Impulse Purchase: thumbs up or down?

Status
Not open for further replies.
I've said this before here. To want a gun is to need a gun. I don't try to justify firearm purchases any more. If I WANT IT then that means I NEED IT to satisfy my want.

If your interested in it and can afford it, get it! Buy ammo when and where you can find it. My brother had a 325WSM and he always found ammo online. If you reload them even better

Buy it !!
 
Too many folks act like every shooter is beholden to buying one round at a time, solely sourced through their local Walmart. An XPR is a hunting rifle, great value and quality in its price point, but it’s not a format which is commonly used for high volume fire. A 325WSM barrel would only make it around 2,000-2500 rounds, so a guy could buy up 500 pieces of brass and easily live out every shot of that barrel’s life. It’s not expensive enough that it’s really going to be an inheritance left to anyone later, and there are enough short action magnums out there now to ensure there’s always some utility to be had from the action if someone really didn’t want a 325 wsm and chose to change its stripes.

Finding brass and ammo for the WSM and WSSM’s hasn’t always been something accomplished on a whim, but the same can be said for RUM’s, 38-55’s, 44-40’s, 220 swifts, 6BR’s, and a few hundred other cartridges which might be somewhere in the lower volume end of a spectrum between “available at Walmart” and “have to send a few emails and wait a few months to find it.” Many of us live happy with cartridges for which ammunition and brass can’t even be purchased - anywhere - so it’s kinda silly to pretend the WSM’s are SOL.
 
Yeah. I don't think, in reality, a .325WSM will do anything a .30-06 won't do.

A .30-06 can't push a 200 grain bullet at 2950 fps. :neener:

I don't think, in reality, that a .325 WSM will do anything a .300 WSM won't!


Having prototyped a WSM for production.... I am amazed that madness is still around. Those shoulders are absurd.

35 degree shoulders 50% wider than the neck. But a 6.5 Creedmoor has 30 degree shoulders 57% wider than its neck.
 
Sounds like a fun project to learn the new rifle. And since it’s not your only hunting rifle it’s no crisis if you have to wait a bit to get ammo and brass.
 
A friend hunts elk with a Kimber .300WSM. It beats the hell out of him. I have a Winchester with a bull barrel and its not much better.

But its nice to have the ballistics of a .300 WM (perhaps even better) with a short throw bolt.
I want a much heavier bench rest shooter.
 
Impulse purchase..... BTDT. No experience with 325 WSM but I've heard it can be formed from 300 WSM brass.
Correct. No real effort required - just run it through the sizer. There's Nosler brass, so you have a premium option if you want.
 
I’m still waffling...

I wouldn't. The .325 WSM is one of the uniquely useful cartridges to come out recently. 8mm is about as big as you can go before the extra velocity you get from increasing bore diameter is swamped by the extra weight needed in the projectile to get decent penetration. Note how with heavy bullets around 0.3 SD, you can get 2900-3000 ft/s in a temp insensitive load with all the magnums from 6.5mm to 8mm? But then you get to .338 mag and that drops to 2800 and then maybe 2700 with one of the oddball .358 magnums and 2600 with a .375 H&H. So you start having to trade off wound depth vs. wound width vs. trajectory and wind resistance. 8mm is the last place you can have you cake and eat it too. That makes it a uniquely good crossover bear protection/big game rifle. Or just a very authoritative way to put down big game without giving up much reach.

The 8mm Remington Mag does the same thing, but two action sizes larger.
 
I wouldn't. The .325 WSM is one of the uniquely useful cartridges to come out recently. 8mm is about as big as you can go before the extra velocity you get from increasing bore diameter is swamped by the extra weight needed in the projectile to get decent penetration. Note how with heavy bullets around 0.3 SD, you can get 2900-3000 ft/s in a temp insensitive load with all the magnums from 6.5mm to 8mm? But then you get to .338 mag and that drops to 2800 and then maybe 2700 with one of the oddball .358 magnums and 2600 with a .375 H&H. So you start having to trade off wound depth vs. wound width vs. trajectory and wind resistance. 8mm is the last place you can have you cake and eat it too. That makes it a uniquely good crossover bear protection/big game rifle. Or just a very authoritative way to put down big game without giving up much reach.

The 8mm Remington Mag does the same thing, but two action sizes larger.

Thank you. This is very enabling. The way you phrase makes it seem like a clever move, rather than a strange impulse ;)
 
Despite Llama Bob’s compelling argument and the excellent enabling of many valued contributors, I went another way.

I have always wanted a Savage 99 and have found an ugly duckling in need of some TLC. It’s a 1967 made plain-Jane model in .308 Win. It has a 20” barrel for handiness. It looks like it has been ridden hard and put away wet a few times. A lot of surface rust freckling, extensive on the barrel, and the wood finish looks pretty awful. Will post pics when I get my hands on it. Bore looks absolutely fine.

My plan is to redo the wood and see what can be done with the barrel and receiver with cold bluing. If it’s past the point of cold bluing, it may have to go in for a proper job. I may also reshape the forend to a schnabel depending on how much wood there is.

Nice winter project.

Thanks for the encouragement on the XPR in 325 WSM
 
I don't know much about the rifle you bought but I am a fan of the 8mm round. At least the 8mm Mauser. There are still lots of brass for sale. Midway shows it to be discontinued but there are a couple others that sell it when I googled 2325 brass. And several sellers on Gunbroker that have it for sale for decent prices. Midway shows over 30 bullets in 8mm. Everything from plinkers to hunting to target bullets.

If you shoot it and like the round then stock up on brass and bullets and have the dies on hand and its a round that will never be obsolete. I shoot both 7x57 and 8x57 and for a long time there was no new brass to be found. I bought a case forming for both rounds never ran out of ammo.
 
XPR is another one of those rifles i want to try....again its really hard to get a BAD rifle these days. The XPR seems like a decent/better budget rifle, Id happily buy one on a sale, much like I did the Mauser M-18 i got a while back. OR id buy one because it came in a cartridge i was interested in....

The .325 WSM is getting to the bullet weight that i think the case capacity makes sense for. Im considering buying one of the brownings i see on sale cheaply just because its in a cartridge no one wants.

If cases become un available, well theres always the 6.5PRC a barrel swap away...then again if I get an Abolt 2 i can swap bolt heads and mags and go to any short action cartridge i want........

Any way, If its interesting and it dosent hurt financially why not?

Just to temp you at the holidays: :neener:

https://www.cdnnsports.com/70-325ws...PUI&utm_campaign=CDNN+Sale+11-27#.Xd7ht1NME0N
 
That's ok. I've been pulled into a lovely Shaw 9.3x62 barrel which is calling me to a find Savage donor action somewheres...
Got mine for my 06AI off GunBroker for cheap, I have a spare stock and standard bolt head if you need stuff like that.
 
Saw that & also thought of this thread.

I know! I probably get a spammed by a dozen or more gun companies on email every daynthis past week. It will only get worse the next few weeks.

Got mine for my 06AI off GunBroker for cheap, I have a spare stock and standard bolt head if you need stuff like that.

Appreciate the offer. Theres a couple used 30-06 110s locally waiting for hunting season to wind down a little to give me some haggle power. I know they aren't likely to move at the pawn shop. Everyone around here assumes the used guns are shot out and want a new one.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top