Hey Carp,
Understand about the time.
I have used the short mag alot,mostly the 300 wsm and the 270 wsm.The 300 wsm is a great little round along with the 270.But I feel the 300 wsm dosenot give that much advatage over the older cartrige.I have killed elk with the 300 win and 300 WSM(my biggest bodied elk dropped to the smaller 300).What I found that is a good bullet for the 300 wsm is the Barnes 168 bullet.I gives you alittle more speed,and flatter traj. than the 180's.But you can also do that with the 300 win mag so I put it at a wash.The real diffrence is when you shoot 200 and 220's thats where the 300 win mag is supierior to the 300 wsm.
I notice no diffrence in accuracy between the 300 wsm and 300 win mag as with the recoil(I thought my '06 kicked harder)
Either round will do well as a all-around big-game rifle.
If you want one get one,they are good rounds,if you have a 300 win mag already I would look at something else.
BBJ