NJB if you can tolerate the recoil of a 12 gage shooting 3" slugs then you will be fine with a .300wsm. I know that shootingt 3" slugs out of my 870 with the 20" slug barrel has more recoil than shooting 180grn fail safes out of my .300 win mag. I would rather shoot my .300 win mag, than my 870.