A few years ago, Boone and Crockett compiled data from their record book entries and found that hunters are shooting more big animals with the .300 Mag. than with any other caliber.
Would you have guessed that? Because I have 200-pound whitetail deer on my mind most of the time, I would not have imagined the .300, until I started thinking about it. Many of the “book animals” are big and heavy—brown bears, moose, elk, muskox–and so some version of the .300 Mag. makes sense. Plus, the .300 is very popular out West among mule deer hunters. In their data B&C did not distinguish among specific variations of the .300 Mag.; trophies killed with the .300 Win. Mag, .300 WSM, .300 Wby. Mag. and .300 Remington Ultra Mag were all lumped together.
Below, the most commonly used calibers by hunters across all the B&C categories over the 3-year span, and the percentages of game entries credited to each.
.300 Magnum: 18 percent
.270: 12 percent
.30-06: 11 percent
7mm Magnum: 11 percent
.338 Magnum: 3 percent
.30-30: 2 percent
.308: 2 percent
Other: 8 percent
BTW, the most popular deer calibers were:
Whitetail deer: .270
Mule deer: .300 Magnum, 7mm Magnum, .270
Blacktail deer: 30-06, 7mm Magnum, .300 Magnum
I don’t have a ton of experience with the .300, though I have killed a couple moose and a few elk with rifles chambered for the .300 Win. Mag. That cartridge always performed well for me, but I thought the recoil was a little excessive.
Any .300 shooters out there?
90%% of everything I hunt I do so with archery gear, though I own a gun safe full of different caliber rifles, handguns and shotguns. My go to gun is a Winchester mdl70 300WSM with 180gr BTS that I handload.
I used a .458 Win. Mag on whitetails one fall in Pa. as I was getting ready for a lion hunt in Tanzania. Shot a buck with a 450gr Barnes X right behind the shoulder thru the lungs. There was no more meat damage than if I’d used a .270.
I shoot an A-Bolt in .300 WSM, and I’ll be honest, the recoil pad on it, makes it more enjoyable to shoot than my 20 gauge H&R slug gun. I’ve been to the range on various occasions, where I put 30+ rounds of 180gr Nosler partitions through it, and left feeling great. I was hesitant when I bought it, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made
awesome pic brother! No experience with the 300, only 308.
I have a .300 win mag barrel for my Encore. I have shot a few deer with it, but don’t use it that much because I leave the Encore set up with the muzzleloader barrel. My favorite gun is my .325 WSM shooting 180 gr Barnes XXX. At 100 yrds the first 2 shots are touching and the 3rd shot is 1/4″ to the right. Every time. Off a bench, it will hold a 4″ group at 500 yrds. I’m a pretty big guy so the recoil doesn’t bother me. Although my hardest kicking gun is my Rem 700 chambered in 30-06. For some reason that thing kicks like a mule.