Would you own a 300 Win Mag if you didn't hunt? Details inside, I need your opinion

[horsey300]

Guess I have to answer yes to the OP’s question. Have a stainless Ruger M77 in .300 Win mag with the Zytel boat paddle stock. Hunted with it exactly one time. Been sitting in the back of the safe for almost 20 years.

Don’t judge me

no judgment, I traded mine off for a dirt bike with no brakes.

 

[LoonWulf]

The last 300 (a PRC) i had came in at 13.5lbs scopes and wore a pretty effective muzzle break.
Recoil was very comfortable, but also enough that i couldnt call my shots even at 900-1000 unless i was REALLY good about positioning and recoil control...and even then i was watching the puff thru a bouncing scope.
Closer in, it was basically impossible, unless i prairie dogged on every shot, which ruins consistency.

out at 1900ish it really shined tho because of the bigger splash it (and my big 7s) created. The .243 and 6.5CM were much more difficult to see.


the 30-06 only realy has an advantage over the .308 in my opinion, when getting into the 190-200gr range.
I was getting 2700 out of my Bergara B-14s 24" tube with 208ELDs. My guns throat was too short to load them way out too....had i been able to get 1/4" more id have gotten back a smidge more capacity also.

 

[WestKentucky]

There are mustangs out there with engines all the way from a baby 4cylinder gas saver all the way up to some big block v8 4 digit horsepower behemoths. They all can go grocery shopping and they all can go cruising the strip fishing for cuties, but only 1 variety of them will hit 200mph. How often do you go 200mph? Is it often enough to justify the added expenses?

Same setup with a 300winmag vs 308 vs 223 vs 22lr. They all will hit small targets at a distance, they can all be beautiful rifles, and they can all be enjoyed in their own way. 300wm has the energy to do it harder, faster, louder… but how often do you want that? The guys I know with SERIOUS racecars all drive sensible vehicles daily, so maybe take that analogy and buy the 300wm AND something else

 

[Lo-Profile]

Have a Ruger Hawkeye.
Solid guns for reaching out
Only downfall is barrel life

 

[Rubone]

Who wouldn't hunt??

 

[Hugger-4641]

Guess I have to answer yes to the OP’s question. Have a stainless Ruger M77 in .300 Win mag with the Zytel boat paddle stock. Hunted with it exactly one time. Been sitting in the back of the safe for almost 20 years.

Don’t judge me

Wanna sell it? PM me

 

[adcoch1]

How would you compare your 30-06 enjoyment over the 300wm?

Mostly it's the amount of concussion each time you pull the trigger. I used to have a 26" barreled 30-06 at the same time as my Winchester 26" 300wm, shooting the same 180 grn bullets. Obviously the 300wm had a bit more velocity, but not enough to matter in the hunting rifle I had it in, compared to the Tikka 30-06 I just sold to my brother, or any decent 308 modern hunting rifle. If I was using 200+ grain bullets, which I would do now if I had a 30 cal mag, the 300wm could easily outpace the 30-06, but for my uses, it just isn't as enjoyable due to the shockwave upon firing.
Now, that said, I do enjoy a big boomer, but not for a target rifle, and if I'm killing paper the least recoil I can get is desirable, just as varminterror pointed out above. More shots before fatigue equals more practice per session, and a better product in accuracy. If you like the basic design of any specific rifle, the m24 in this case, you will be well suited to start with the lesser recoiling version as a trainer for the harsher to shoot version, if you choose to have both. For paper though, even my preferred 30-06 is way too much powder burn for a hole in a target. My $0.02

 

[adcoch1]

Mispost

 

[adcoch1]

no judgment, I traded mine off for a dirt bike with no brakes.

I like your style...

 

[horsey300]

Mostly it's the amount of concussion each time you pull the trigger. I used to have a 26" barreled 30-06 at the same time as my Winchester 26" 300wm, shooting the same 180 grn bullets. Obviously the 300wm had a bit more velocity, but not enough to matter in the hunting rifle I had it in, compared to the Tikka 30-06 I just sold to my brother, or any decent 308 modern hunting rifle. If I was using 200+ grain bullets, which I would do now if I had a 30 cal mag, the 300wm could easily outpace the 30-06, but for my uses, it just isn't as enjoyable due to the shockwave upon firing.
Now, that said, I do enjoy a big boomer, but not for a target rifle, and if I'm killing paper the least recoil I can get is desirable, just as varminterror pointed out above. More shots before fatigue equals more practice per session, and a better product in accuracy. If you like the basic design of any specific rifle, the m24 in this case, you will be well suited to start with the lesser recoiling version as a trainer for the harsher to shoot version, if you choose to have both. For paper though, even my preferred 30-06 is way too much powder burn for a hole in a target. My $0.02

