Receive our newsletter with the best articles covering guides, guns & gear. All of these categories including the categories outside of ballistics all go hand in hand and influence each other. All bullets, once fired, carry kinetic energy that is generated by the force of the gunpowder being ignited and the weight of the bullet which is basic physics you learned in school. And as we mentioned before, there are .300 WSM rounds that use the 200-grain bullets, but we have come across a lot of problems that people have when feeding these large bullets through short action rifles. They are not as flat shooting as hand loads, but for those looking to get into one of these cartridges and then move on to handloading, they are going to do well on the range. The .300 Win Mag rounds have an average of 80.0lb/f.s while the .300 Win Mag has an average of 77.12lb/f.s. These characteristics are also advantageous to hunting large game where shots greater than 300 yards are common. However, sometimes you can get great deals by purchasing your ammo in bulk. When getting into trajectory with ten different rounds, all with different powder charges and bullet weights it can get pretty cluttered in the discussion. And that change in the difference is mostly due to the.300 WM Trophy bonded ammo from Federal which only has a bullet drop of 6.6”. On impact, this kinetic energy is transferred to the target where it causes damage to surrounding tissue and organs. Furthermore, the muzzle energy of a .300 Weatherby Magnum round averages out to 4070 ft-lb, while a .300 WSM Winchester Short Magnum round averages out to about 3580 ft-lb. Instead, we want to present an unbiased view of these two cartridges so that you can have a better basis for deciding which one better suits your shooting needs. It is probably a bigger factor in selecting between one over the other for younger or inexperienced shooters. 300 Ultra Mag vs 300 Win Mag. And this is one of the reasons why we wanted to include the numbers for a larger data set in the event that something like this would happen. As a general rule, you want at a minimum of 1,000 ft.lb force when trying to take down larger game, and probably more in the 1,500+ range when talking about bear, elk, and moose which these cartridges are often used for. We also tried our best in selecting a sample that contained some different styles of bullet and bullet weights. And of course, this is not taking into account the rifle or the user. How much this extra velocity aids in accuracy isn’t something we can adequately determine in this article. Finally, we did see some differences in the recoil energy that is generated between these two cartridges. It’s not that you can’t get what you want of the .300 WSM, but you might have to shop around more for it. Both also have round options with very high ballistic coefficients which is always beneficial when you start dealing with higher wind speeds and 500+ yard shots. The higher the ballistic coefficient, the less prone to wind resistance and drag the bullet is. With a smaller area providing resistance, more momentum is conserved, and the projectile can drive further into the target. We will also compile this data in the applications section. A lot of people might not think of the .300 WM or WSM when thinking about short range trajectory, but there are going to be shots within 300 yards, especially when hunting. The WSM has a bit wider neck and wider base than the .300 WM. Though, we do see a little bit more of a distinction between the averages of the two cartridges. In choosing between the 300 Ultra Mag vs 300 Win Mag, our choice is the 300 Win Mag because it has less recoil, more affordable, has more factory match loads, and offers more available load data than the 300 Remington Ultra Magnum. When comparing two cartridges, the ballistics of each is always an important topic. It was by no means the first cartridge designed in the magnum category as the popular 7mm Remington Magnum was released the year prior, but the .300 WM seemed to come out at the right time. 7mm mag vs 300 Short mag by: PB I have owned a Remington 7mm mag rifle(s) and used it almost exclusively for hunting deer, elk and moose since 1968. Velocity is also important when it comes to stopping power. That is to say, .300 Weatherby Magnum bullets travel 3.7 times the speed of a 737 airplane at cruising speed, while .300 WSM Winchester Short Magnum bullets travel 3.5 times that same speed. There are obviously more options out there but ten felt like a nice round number that wouldn’t make things to cluttered. These heavier bullets provide more penetration and stopping power that is always appreciated when taking down large game. As you can see, 6.5 Creedmoor is generally much cheaper than.300 Win Mag. In the table below, you will find the sectional density data from the larger data set. In the simplest of terms, the ballistic coefficient is a number that is derived from an equation taking into account a variety of bullet flight specs. Compare 300 magnum ammo from the top online retailers to find the lowest price. Mag., it … Generally, the savings in length are approximately 2.5” when using a 24” barrel as opposed to the optimal 26” barrel length for the .300 Win Mag… We are not stating here that penetration depends solely on the sectional density of the bullet. If you want to target practice, both cartridges are fairly expensive