300 WinMag or 300 WSM?

**captain luke** · November 18th, 2009, 06:16 PM

Which one would you rather have if you could have only one?

**knight0334** · November 18th, 2009, 06:31 PM

I personally would take the belted 300 Win Mag due to being a bit more versatile in its loads, especially with heavier bullets. It still retains a velocity advantage in all bullet weight ranges.

The WSM does have the advantage of a shorter action if that is a concern.

**Tomcat088** · November 18th, 2009, 07:56 PM

I own both, and like both, the cartridges are nearly identical in performance. Welcome to the forum, glad that you're participating and asking questions. It would be much appreciated if you'd actually search for some of the questions you would like to ask before you ask them. Some people on this forum have spent hours and hours answering questions on this great forum, there's a reason that logs of this information exist; so that others can read it later than when the discussion actually took place. Discussion on this subject has already happened before, here's a link to get you started and answer some of your more basic questions. http://forum.pafoa.org/rifles-42/680...hats-diff.html

Knight, you're actually partiall wrong in what you say about "a velocity advantage in all bullet weight ranges." The WSM with a 24" or longer barrel will actually get more velocity than the .300 winmag if you're pushing "moderate loads" in both. When you start to push "hot" reloads, it starts to become about chamber dimensions, individuality of barrels, action tolerances, etc; so it's no longer just about the cartridges in general and more about the limits of a particular rifle. Either way, all the way up to 180 grains, the .300 WSM will beat the .300 winmag and do it with less powder IF it has a 24" or longer barrel. When you cut down the barrel length, the .300 win mag will have a slight advantage. Just thought I'd throw that out there.