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The .300 Winchester Magnum
The .300 Winchester Magnum (also known as .300 Win Mag or 300WM) is a belted, bottlenecked magnum rifle cartridge that was introduced by Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1963. The .300 Winchester Magnum is a magnum cartridge designed to fit in a standard rifle action. It is based on the .375 H&H Magnum, which has been blown out, shortened, and necked down to accept a .30 caliber (7.62 mm) bullet. The .300 Winchester is extremely versatile and has been adopted by a wide range of users including hunters, target shooters, military units, and law enforcement departments. Hunters found the cartridge to be an effective all-around choice with bullet options ranging from the flatter shooting 165 grain to the harder hitting 200+ grain selections available from the factory. The .300 Win Mag remains the most popular .30 caliber magnum with American hunters, despite being surpassed in performance by the more powerful .300 and .30-378 Weatherby Magnums and the newer .300 Remington Ultra Magnum. It is a popular selection for hunting moose, elk, and bighorn sheep as it can deliver better long range performance with better bullet weight than most other .30 caliber cartridges. Military and law enforcement departments adopted the cartridge for long range sniping and marksmanship. As a testament to its accuracy, since its introduction it has gone on to win several 1,000-yard competitions. Prior to the design of the .300 Winchester Magnum there were several cartridges that provided what could be best described as a magnum level of energy. The heritage of .30 caliber (7.62 mm) magnums can be traced back to the .30 Newton in 1913 and to the .300 H&H Magnum in 1925. The .300 H&H Magnum was too long for the Mauser and Springfield standard length rifle actions and required specialized rifles with a Magnum size action. Beginning with the .270 Weatherby Magnum in 1943, Roy Weatherby introduced a line of cartridges that while based on the Magnum H&H case were shortened to fit a standard length action. The Weatherby cartridges involved blowing out (reducing the taper) of the Magnum H&H cases, bottlenecking them to the required caliber and shortening them to fit the standard rifle actions of the era. The .300 Weatherby Magnum was introduced in 1944. The Weatherby's standard length magnum case was soon noticed. In 1958 Winchester introduced three cartridges – the .264 Winchester Magnum, .338 Winchester Magnum and the .458 Winchester Magnum, all based on the shortened and blown out .375 H&H Magnum case. The popular .30 caliber's omission from that lineup was not missed. Wildcatters soon produced the .30-338 Winchester and Norma Projektilfabrik, who were by now manufacturing ammunition for Weatherby, took the standard length basic Weatherby brass and necked it down to .30 caliber (7.62 mm) and called it the .308 Norma Magnum. The .300 Winchester Magnum is powerful enough to hunt any North American game animal. It is particularly useful when hunting the members of the ungulate family such as elk and moose and is a popular cartridge among hunters for these class 3 game species. Elk can weigh as much as 1,000 lb and moose 1,400 lb. Bullet weights of 165–200 gr are the preferred choices for these game species. Controlled expansion bullets such as the Nosler Partition or Barnes X are preferred rather than more lightly constructed bullets for these larger species of ungulate. Bullets weighing 150–165 gr are adequate for smaller deer such as the mule deer and white-tailed deer. With its velocity, low bullet drop and high energy retention, the .300 Winchester Magnum is useful for hunting sheep even at extended range. The .300 Winchester Magnum cartridge is very effective on dangerous class 3 game such as bear. Both black bears and grizzly bears are hunted using the cartridge. Many consider the .300 Winchester Magnum to be on the lighter side of what is required for the largest bears, but hunters have had success with the cartridge against these large bruins. The .300 Winchester Magnum is well-suited for 95% of the world's game. Due to its ability to shoot flat and carry its energy efficiently, the cartridge is one of the more favored rounds for African plains game. With bullets of good sectional density and ballistic coefficients the cartridge possesses the long range performance necessary to take large game species at extended ranges. The .300 Winchester Magnum can be used to hunt everything from the dik-dik to the giant eland. It is an excellent cartridge choice for all plains game under 1,500 lb. Source: Wikipedia |
