Help With LR Hunting Caliber

[roninflag]

on a custom gun i would not be afraid of factory ammo. current factory ammo is real good. with fed 180 tsx i shot a .17" 5 shot group out of my sendero. i would pick a 300 wm because of the variety of ammo.

 

[roninflag]

my krieger barrels shoot everything real good. i cringe when the post says i have a 417$ sporter, ( barrel 17$) , and i shoot factory ammo ; i want to shoot elk at 1000 yards.

 

[deadlift]

Don't forget the 7mm Dakota! That is the best for me, easy to shoot and generally mild with a 9-12 lb rifle. Brass is expensive ($1.80), but worth it and I'm running the 190 matrix at 3066 and no pressure. And it fits in a std mag box or DBM w/o mods and that helps on the budget.
Just my .02
Chris
Benchmark Barrels

 

[WildRose]

I have nothing against the 7 STW, in fact I think it is a fine cartridge. I just don't see what all the hype is about. Ballistically it is very comparable to a 300 Win mag, just with a bit more velocity and slightly worse BC. Trajectory-wise at longer ranges it's a wash. The .300 having more frontal area will = more reliable expansion and it will retain more energy to drive that bigger bullet just as deep as the smaller 7mm.

I'm guessing the rifle the OP is asking about will be in the 12-14 lb range. With a brake on a rifle of that size recoil will not be a factor. If you're trying to save a little on the cost of components I can see going with a 7mm, but the .30 cals have better BC and more frontal area, along with generally better selection of bullets. And the 300 RUM will equal the velocity of the STW but using heavier, higher BC bullets. To me there is no advantage to the STW in this case except the cost of powder and bullets (which will be 10-15%). So I guess the question is whether you want better performance or cheaper ammo.

If we were talking about a light weight gun without a brake I would lean more toward the 7 STW since it can do pretty impressive things with 160-180 grain bullets.

The 300 Rum comes with a much greater cost in components, ammo, muzzle blast, and recoil.

This comes from a guy who owns and shoots three 7mm STW's and 3 300 Rums.

The STW out to 750yds is much flatter shooting than the 300 WM, less recoil, and is just a hell of a lot of fun on top of being more than capable of taking all game in North America out to 1000yds.

I also own and shoot 2 different 300wm's and love them but the STW's are what I'm most likely to grab to take for 90% or more of my medium and large game hunting.