You need a long barrel to get all of the performance out of a .325WSM. A .338 Win Mag with hot factory loads will out run a .338 RCM. The whole claim to fame is a short barrel and a short action rifle. I am an advocate of small rifles. I love my Model 7. The .338 is hot enough to get the job done in an intermediate size cartridge. For those of us who appreciate small rifles, the .338 RCM is a welcome addition to the current available ammo selection.
Hmm, the .325 WSM is chambered in the Browning short action BLR, a rather light, short rifle. I don't know what effect the short barrel has, though, in the numbers, but read a test of it and seems like it was pretty respectable. That test is on the net somewhere.
I do like short, compact, light rifles, though, but my M7 stainless is chambered in .308 Winchester and that's likely all I'll ever need it to be chambered in. I am NOT recoil shy, but your average person on this board is going to flinch at the thought of a 6.5 lb rifle in a .338 magnum anything, ROFL! Where's Shawnee? He's probably had nightmares last night if he read this before going to bed.
When I read about that BLR in .338 WSM, I was enthralled, but honestly, what would I use it for? I rarely leave Texas anymore and there's nothing in New Mexico I can't take with the .308, either. If I lived in Alaska, though, that'd sure be a handy, fast little rifle in a mighty powerful caliber. I'm not sure I'd
NEED it there, but hell, I could then justify it.
I suspect the most of these newer big game rounds will very quickly follow the short magnums, super short magnums, super-super short and super-long super-fat magnums into the cartridge graveyard of obscurity.
I suspect you're right. I'd at least like to get a cartridge that I can size and fire form from something else. LOL! But, I did have that thought at the idea of a Ruger .338 that basically matches .338WM ballistics. I mean, it's "where have I heard this one before" and I bet in 10 years, I'll have gone the way of the 5mm Remington rim fire. The saving grace, at least you can reload it.