Does Anyone REALLY Hunt With 300 Win Mag?

[GSPKurt]

I have a .300 WM Weatherby Vanguard Stainless. I use it to deer hunt, hogs, too . It's a little stout, but some shots go 150 yards, and I don't want to push the .30-30.

 

[MCgunner]

You can shoot 300 yards with the .30-30 with Leverlution. I've never shot it, but shoot similar Nosler 150 BT handloads in .30-30. Even from a 12" contender, it's a 200 yard gun ballistically.

 

[SHOOT1SAM]

No, I do not hunt with a .300 Win. Mag.

I hunt with a .358 Norma Magnum because it is the most accurate rifle I shoot.

Sam

 

[mustang_gt_350]

I carry my 6mm (95gr CT nosler) for the pa deer season, but my grandfather used to carry his 300 H&H every season. I am currently in the planning stage for a 338 win mag.

 

[gdvan01]

I'd love to have a .300 or .338, just in case you need that extra 'touch'. Due to financial considerations at the moment, the .308 will suffice.

 

[Iggy]

I bought a 300 H&H Mag in 1957

I was 14 years old and paid $81.00 for it new and got a box of shells thrown in by the dealer.

Shot my first antelope a week later, elk a couple of weeks later. It kicked like hell back then, but I grew up with that rifle.

It has made meat many many times since then. Never felt the need for anything else. Well, I have successfully hunted with a muzzle loader and Sharp's 45-70, but my meat gun is a the 300 H&H.

I'm still shootin' it.

 

[Charles S]

I have and do hunt with the 300 Magnums; I have more than one and hunt with all of them. I am really impressed with the 300 Winchester Magnum’s versatility. I have a Thompson Center Encore with a 27 ½ inch Shilen barrel in 300 Win Mag that is very accurate and the performance is very impressive.

The 300 magnums really are not that punishing of the bench to me. I really don’t find that there is a noticeable difference in a 300 Mag with a good platform and a good recoil pad and a 30-06.

Honestly, my most unpleasant gun off the bench is a very light 270 Winchester. I find the recoil from that rifle much more unpleasant than the recoil from my Winchester model 70 300 Mag.

Are the 300 Magnums necessary for most game? No, not for me. Honestly the 30-06 is substantial overkill on most of the game I shoot.

 

[TimboKhan]

My roommate successfully killed a deer with his .300 just last weekend. For game that small, he typically uses his .308, he was having scope issues and so used the .300. My primary hunting rifle is a 7mmRemMag, and my secondary is a .270.

 

[H&Hhunter]

My magnum is a .391 Rumpripper Magnum. I have a 40 power scope on it with a laser range finder and a bullet tracking GPS.

My bullets are packed in salt.

They need to be so that my game doesn't rot because I shoot game so far away that it'd be ruined by the time I can walk the 5 ridge lines over to it. The salt preserves the critter.

The GPS bullet tracker is an important component to my shooting as well because often the game I drop is so far away that it'll be covered in snow and or the mountain will have changed elevation before I can walk over to it.

My rifle kicks so hard that it is often used as a booster to launch the space shuttle. All you have to do is strap it to the side of the shuttle with the muzzle pointed down and have one of the astronaughts pull the trigger with the remote string astro launcher system. (RSALS) One round out of my Magnum will send a shuttle into low earth orbit. You don't even have to light the rocket up.

I'd show you a picture of my .391 RR excpet it's so big it won't fit in a camera.

 

[abearir]

Heck yeah, where I hunt you never know what your going to run into. Or at what distance it will be. I've jumped whitetails at 10 yards bedded, and elk across canyons at 500 yards on the same stalk. My .338 will sure do both equally well. However in the end, shot placement is everything. Too many people try to make power a replacement for marksmanship and fieldcraft. When I teach hunters ed, I warn the students about magnumitis......bigger is not always better. Heck, my backup gun is a Winchester 94, in 30-30. I'd be willing to bet large sums of cash, that this caliber and smaller in these old lever actions has taken more game than all the magnums combined by several fold.

 

[TimboKhan]

Too many people try to make power a replacement for marksmanship and fieldcraft

This is an absolutely true statement. My roommate with the .300 got his deer because he can shoot that .300, and I use my 7mmRemMag for the same reason. Of course, this isn't new advice. For as long as I can remember, people have been preaching "Placement over Power". For the life of me, I can't understand why people keep shooting shoulder-mounted artillery pieces when they can't hit the broad side of a barn with them. If you can shoot them, fine. If not, power down!

