Mike,
Santa just purchased a Caldwell Led Sled for us.....not a bad idea for range work with .300s. Their recoil in the field is a non-issue. My son started using a .300 WBY last season. Now 15, he has taken two consecutive ME whitetails dressing 218# and 208# with it.
I have used .300 Win and WBY in Rem 700s almost exclusively for many years. We load our own. For smaller animals a 180 gr Corelokt has worked well, always exiting with a nickel-sized hole. Both of the kid's big deer stopped them, though. I used the 180 gr partitions for elk/moose and would use them for big mule deer. If I did not have several lifetime supplies of 180 gr heads on premise I'd probably use 200 gr partitions. Best of all, perhaps, is the 180 gr Barnes TSX.
Excess meat destruction is a function of shot placement first, and bullet construction second. I have had more deer meat wrecked with a .30-30 or .22-250 than with the .300s. This was no fault of those cartridges.
Sam
