Thread: Moving up in calibre - 300 Win, 300 WSM, 7mm RM or there?

I'm looking at upgrading from 270 to a larger magnum calibre and getting my Burris Signature working to its capabilities. Mainly tops hunting and want to be able to shoot to 400 maybe 500. Any input on calibre choice would be appreciated from the more experienced? If I had to choose today I would go with 300 WSM as I have shot my mates one and handled fine on a suppressed tikka t3.

Also, thoughts on suppressor vs brake for the larger calibre? Brake likely the way to go I imagine

Cheers

When I was looking to go to a long range tops gun I was leaning toward 7mm RM, then ended up with 300 WM. A light rifle with
26 in barrel so went muzzle break which works incredibly well on recoil management but f##k it’s loud. overall there wasn’t much difference in the overall numbers between the two calibres that I researched and a good range of factory ammo available. For hand load it’s about availability of primers you can get brass powder and projectiles at a price. There was some suggestion that development on the 300 was done but with 7mm some further potential.
I’m not familiar with the Burris signature but definitely need good glass
Whichever way you go invest in a rear bag as well makes a huge difference to accuracy

I’ve got a wsm and wm, only fired a mates rm. I’d go with the wsm personally and suppressed over braked although I think it’s the ATec you can put a brake on the end of the suppressor. Wsm recoil is more manageable and realistically any of these three will easily do what you want. Not sure if you reload but that would be the last consideration, cost and availability of ammo. If you reload wsm trades a negligible amount of performance compared to wm so cheaper to feed.

I went .308 to 7rm just because I got a great deal on a great rifle it served me well I feed it 2225 215feds and 162 amax and eldx. Either will serve you well recoil will be less with a brake but they suck on the ears plenty of components around for both at the moment

7mm is the ballistic sweet spot. A 280 Winchester, 7rem mag, 7saum, 7 prc would serve you well. Out to 600 yards most of those rifles can get away with a short barrel. I have a 20” 7prc pushing a 175 berger elite hunter at 2830 and it still has 1562 fps at 1000 yards which is just below what it takes ti make an eld -x projectile work(an arguably harder bullet)
I steered away from the 30 cal as they tend to need a lot more powder (extra recoil) to achieve the ballistics as the 7mm magnums due to the fatter pill. Definitely suppress, pain in the arse with hearing protection, and a short barrel lends itself to adding a can, equally, just this last weekend we were on the tops and had a yearling spike come cruising at us into 80 yards, old mate has a brake and was faffing around trying to get ear protection while I just stood up and bowled it for easy meat. Normally a brake is fine however when I had a braked 26” barrel, 25% of the time I wanted to jump shoot through bushy guts or river beds etc and it’s a pain, plus if you go bush bashing with a long ass barrel…

the mighty 7RM

7mm rem mag or 300win mag if shooting factory ammo, otherwise I'd say 300wsm the big issue with hand loads will be primers, large rifle magnum primers are the latest unicorn turds.
My old Sako 300wsm super pig (19" barrel, stug stock) is up for sale by it's current owner and is listed in the buy sell section.
Absolute beast of a rifle and ticks all the boxes.

7rum
But 270 should easily do 600m
7is ballistically supposed to have more scope , they are load with a fair bit of recoil on a light frame , check your eye relief.

I would look into 300prc or 7mm prc.

Only drawback is they are new thus not as abundant.

All good info, I hadn't considered the PRC. Had the guy at Rivers to Ranges the other day tryin to sell me on a 6.5 PRC.

I would be using factory ammo. Preference would be for a suppressor too

Do you hand load ? If you roll your own then the options are much greater/better.
In 7mm you should consider 280ai, 284 and 7SAUM, and the new kid on the block, 7PRC. You can get factory ammo for 280ai and 7PRC, so check out these even if you don’t hand load. Running the right powders you can get very close to 7RM performance with 280ai, 284 & 7SAUM. Ie 3000fps with 162gn pills. The 284 & SAUM will work very well with shorter bbl, eg 20in or shorter if you wanted.
In 30cal, also look at 3006 or better still 3006ai, it’s nipping at the heels of the 300wm in a lighter platform running less powder. Same comparison as 7RM to 280ai. 300wsm is a good option and will tolerate a shorter bbl. Or 300SAUM.

My personal “must haves” in tops rifle are light weight, portability (shortish bbl) and accurate (rifle & shooter). Dragging a big, long bbl heavy rifle thru scrub or extended trips is a pain in arse. Why do it if you don’t have to ?? To get the best out of big magnums you really need 24 or 26in bbl.

Brakes are significantly better in reducing recoil than suppressor & good for portability but as you know farkin loud. Good hearing protection is essential, and 4 legged companions not an option.

Using factory ammo...... Hornady superpreformance load with the 145 eld slippery job in what you have got. The leap to a "magnum" cartridge from what you have already isn't huge,more like a hop than leap. What you have is more than capable of those ranges. Do the maths n look at the ballistic numbers.a slow barreled 7mm rem mag isn't a huge .bit faster..for sure can chuck heavier but last time I checked we short on rhinos in NZ.

Factory 280 will be worse as harder to get and pressure kept low for rem pumps etc.

708 will be good in the 400 to 500 range
280ai for a bit more legs

Mate, id just get a decent scope and load sorted for the 270 if not already and use the rest for ammo. i comfortably push my 270 to 800 yards on deer using 150 Berger's but the ranges you mention you can easily do that even with a 130gr sst, the 150sst not far behind the Berger's BC. i run a hot load though, 150gr going 2900fps but even with a mild load the 270 can do the range you are after.

if you chuck a 3-16x scope onto the 270 its sorted for an all-round for bush and long range.

If you just want a new rifle, my pick in 30 cal is 300wsm or even PRC and 7mm is 7PRC, BTW if you dont reload most factory 7 rem mag ammo doesn't give much over the 270 anyway.