 

[MinScout]

Too many people try to make power a replacement for marksmanship and fieldcraft

Truer words were never spoken. One of my co workers shot and wounded a magnificent Minnesota buck, because I think he could'nt handle the power of his "three hundred mag". He and his buddy finally recovered the animal many hours and several shots later. Shameful.

 

[phonesysphonesys]

I have a 300 WinMag. It is extremly accurate. I use it when I am hunting lower elevations or or areas where I will have long shots. When I am hunting higher up in the timber (9000ft and better I use my 325 Win. Short Mag. It is a lighter gun. When those 220 grain bullets hit I don't have to walk far. Plus the blood trail is easy to follow.

Recoil is a personal thing. Some it bothers. Some it does't. When you are shooting at an animal you never feel it.

Semper Fi

 

[R.W.Dale]

One of my co workers shot and wounded a magnificent Minnesota buck, because I think he could'nt handle the power of his "three hundred mag".

Horse pucky! "Handling the power of the 300 mag" Only comes into play after the bullet leaves the barrel. Your co-worker is a sorry shot, and still would have wounded the animal in question had he been using a 308.

Too many people try to make power a replacement for marksmanship and fieldcraft

AND too many people blame plain old poor marksmanship on using too much gun instead of placing the blame on lack of practice and shot dicipline

 

[Northslope Nimrod]

Decided to stay with the '06. The '06 (with new powders) can really stack up well, with out the punishment.

BUT, MANY of my buddies carry the 300 Mag. One carries an Ultra Mag. Here in Utah, there is terrain where they are very useful. (long shots)

 

[.38 Special]

Horse pucky! "Handling the power of the 300 mag" Only comes into play after the bullet leaves the barrel. Your co-worker is a sorry shot, and still would have wounded the animal in question had he been using a 308.

Double horse pucky! I would hazard a guess that the majority of "casual" hunters -- meaning non rifle loonies -- I see at the range with their .300 mags are afraid of them. You could probably make a decent living betting bystanders that "that guy down the line" is going to close his eyes the next time he pulls on that trigger.

I've got nothing against the people who swear by their magnums. And I have almost nothing against the folks who claim recoil doesn't bother them at all and that "real" men just need to shut up and learn to deal with it. The only thing that bothers me with all of this is the "real men" flinching away with their big guns and putting bullets into the guts of big game animals the country over.

Bottom line: there is precious little "need" for deer guns larger than .270 or thereabouts. For those that want more, have at it, but make sure your ego isn't writing checks that your ability can't cash.

 

[Byron Quick]

Most of the deer I've killed has been with a .300 WinMag. Longest shot I've tried was approximately 250 yards. There's a few 300 yard shots where I hunt and that is about the longest I'd attempt even if a longer shot presented itself.

I'm pretty good with fieldcraft and marksmanship. Don't believe a larger caliber could make up the difference even if I weren't.

With me, it's personal preference...I like the larger calibers.

As far as the economics go...I don't have a family to support so I can indulge my preferences to the limits of my resources.

Hunting with a 7mm Magnum now. Why? Well, I've never killed a deer with this rifle and I don't want to show favoritism. Parker-Hale built on a Mauser action with a Burris 3X9 scope. Got it for $450. Too good a deal to pass up.

If I was all super het up over making a dollar go as far as possible in each and every move I made...I wouldn't be hunting at all. I'd get all my meat from the butcher.

Far as that goes, I wouldn't own but maybe four firearms if my goal was maximum economy.

 

[Biker]

In my neck of the woods, a Rem 700 in '06 does anything I need it to do. I getting a bit recoil sensitive in my addage.

Biker

 

[R.W.Dale]

Double horse pucky! I would hazard a guess that the majority of "casual" hunters -- meaning non rifle loonies -- I see at the range with their .300 mags are afraid of them.

TRIPLE HORSE PUCKY!

MY last 270 kicked harder than my current 300 wby. The diffrence in stock style and fit can make WAAAAAY more diffrence in felt reciol than the diffrence between a 30-06 or a 300 Win mag. Crap! by your flawed reasoning anybody who own a 12 ga 3 or 3.5 inch shotgun is automatically going to be a sorry shot.


NOW wouldn't be silly if the people who swear by the short action 308 based cartriges started railing againt those macho types who are trying to make up for sumpin by using those overkill 06 based family of cartriges. YES IT WOULD in fact it'ed be just as silly as some of the replies to this topic. THOSE OF US WHO ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT WE'RE TALKIN ABOUT. Know that that extra 200 fps that 300win mag has over 30-06 is hardly going to make any diffrence whatsoever with an individuals already ingraned bad habits.

You could probably make a decent living betting bystanders that "that guy down the line" is going to close his eyes the next time he pulls on that trigger.

