300 WSM- Best true short action magnum?

I wish the 6.8 Western got more support. Hornady won't make high BC bullets for .277 and they don't load factory ammo for it. And it seems Hornady sets the tone nowadays. Fact of the matter is it makes the 6.5 PRC unnecessary. 6.8 Western does not seem to have much if any more recoil than the 6.5 PRC, especially with the muzzle brakes of today. If you haven't noticed I really like the 6.8 Western. It is what the 270 WSM should of been. I have one of those too. Great antelope cartridge.
 
I wish the 6.8 Western got more support. Hornady won't make high BC bullets for .277 and they don't load factory ammo for it. And it seems Hornady sets the tone nowadays. Fact of the matter is it makes the 6.5 PRC unnecessary. 6.8 Western does not seem to have much if any more recoil than the 6.5 PRC, especially with the muzzle brakes of today. If you haven't noticed I really like the 6.8 Western. It is what the 270 WSM should of been. I have one of those too. Great antelope cartridge.
Hornady's corporate buggery over .277 bullets is exactly that, self-serving d-baggery. However, that's their right and honestly the 6.8 Western would have competed heavily with both the 6.5 PRC and 7 PRC had more companies adopted it. My 6.8 is my very favorite rifle and I've found enough brass, 170 EOL and 165 ABLR bullets to feed it through the rest of it's barrel life.

I like it so much, in fact, that I'll say that any similar cartridge, such as a .277 or 7mm version of a Sherman Short or SAUM will be the absolute best option for hunting anything, other than Grizzly bears, in North America with 1 cartridge. The 6.8 Western/7SAUM/7SS seems to be a sweet spot, but everybody has their own opinion and mine might stink.
 
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having had all of the WSMs over the years, I'll keep my SAUMs. 7mm and 300.. the 7 shoots a tad better but my 300 is a solid .68 rifle. the new Remington company needs to bring them back and produce commercial ammo for those that need it. I know, wishful thinking
 
I'm definitely going to look into 7's. Lots of compelling arguments here. Sounds like realistically, I should look more into either a SAUM or a Sherman Short whether it be a 30 or a 7.

Considering it all, it appears a guy can get into a higher BC with a shorter COAL in a 7, which I believe that would be a major factor with me needing to stay in a short action for this rifle. Would a guy be wrong for believing a SAUM would be easier to reliably feed in a magazine than a SS? It seems to me the SS is a simply improved SAUM; longer neck, less taper, different shoulder.
 
From my understanding a 7SAUM needs a medium action to take advantage of it. I don't own so I'm no expert. I do have a 7WSM in a short action and really like but it has brass limitations as well.
If you have a set up for 2.96" COL you can run up to 175gr efficiently. Above that a medium action is needed for good velocity.
 
From my understanding a 7SAUM needs a medium action to take advantage of it. I don't own so I'm no expert. I do have a 7WSM in a short action and really like but it has brass limitations as well.
They both need a medium action to get the full potential but the saum does better in the short than the wsm with long bullets.
 
Looks to me that the Sherman's are the only comparable cartridges that you can get full potential out of with a true short action. So to me it's looking like 300 SS vs 7 SS.
 
To me the 300 wsm is the optimum compromise cartridge, wanna slam big old .308 bullets ... go long action. Wanna fling uld lighter bullets... go longer tube and smaller caliber. It Doesn't fit in short actions with really long bullets, kicks a might in mountain rifles... It probably does nothing the best but load 165 -180s and it does every thing you need out to 500 maybe 600 yards.

The 30 cal bore objectively looses less fps per inch at 20 than the smaller bores. Having had both stubby length wsms at the same time it's non trivial although most animals can't tell about 100 fps.


My biggest selling point was in the fall a little before the Kung flu, in king cove we wandered in to the little store and they had maybe a dozen cartridges 223, 243, 6.5 manbun, 270, 3006 300 win, 338 win, some 4570... the usual safe bets for there but nestled in between 06 and win mag was 300 wsm. Figure it's reached dang near complete acceptance if a store literally in the middle of nowhere stocks it.

If you can accept it's a compromise round, it's probably the best of those.
 
I also bought a short action mag switch bbl setup, more limiting myself because I'm a lefty and wanted the new HNT26 chassis so Rem 700SA was my only option..
Here's a list of SA magnums I came across:
6.5 SS
6.5PRC
7 SAUM
7 SS
7 WSM
270 WSM
6.8 Western
270 SS
300 SS
300 RCM
300 WSM
300 SAUM
325 WSM
338 SS
338 RCM

Obviously viability on a lot of these comes down to if you hand load or not.
The 300WSM is the most prolific large magnum as far as commercial availability, but the SS & RCM's have peaked my attention. A lot of the variability is how much the cartridge is optimized for long heavy bullets.
Combine a 300 & 338 with my 6.5 PRC and any animal can be handled.
For a single cartridge... 7's are hard to beat right now if you aren't hunting dangerous game, bullet aerodynamics have made the 6.5's & 7's run laps around the 300's in the wind until you move to the larger LA magnums.
 

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