I think that I'd choose the 300 RUM of the two, or better yet, the 338 RUM. The RUM is going to be cheaper to shoot, handload or not (and you should seriously consider handloading if you shoot any big magnum), the RUM has a small but real performance advantage over the Wby, and it's not going to smoke a barrel any faster if you take care not to let them get too hot. The reality is that most people will never shoot out a RUM's barrel in their lifetime. Big magnums, for most of us, are not high volume target rifles. They get shot a few times a year and put away. Maybe 50 shots a year, which with a 1200 round barrel life, would last you 24 years before you'd see a noticile reduction in accuracy. If it was a shooter before this the reduction will probably not even be so much as to make it useless as a hunting rifle for most purposes. And if you are like Ridge Runner and have the skills, time, money and patience to become a serious long range hunter, changing a barrel is similar to a race car driver changing out a set of tires. A $400-500 rebarrelling job is cheap compared to the cost of a serious LR rifle to begin with.
As for freebore length, I can't imagine that the RUM has all that much less than the Weatherby. The truth is that more freebore gives higher velocities at perhaps, but not always, a small cost to accuracy.
Mike
Last edited by driftrider; 10-01-2009 at 03:45 PM.
Reason: To fix a strange cut and paste problem.