It'ed also be pretty lucritive to bet people like you that the yahoo down the line will still close his eyes when he shoots his .243

Bottom line: there is precious little "need" for deer guns larger than .270 or thereabouts. For those that want more, have at it, but make sure your ego isn't writing checks that your ability can't cash.

PLEASE you're killin me. Over a chronograph the diffrence between a 270 and a 7mm mag is about the same as the diffrence between a 308 vs 30-06. And yet this is supposed to be some kind of insurmountable obsticle for the amature shooter.

 

[MrDig]

I dont own a Magnum but would like to one day

Currently I hunt with .243, 30-30, .308, and a 30-06. I feel the need to improve my shooting technique more before I make the jump in expense to a 300 or 338.
That being said I also recognize that the B.C. for the magnum rounds is a little better than an 06. My question is how many 300+ yd shots will I see to make the Magnum worth it. Hunting Dakota prairie lands maybe. But I dont like to take shots I'm not confident about so I need to practice practice practice.

 

[Charles S]

Genteman,

This discussion is about hunting with the 300 Magnum.

Not about shooters generally. I wish I had a dollar for every time I hear someone tell me their hunting rifle shoots one inch groups, and maybe their rifle does shoot one inch groups by their definition. For me to say a rifle shoots one inch groups mean that that rifle will under decent range conditions shoot multiple 3 shot one inch groups (this is for a big game rifle; I tend to group varmint and target rifles with 5 and 10 shot groups). This does not mean that once, when the stars were properly aligned, the wind was right, the sun was perfect; I shot a one inch group. This does not mean that when I walk down range I call out a couple of flyers and say that the last round was a great shot and that is my group.

Do people tell me their standard, off the shelf, hunting rifle with factory ammo, a cheap scope, a 9# trigger shoots one inch groups? All the time.

Do I see hunter’s finch with magnums off the bench? You bet. I also see more shooters that cannot handle the 30-06 than all the magnum shooters combined.

Stock fit is much more important to recoil than most of us care to admit. I think both of my 300s are easier to shoot than my 270 that weights 7# loaded.

Do we need magnums, I know I don’t. Do I like them yes. Do I shoot lighter recoiling calibers better, yes. I have to concentrate really hard to keep from developing a flinch with my 300 Win mag after only about 30 rounds off the bench. Are there things to help me with load development, sure the Lead Sled, good recoil pads, good hearing protection. Do I notice the recoil when I kill game. No.

As I get older I find myself spending more time with my 7X57, my 6.5X55, my 7-08. Have I gotten rid of my 300s? No way they are great fun and have all the power I could ever need.

MDig,

The ballistic coefficient for the 300 and 30-06 bullets are exactly the same. They are the same diameter and the same bullets, the 300s just start of faster. How much, depends on the load, barrel length and the magnum. With my hand loads my 300 Winchester with 27 ½ inch Shilen barrel will start a 200 gr Sierra Gameking faster than my Remington 700 30-06 will start a 150 gr Sierra Gameking.

 

[.38 Special]

Krochus

I gather from your all-caps and exclamation points that you disagree with my opinion.

 

[Shaughn Leayme]

I have a heavy barrel Match rifle (26 inch MTU profile) in 300 winchester magnum that I built for shooting 1000 yds, I have set up on a field for deer season, no deer showed up in the few days I had, that's hunting.

I have been hunting this year with a .375 H&H with hand loaded 235 gr Speer bullets and they are moving along at 2800 fps avg.

Recoil for my 11 pound rifle (300 WM) complete is 26 lbs with 180 gr MK at 3000 fps

Recoil for my .375 which weighs just about 11 pounds complete is 31 lbs with 235 SP at 2800 fps

Recoil of my 308 bolt which weighs about 10 lbs complete is 14 lbs with 180 MK at 2600 fps

A standard 30/06 runs some where around 17 pounds of recoil with 180 grain loads

So with the proper stock and shooting form, the vast majority of shooters, with even a modicum of practice would most likely not notice the difference in recoil between a 30/06 and a 300 WM, but if they practice without hearing protection, the odds a good that they will develope magnum flinch.

For hunting, whatever is legal and floats your boat, in my opinion.

 

[Art Eatman]

H&H, I'm glad you remembered the salt...

, Art

 

[.45Guy]

Bottom line: there is precious little "need" for deer guns larger than .270 or thereabouts. For those that want more, have at it, but make sure your ego isn't writing checks that your ability can't cash.

WOW! Now I'll be sure to take my overkill 300 Govt. Magnum '06 out Saturday morning!