doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com OT - Need help selecting ammo for deer hunt

I inherited a Weatherby 300 Magnum from my Father. My son is taking it on a Mule Deer hunt and I need to select and order cartridges. I figure two boxes since we need to site it in.

I would just as soon order it from Cabelas:

Cabelas Weatherby 300 mag ammo

hHis is a guided hunt he has booked so I don't have a clue as to ranges. His friend / customer suggested 160 to 180 grain bullets.

Best,

Mike

To make amends for another off topic post here are some pictures of a W&C Scott Premier Imperial I once owned:







and a nice little Parker AHE 20 gauge:

Mike, does it have to be a 300 magnum? 160 grain-bullet is fine but that's an awful lot of rifle to kill a deer, mule or otherwise.

Amen to what King Brown said. Your son is not a large framed man so anything from a .243 up to a .30-06 would be preferable. That 300 WM is just going to be a flinch builder. 160 grains is fine.

Looking at all my old loading manuals from the 40's and 50's/60's, all of them cite the 180 grain as the bullet of choice for the 300 Weatherby Magnum, which was brought out just after WWII.....

The loading manuals go on to say that the 180 grain bullets shoot flatter than the lighter bullets and they all show the ballistic coefficient is higher as well.....

I load & shoot the same 200 grain flat base in my .338 Win Mag for the last 35 years or so and it's dropped an awful lot of deer and elk and bear etc....dead in their tracks and shoots extemely flat with authority.......

Hope this helps for whatever it's worth.......

Best...

I have always found the 165 gr. bullets to be a good choice and with less recoil than the 180

Adding spice to the pot with the W&C eh Mike.
They always say take enough gun but dam it a little critter for that cannon.
As King wrote 150 - 165 gr. will work just fine.
25.06 or 7x57 would be my pick.

I agree with the recoil observations. He was close to my Father and wants to use that gun. I appreciate all the replies.

The website has the same grain bullet in different configurations: SP, NP, NBT, TSX, SPTZ, NAB.

Cabelas Weatherby 300 mag ammo

I have no idea what the designations mean or if they make any practical difference in this case.

Thanks again for all replies.

Best,

Mike

Tell your son to place his shot with that cannon. A hit in the back or rear end will ruin a lot of meat. I use a 45/70 and 7mm Mag on deer and I try to get the heart and lungs with either rifle. BTW beautiful shotguns.

SP = Spire Point
SPTZ= Spitzer bullet
NBT=Nosler or Norma boat tail bullet

and so on, the bullet type has a definite impact on accuracy....flat base bullets generally have a higher ballistic coefficient and have less gas cutting......

I see that the widest number of choices are in the 180 grain, that should tell you something about the 300 Weatherby chambering, based on it's fps vs. twist vs. bullet weight......

Best...