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I've just picked up a new 300 win mag. In the past i've shot a 270 and a 30-06 mostly. What loads can anyone recommend. I live in an area where the longest range i'd ever shoot at an animal is about 500 yards.

Congrats on the new gun!
I have a 300 Win and love the heck out of it.

I'll start by saying, there's a couple of things we need to know to be able to answer your question:
What type of animal are planning on hunting?
Are you buying factories or hand loading?

If you're looking at factory only,I personally loveWinchester Supreme Accubond 180 grainers for everything from deer to elk. My model 70 really loves them.
I hand load for mine and for deer I load 150 grain Nosler Ballistic tips, for my next elk hunt I've loaded some of the 180 Gr. Accubonds and I've also got some Hornady 110 grain V-Max's that I'm going to load and try on some cayotes when I get a chance.

I will try tokeep this short, and I am by no means the expert here. Hopefully some of you just might agree.

First, the best load will depend on what you are hunting, and where you are hunting at.

I think that these are important things to know since your average critters may be much larger or much smaller depending on where you are hunting. For example, Deer back home in Michigan where I grew up are significantly larger than the deer in Georgia, where I live now. We often joke about the deer we see in Georgia as being nothing more than an overgrown Greyhound. Guys talk about deer here before they are dressed out that weigh as much as a field dressed deer back home. That isn't to say that there are not any really big deer here, I am sure there are, only that generally speakng, they are smaller here than back home.
A few years back I got a chance to Hunt in South Dakota and my buddy took his .300 Win Mag. People there thought that was going to be WAY TOO BIG. We found a couple of boxes I think 155 grn Federal High Shocks. (Sorry, can't quite remember the exact name) That turned out to be just about perfect. You might not use that same load in Georgia, and surely not home in michigan.
IMO, the .300 is just about the perfect all round cartridge. You can load it light for smaller game, and load it heavy for much larger game. You can kill pigs, to bears, and just about everything else in between. Yeah, i know there is somebody else out there that thinks that there is something better, and maybe there is, but this is just my opinion.

Quote:

ORIGINAL: kdvollmer

I will try tokeep this short, and I am by no means the expert here. Hopefully some of you just might agree.

First, the best load will depend on what you are hunting, and where you are hunting at.

I think that these are important things to know since your average critters may be much larger or much smaller depending on where you are hunting. For example, Deer back home in Michigan where I grew up are significantly larger than the deer in Georgia, where I live now. We often joke about the deer we see in Georgia as being nothing more than an overgrown Greyhound. Guys talk about deer here before they are dressed out that weigh as much as a field dressed deer back home. That isn't to say that there are not any really big deer here, I am sure there are, only that generally speakng, they are smaller here than back home.
A few years back I got a chance to Hunt in South Dakota and my buddy took his .300 Win Mag. People there thought that was going to be WAY TOO BIG. We found a couple of boxes I think 155 grn Federal High Shocks. (Sorry, can't quite remember the exact name) That turned out to be just about perfect. You might not use that same load in Georgia, and surely not home in michigan.
IMO, the .300 is just about the perfect all round cartridge. You can load it light for smaller game, and load it heavy for much larger game. You can kill pigs, to bears, and just about everything else in between. Yeah, i know there is somebody else out there that thinks that there is something better, and maybe there is, but this is just my opinion.

This gentleman is correct. If all you hunt is deer and caribou, with a black bear or two thrown in, use a 165-grain load. If you go after elk, moose, and BIG bears, use a 180 or 200-grain load with a premium bullet.