per round, with the .300 Winchester Magnum being the most pricey (.300 Blackout costs range between $0.75-$2.09, whereas the .300 Winchester Magnum will cost between $0.92-$5.49). Some argue that kinetic energy is the most important, some argue for momentum, and some argue that neither give you useful information. It can skew the data a bit but don’t make the mistake of thinking that there are not .300 WSM rounds out there that can give you the same performance. Both rounds produce a significant amount of recoil energy and you might see that difference shrink even more if the .300 WSM rounds were to be simulated through a slightly lighter rifle. The .300 Win Mag rounds do have around an extra 40-50fps at each range marker. For a large game hunting round, this one has all the characteristics you look for. .300 Win Mag Federal Vital-Shok Trophy Bonded 180gr, 300 Win Mag Federal MatchKing BTHP Gold Medal 190gr, .300 Win Mag Nosler Trophy Grade AccuBond Long Range 190gr, .300 Win Mag Barnes Precision Match OTM 220gr, .300 Win Mag Hornady Superformance SST 180gr, .300 WSM Winchester Expedition Big Game 180gr, .300 WSM Federal Vital-Shok Trophy Bonded Tip 165gr, .300 WSM Hornady ELD-X Precision Hunter 200gr, .300 WSM Barnes VOR-TX TTSX Boat Tail 165gr, Nosler Trophy Grade AccuBond Long Range 190gr, Black Hills Match Boat Tail Hollow Point 190gr, Federal Vital-Shok Trophy Bonded Tip 165gr, Hornady American Whitetail Interlock 165gr, Nosler Trophy Grade Long Range ABLR 190gr. As you can see, even with the increase in sample size, the general trend we saw in the small sample size remains the same in regards to how close these two cartridges are in bullet velocity. Now, there are more factors that go into a bullets ability to drop animals cleanly, such as the bullet design and its ability to cause serious wounds based on how the bullet expands when it reaches the target. So a .300 Weatherby Magnum round exits the barrel with kinetic energy equal to the energy required for linear vertical displacement of 4070 pounds through a one foot distance, while a .300 WSM Winchester Short Magnum round exiting the barrel has energy equal to the amount required to displace 3580 pounds over the same one foot distance. If you’re never going to be taking shots out past 200 yards, the differences in the ballistic coefficients we are about to look at are negligible, but if you’re planning on getting any range on your shots, this should be an interesting section to you. We are not under the impression, nor do we want to make the impression, that all rounds available are going to fall within this range. Even so, it offers the highest velocities and the flattest trajectory than any other round with less than 100 inches of bullet drop at 700 yards which is very impressive for a factory load. The .300 Win Mag burns 20% to 25% more powder than the .30-06 Springfield, which gives it a 10% increase in velocity, as long as it is firing bullets of the same weight. So while both cartridges have a good amount of recoil, it’s still not something that is going to make you miss a lot of shots once you have put some time in with handling the rifle and the round. It’s always good to look into the similarities and differences of two cartridges, but at times, your decision really should be made based on other factors. The ten rounds we have graphed for this article are listed below. While both the .300 Win Mag and the .300 WSM can be found in major retail stores and especially online, there are usually more options for the .300 Win Mag. There was a trend for more recoil energy with the .300 Win Mag rounds, and we also have to take into account the difference in rifle weights between these two cartridges. There is a lot of debate out there as to how we can accurately estimate the stopping power of a round. My plan is to use the 300. wsm for larger game and the 7mm for open parries shots on whitetail and mule whitetails. If you want a round that is going to remain supersonic, both the .300 WM and the .300 WSM have a number of viable options. The .300 WSM is one of the more popular short magnum cartridges that have come out in the last two decades. It’s nothing we can look at with these ten rounds under our criteria, but it’s something we thought you would like to take into consideration and research a little more on your own. Sectional density plays a role in momentum as more momentum is conserved when the projectile, a bullet in our case, is striking a smaller area. Even at a distance of 500 yards, all rounds are supersonic with velocities well above 2,000ft.s. While this energy does translate to felt recoil, it is actually quantifiable. From these numbers, we don’t see huge differences between the two cartridge types. Trajectory is one of the most discussed ballistic properties when it comes to discussing the performance between different rounds as well as between two different cartridges. Because propellant loads used by the manufacturer are not available, we went conservative with the loads using Nosler load data and kept the charge the same for each round within a cartridge. From this data, either of these cartridges are going to provide options for flat shooting rounds and probably isn’t the category you will need to focus on until you start trying to decide which round you are actually going to cycle through your rifle. 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