statjunk

Hey guys,

Scored my first kill with the 300 WM on Sunday. I shot a nice sized doe quartering away at about 40 yards. Pretty proud since I got her off hand with a fogged scope.

I'm looking to hear from guys that shoot deer with a 300 WM or other large cartridge. So here's the issue. I shot this deer perfectly on a slightly quartering away shot. Both the entry hole and the exit hold were 2+" behind the shoulder. The bullet entered on the right side and the right shoulder was fine. All the meat on back of the left should was purple from damage, even though the bullet never struck the shoulder.

Is this just too much power? Could it be the bullet choice? It was a Speer Spitzer Boattail, 180gr with a light powder charge.

Any thoughts?

Tom

Jacob Garrett

I have hunted with a 300 WM for the last 14 yrs. and that sounds about normal. You will bet bloodshot meat no matter what you shoot it with. The point of the bullet is to cause trauma. I have seen the bullet go in with a hole the size of your little finger and come out about the size of a quarter if it doesn't hit alot of bone. If it hits a big bone I have seen them come out the size of a softball. But on the up side if you hunt public land the deer usually fall where they stand so theres no tracking job or a chance anyone else will shoot at and try to claim your deer.

homers brother

Yes, it's true - nearly any big-game caliber has the potential to produce bloodshot tissue.

I've actually waited a long time for someone to ask whether a .300 WM (et al) is "too much for deer". I thought everyone needed those .300s to make the 7000-yard miracle shots?

My .243 with a 100 gr bullet does about as much damage as my .30-06 does with 150s. Step the .30-06 up to 190 grains though, slowing it down a couple hundred fps, and it's just as effective, though not quite so destructive.

eldeguello

I am assuming your ".300 WM" is a Win Mag., and not a Weatherby? Could be either, you know.....

IMO, as close as 40 yards it might cost you a lot of meat, using ANY .300 Mag.

Once had a .308 Norma, which is about the same(180-grain bullet @ 3150 FPS). Only thing I ever shot with mine was a caribou. My boss got a nice black bear with it, however....

When the RugerNo. 1 first hit the market, I just had to have one! So I ordered one in 7X57mm, OR .280 Rem., OR 7mm Rem. Mag. That was the order of preference. Well, don't you know that the only "7mm" available was the 7 Mag. It did the same thing to deer your 300 WM did (140-grain bullet @ 3350 FPS)-lost a lot of meat!! So I stopped using it for deer hunting, andgot a 7X57mm as soon as I could find one. Took me seversl years to get one, too!

gunnermhr

Neck shot! No Tracking, No meat damage, unless you bone out the neck but there is a lot less meat loss in a neck shot. I guess if you're hunting does it's for the meat anyhow so wait for the opertune moment and take the least damaging shot.

statjunk

Yeah that sucks. I was afraid that I was going to get info like that. You know I really don't think a 300 WM kicks hard at all. I can shoot well over 40 rounds in one session and feel no pain. May slightly sore after that many but it goes away in a few hours.

I've spent a lot of money making this gun shoot into about a 5/8" group at 100 yards and in some cases on a good day she can shoot about a 1/4". Basically 5 shots though just about two over lapping holes.

I wonder how the 300 WM would do if I shot further back. Would the energy be enough to liquify the internal organs if I shoot about 4-5" behind the front shoulder? Would I still have meat damage.

To the above, yes I'm a meat hunter and I like to shoot 1.5-2.5 year old does and bucks.

Tom

kodiakhuntmaster

I've hunted with the .300 Win Mag for the last 5 years, and I've taken everything from antelope to elk with it and from my experience a lot depends on what you hit and the range you hit it at. Like others have said, if the bullet plows through a lot of bone it'll cause much more damage. Also the type of bullet you use matters. If you don't want the bullet to expand much, just use something like the 180 grain "power point" bullets. That's also what I use on hogs. If you want deep penetration and controlled expansion, I use the 180 grain Accubonds. That's what I used for elk and antelope. On elk, you get the most out of the bullet and it expands and puts it down quickly. Out of the two elk I shot with that load, one went 20 yards and fell over, the other dropped on the spot. On smaller animals, the bullet punches through without expanding all the way, which is why I used it on antelope. For deer, I used the 180 grain Ballistic Silvertip ammo. It expands more quickly and almost always dropped deer on the spot for me. That load will ruin a lot of meat though. When I used the Ballistic Silvertips on hogs they didn't exit, even at 50 yards on a 70# hog.

I used to only hunt on public land and dropping the animal on the spot was pretty important. Now, I use the same set up because my gun season is so short. I get all my meat animals with a bow or muzzleloader so by the time I get around to rifle hunting my freezer is pretty much full and I'm looking for abuck and ruining a little meat is better than the buck running onto my neighbor's property and getting shot by them.

If you're looking for a "meat" gun, you may want to go with a lighter caliber. Or just stick with a180 grainpower point or Accubond bullet. The .300 win mag really shines at longer ranges if your looking for a bean field gun though.

driftrider

I imagine that the only thing you could do would be to aim farther back, which will reduce the damage to the front quarter meat, but you risk liver or gut shooting a deer which can mean a long tracking job. I can only imagine what the .300 Win Mag would do. I shot my deer this year with my .30-06 up in MN, and I was actually quite amazed at the mess that bullet made. My shot was at 125 yards with a 150gr Cor-Lock. The deer was a yearling doe that dressed out at about 75-85lbs (and you can cut the round steaks with a butter knife, mmmm), and she turned toward me right as I shot, so the shot was maybe 25 degrees quartering toward me when the shot broke. Hit her right at the far back part of the right shoulder, busted 3 ribs going in with no exit wound and no recovered bullet (looks like it completely disintegrated). Lost about 1/3 of the shoulder meat on the right side. I think that maybe next year I'm going to go with a 165 or 180gr bullet to slow it down a little. This being the case, I really don't think that there is much else that you can reasonably do with a magnum. Fast bullets do a lot of shock damage.

When I was up for MN's rifle season, my brothers father-in-law and uncle-in-law both were hunting with SKS's (7.62x39 Soviet) shooting Wolf 123gr soft points. They took 3 deer between the two of them, one at almost 200 yards, and the difference in meat damage between the 7.62x39 and my .30-06 was dramatic, and their deer were just as dead. Food for thought.

Mike

statjunk

Guys,

Thanks a lot for the posts.

Had another interesting hunt with the 300 WM. I had a large doe come in on me Saturday night about 50 yards away quartering. I shot her right in the heart. This time instead of the bullet devastating the off side shoulder like I thought it would it went down a little different. The bullet went right in between the rib meat made a u-turn and went straight through the guts. Most of the vitals were completely untouched. Didn't even hit the liver. There was also no exit hole and deer hardly bled at all. There was a small amount of blood at the impact site but nothing beyond. I found her about 50 yards away.

It was very crappy gutting job.

I'm still pretty surprised by the performance of the 300 WM. I wonder how much of this is a result of the bullet I'm using.

In case anyone wants to comment I'm using a Speer Spitzer BT 180gr.

Tom

eldeguello

By all means, shoot low behind the shoulder & front leg, just thru the ribs. Then all you lose are some ribs, which have little meat anyway. This will drop them in their tracks! The bullet will go whistling off into the next county......