Much as I hate to......and I blame benelli with extreme prejudice for this.....I'm looking at an 06, .300wm, or .338 wm barrel for my R1.... I dislike them all for their own reasons and realistically will likely settle for the .300 as I have brass and it can go as big as I'll ever need if I decide I need to worry about critters my 7stw can't take (). But a target gun, that ain't. A cool legacy for my kids to fight over when I pass on? If I can find a smith to chop and retread the receiver end of the barrel, they'll have a slow twist 6.8 western (.270wsm right now) and a .300 package for that one day in Alaska hunt I guess .

 

[Stopsign32v]

30-06 still burns about 20-30grn more powder and lobs 40-80grn heavier bullets to do the same job - with harder management - than you COULD be choosing...

You're trying to accomplish two things, so it's really up to you which one is more important - and you asked for opinions about the 300wm as a tool for learning long range, so forgive those of us who took you at your word in both counts. You're trying to 1) buy some whimsical piece of history by getting a Remington to pretend it's somehow related to an M24, AND 2) you're trying to buy something to help you learn how to shoot long range. These two goals are grossly contraindicated, but being in your inexperienced state, don't understand the conflict - but your responses in the thread have shown the prioritization of these two, and now we've arrived at a trivial solution... which is to say, a non-solution to your original query.

So in this case, don't ask questions - you don't listen to reason on "what should I buy to learn long range shooting with my son?" because you're ONLY focused on buying some Rem 700 Long Action so you can pretend it's an M24. It won't be, it'll just be some run of the mill rifle from a new company with a Remington label on the side, still have all of the issues we've all spent money on R700's and CUSTOM 700 clone actions for years to fix, and like @Frulk, your rifle will sit in the back of the safe for years until you eventually sell it because it's not the right tool for the task of learning LR shooting, so you will have to be fully satisfied in your (apparently) more important goal of owning a Rem 700 Long Action so you can pretend it's an M24...

So just go buy the 300wm Rem 700. It won't be fun, it won't be productive, and rather than bonding over this new activity with your son, you'll both lose interest and the rifle will gather dust until maybe you decide to sell it...

Did you miss the part to where I will also have a 308 to shoot?

 

[Stopsign32v]

There are mustangs out there with engines all the way from a baby 4cylinder gas saver all the way up to some big block v8 4 digit horsepower behemoths. They all can go grocery shopping and they all can go cruising the strip fishing for cuties, but only 1 variety of them will hit 200mph. How often do you go 200mph? Is it often enough to justify the added expenses?

Same setup with a 300winmag vs 308 vs 223 vs 22lr. They all will hit small targets at a distance, they can all be beautiful rifles, and they can all be enjoyed in their own way. 300wm has the energy to do it harder, faster, louder… but how often do you want that? The guys I know with SERIOUS racecars all drive sensible vehicles daily, so maybe take that analogy and buy the 300wm AND something else

That's a terrible argument here for me.

The 32v in my username is for a 32 valve Supercharged Mustang Cobra. I didn't want to daily it so I bought a 1995 Mustang 5.0 and ended up putting a single turbo on it. I daily drove that for years until my wife and I started to pop out kids at an alarming rate.

 

[horsey300]

Did you miss the part to where I will also have a 308 to shoot?

Believe it or not, 2 308s is better than 1 308 and 1 300wm

 

[Stopsign32v]

Believe it or not, 2 308s is better than 1 308 and 1 300wm

Again though, have to have a long action. Might rebarrel it down to 308 though.

 

[horsey300]

Again though, have to have a long action. Might rebarrel it down to 308 though.

Go reread my previous post about m24, and what on earth makes you think you can't chamber a s/a cartridge in a long action receiver!?

 

[WestKentucky]

Again though, have to have a long action. Might rebarrel it down to 308 though.

NO.

