I've been using a .300 Win. Mag. for the last 2 years, and it has been a fantastic performer. Meat loss has been next to nothing on 3 of the 4 deer that I have used it on.

The one deer that was blood shot pretty bad was hit low breaking a leg and only getting one lung (bullet passed just low and in front of the heart, the heart was really bruised though). He was 310 yards away. I thought he was closer, that is why I hit him a little low. He didn't go far, 15 yards, where I finished him. The only reason for the blood shot was that I didn't kill him right away.

I'm a big fan of the .300 Win. Mag. Works great on moose as well.

Cheers,
Donavan

Hi 93

I was in almost the same situation as you. I had a Win .25-06 for deer and a Browning .300 for elk. They are both great calibers, but the Winchester has been relegated to the annual yote hunt...

BTW, I got a nice buck this year with the .300. Very clean kill, he didn't finish the step he was taking and no significant meat loss. Was shooting a 165 gr X at just over 3000 fps. I have never recovered a Barnes, so I can't tell you about expansion, but have no complaints.

Good Luck.
CE

The .300 is much better than the .25/'06 for large animals like a big bull elk, moose, or the big bears. However, if all you shoot is deer, then the .300 provides no advantage at all over the .25/'06! If I had a .25/'06, I would NOT get a ,300 Win. Mag. for deer hunting, but would keep one around for elk and moose, etc.

Nice caliber spacing IMHO....

25-06, 300 Win Mag, add a 375 H&H and you're done!

EKM

Blasphemy!!!! []ECM, you should NEVER be done buying rifles. I agree completely on the rest of your post though.

I agree with EKM.
If you varmit hunt??? the 25-06 does a heck of a job on coyotes.

I'll also second EKM, and add that if add a 22-250, and a 243, that you would have the perfect gun for any game animal in the world be it squirrel to elephant.

I own and shoot both. I load 180 grain hornady spire points for deer at 2900 fps. This is not max but also doesn't tear em up too bad. Like others have mentioned the .300 win mag fills a different niche than the .25-06. Do you have a lever action big bore? If not you'll need one of them also.

I've never owned a 300 mag so i can't comment on that caliber. I own a 30.06 and a 25.06 and if i were to hunt big bears, moose or elk i would choose the 30.06 over the 25.06 because of the heavier bullets that it offers. For deer i use the 25.06 exclusively and have for years and have killed countless deer with it and imo it just doesn't get any better than the 25.06 for deer.

Not sure why guys have to put down others choices. I use 25-06 with 120 grain grand slams and it puts deer down hard.