, which was weighted on a high side of the scale. Gun, Sight, and bipod tip the scales at around 16 lbs, which most people here would think its heavier than two hunting rifles should be. To each their own.

Best grouping I've shot with handloads was .3 MOA @ 300 Meters, and its held Sub MOA out to 1000.
 
The 300 WSM. It's short. It's fat. It works fine anyway. I have never liked it but have built a few. Early factory loads were loaded hot and would blow primers in many rifles. I suspect they have backed off a bit in recent years. A 180 grain bullet, starting out at 3000 fps, is a pretty fine recipe for taking big game and the WSM is among the cartridges that will do that. Short and fat but still capable. That's as close as I can come to praise for it.
 
Leeper said:
The 300 WSM. It's short. It's fat. It works fine anyway. I have never liked it but have built a few. Early factory loads were loaded hot and would blow primers in many rifles. I suspect they have backed off a bit in recent years. A 180 grain bullet, starting out at 3000 fps, is a pretty fine recipe for taking big game and the WSM is among the cartridges that will do that. Short and fat but still capable. That's as close as I can come to praise for it.
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With my handloads in a 28" barrel I can push 210 gr bullets at 3200 without blowing primers. Barrel only lasts about a thousand rounds though, so there's that.
 
here a lot of people are one rifle/caliber for everything inclunding bison and it is the 300wsm in the past it was the 300win mag but like the 30-06 even it is working in most conditions i consider it a little on the light side when things can go differently than planned ...
 
struff55 said:
Out to 300-350 yds the 308win or the 30-06 is capable of killing moose no problem
The 300 wsm May offer a bit more energy past that range but not enough to be a game changer .
If your thinking past those ranges 7 mm mag with 160 gr bullets or 300 win mag 165-180 gr bullets
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300wsm won't do it but a 300 win Mag will? Lol
 
Both of my 300 WSM's get a steady diet of 165 grain bullets and healthy charges of Reloader 19.
The recipe came with the test target of my first HS Precision and I've stuck with it ever since.
The 300 Win Mag or Weatherby Mag might be a better choice if you are looking to launch 200 grain plus bullets but that's more a feature of action length.
Brass and factory ammo have never been an issue and case life is so far been very good.
 
Still dreaming of a 35 Sambar carbine in a short action mod 70

325 wsm slinging 220s in a straight grip BLR might be cool.

300 wsm? No interest here. Apparently it’s pretty popular. Would have to be in an action scaled to the c.o.a.l to catch my attention. I think they missed the boat not doing a med bore option out of the gate. Instead we got 270 and 7 and 308 and 8mm; who was in charge of that marketing team?
 
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