Shooting for extreme accuracy you want X components in X ammo for X rifle. Then you have Y, Y, and Y for the other rifle. If you have X and x then your bound to end up with some iteration of Xxx or XxX and your going to chase a self induced problem. For what your doing there’s no way I would have 2 precision rifles even chambered the same because a totally different chambering means another dedicated set of dies, ammo, possibly consumable components, but it also comes with the guarantee that your not putting X ammo in Y gun and driving yourself crazy trying to figure that out. 308 and 30-06 sounds like a winning combo. 300wm and 308 also great. 308 and 308 is a nightmare in the making.

 

[Varminterror]

Again though, have to have a long action. Might rebarrel it down to 308 though.

What's your perceived benefit from having a long action, specifically? Other than the fact a long action was used in the M24 design, which a factory R700 won't be, what is the basis for the desire for a long action here?

 

[Varminterror]

For what your doing there’s no way I would have 2 precision rifles even chambered the same

I'm really not sure what was mean to the be the point of the rest, but this doesn't make any sense at all to me. We have 3x 6 Dashers in our family, and 3x 6 creeds, 5x 223's, 2x 30-06's, 2x 6.8 SPC's.... I can't say that I've ever accidentally put on my wife's or son's socks or underwear either, despite the fact they all go through the same washing machine as my own... I've never mixed up ammo or components for our rifles either... But intimate familiarity AND shared data during shooting sessions allows all of us to fire the same solutions within 1-2 tenths out to 1200 yards, so when anything might be awry for one of us, we ALL have the same solution to aid the other.

 

[someguy2800]

Guess I have to answer yes to the OP’s question. Have a stainless Ruger M77 in .300 Win mag with the Zytel boat paddle stock. Hunted with it exactly one time. Been sitting in the back of the safe for almost 20 years.

Don’t judge me

I had one of those in 338 win mag. The back of the safe is a good place for it! When they are on gunbroker they should say in the description, 7th owner, only 40 rounds fired.

 

[Varminterror]

I had one of those in 338 win mag. The back of the safe os a good place for it!

A boatpaddle 300wm? Nah, a better place is the FRONT of my hunting safe. I'd carve some fancy walnut panels, block, bed, and free float the action into it, re-inlet a DBM, drop on a Bartlein 400modbb wrapped in carbon fiber, slap a Nightforce 2.5-20x50mm mil-XT on top, and kill deer, elk, and bear upmountain all over hell and gone!

 

[Frulk]

^^^^Well, I can’t fault the Ruger for anything specific. Bought it to elk hunt. Used it once in a wilderness area where I lugged it up and down ridges comprised of boulder fields with 1200 foot elevation gains. The gun is a little heavy for that.

Figured on my next hunt I’d go with something lighter for this specific area. Probably in a short action. As it turned out, I haven’t been elk hunting since then and the Ruger is pretty much unofficially retired (along with quite a few other rifles) as I no longer big game hunt.

 

[Stopsign32v]

What's your perceived benefit from having a long action, specifically? Other than the fact a long action was used in the M24 design, which a factory R700 won't be, what is the basis for the desire for a long action here?

To make a clone of a M24. I won't have the clone scope, I won't have the clone (I will but it will be threaded) barrel, but I want it as close as possible while still not being a $4,226 rifle. "Close enough" will do but having it a short action...Why not a short action and a 6.5...If going short action and 6.5 then why not make it a Bergara instead. Some key features need to be kept in my opinion. Remington, LA, HS stock, M24 contour barrel, M24 mount and rings, M24 style bipod.

 

[someguy2800]

A boatpaddle 300wm? Nah, a better place is the FRONT of my hunting safe. I'd carve some fancy walnut panels, block, bed, and free float the action into it, re-inlet a DBM, drop on a Bartlein 400modbb wrapped in carbon fiber, slap a Nightforce 2.5-20x50mm mil-XT on top, and kill deer, elk, and bear upmountain all over hell and gone!

I can scarcely think of anything I’d less like to use for that task than the one i had! No boat paddles for me.

 

[tarosean]

My understanding is that most were .308,

M24 was a Long Action receiver so it could be set up for both .308/300WM.

I have a stripped 700 Long Action to eventually turn it into a M24 clone one day (.308)

 

[Stopsign32v]

M24 was a Long Action receiver so it could be set up for both .308/300WM.

I have a stripped 700 Long Action to eventually turn it into a M24 clone one day (.308)

Got any pics of the action? I've never really looked into how people identify "correct" clone 700 receivers. I guess I like more inspired rather than clones.