Thread: 300 win mag

Hi there @MattyR - Welcome to the land of 30 Cal magnum's.

I will preface this response with the comment that you WILL need to try a few different projectiles to sometimes find the right one but hearing others' experiences is a good place to start (but don't see this as finding the one solution - part of the fun of this is the Journey.
So what I share here here is my experience and that of 2 of my friends gained across 3 Remington 700 -300 win Mag rifles, Which fortunately all behaved consistently so may give you some clues here. Two were Remington 700p Milspec WinMag's - both 24' 5R Barrels and my own Remington 700 action reworked by SSRNZ with 25' Criterion match barrel - in a HS precision stock

Off the bat, all 3 rifles shot the Hornady ELD-M / X in 208gn extremely well at .25/.4 MOA at 100 and sometimes better with low ES and just over single-digit SD's. The two run loads of 2213sc and are going what I'd consider quite hot/fast for this projectile weight around ~ 3075 FPS
My own runs a bit slower at 2808 FPS (fueled by 2217) but I haven't pushed it after working up and consistent node for accuracy there with an ES of 8FPS.

What I will say is that shooting 50-100 rounds of 208gn in an afternoon can push you around a bit. If you're starting out, it's good to do a moment of self-reflection and understand it's not about being the he-man shooting the hottest and fastest loads. You just want to find good solid consistency that is fun to shoot and where you don't pick up bad habits (like flinches) along the way.

(My own opinion)- but I think that's why the 260 cal and 6.5 Creedmore, in particular, have come back into vogue given it's just monotonously accurate, and fun to shoot. Plus you can do it in a slightly lighter package to heft around than our heavy barreled HS precision beasties.

For me - I love the 300 winMag it gives (in the right stock) a push rather than a slap in the shoulder and is gratifying to master.
But I also came to the realization that I needed something that I could shoot happily 50+ per day. So looked at scaling back the projectile weight and immediately found good contenders in the Berger VLD/H 175 and 190 weights. Both of these for me shot very well. The 175 being an awesome one to put new shooters on (being a pussy cat to shoot) whilst the 190 seemed slightly more accurate at longer distances.

I hope this insight into my journey was useful and possibly insightful in finding the right pairing for your Sako.
Have fun on your Journey & Carpe Diem!