300WSM vs 300WM short barre hunting rifle

[Jaegerr]

Hey all,

I recently joined the tikka club, 300 win mag t3x lite SS, and wanting to rebarrel and thread to 22” or 20” but with buying a new barrel I guess I can go to any caliber. I’ve read some people say 300 WSM is a little better going down to something like a 300 WSM.

Does anyone have any first hand experience with either? I’m also getting reloading equipment so I’ll be learning and reloading my own ammo with whichever caliber (excited for this). A 300 WSM in a 20” barrel or a 300WM in a 22” configuration?

I’ll be building this rifle to take game out west as a begin my adventures doing that. This will ideally be my do all rifle from elk and moose down to western whitetail.

(I plan on loading Barnes copper pills. Preferably the 175 LRX but potentially the TTSX or TSX depending on what the gun ends up shooting best if this info is relevant)
Thanks!

 

[ElPollo]

Welcome. Lots of good stuff to read here on Rokslide to help you make good decisions on gear and not waste time and money. I had a Tikka in 300 WSM with an 18” barrel. Sold it. Lots of recoil in a light package. Expensive to shoot. Not the easiest gun to shoot accurately. More horsepower than needed for western hunting unless you are shooting really long distances. And the Barnes bullets are not the choice for that because they don’t open well at velocities below about 2100-2200 fps.

 

[H80Hunter]

I think if I was shooting copper in a 300 win mag I’d use the 150 TTSX or else the copper 130 grain TTSX but you’d have to hand load that, which I don’t. Barnes ammo shows like 3125 fps for that out of a 308 so I’d think you could really get it moving in a 300 win mag.

 

[Jaegerr]

I think if I was shooting copper in a 300 win mag I’d use the 150 TTSX or else the copper 130 grain TTSX but you’d have to hand load that, which I don’t. Barnes ammo shows like 3125 fps for that out of a 308 so I’d think you could really get it moving in a 300 win mag.

Talk about a rocket ship

 

[hereinaz]

I like WSM for ease of loading and precision.

Short and fat is where it’s at. Winning bench rest cartridges tend to be short and fat for a reason. I shoot short fat cartridges like the BR and variants and SAUM variants. They are so easy to load for. Loads tend to work well in many different barrels.

I don’t shoot 300 WSM, but a couple guys who shoot it say they like to load for it.

Of course the 300 WM is good. It has the belt and if course is longer. I don’t like that about traditional mag cartridges.

 

[83cj-7]

I have a 22” 300 WM built this year. I have no interest in shooting it without a suppressor. I’m running a mild load pushing 208 ELD-Ms at 2820fps. Light on recoil and absolutely devastating on game.