300 Win Mag… One of the Best Long Range Calibers Ever?

By: Dwayne Surgill

I have only owned a 300 Win Mag since 2018. Before that I hunted and shot with a 30-06, 25-06, 7mm Rem Mag, and even a 338 Remington Ultra Mag but had never owned or done much more than hold a 300 Win Mag. I started getting into long range shooting around 2015 and tried to make some of those caliber/gun options I already owned work for extended range shooting. We shot rocks for fun at long range… then we started trying to extend our range while groundhog hunting. There was nothing wrong with the calibers I had but the guns I was using were definitely not ideal for the long range game.

I have been hunting since I was a kid. Started out with my grandpas old Remington 742, 30-06 and I was happy with it. As I got more into hunting and got older, I acquired more hand me down's, gifts from my dad and also purchased guns of my own for hunting but never had long range in mind until later on. When I started getting interested in those extended range shots – 600 yards or more – I realized what I had was not exactly made for that discipline. I began upgrading stocks, triggers, and scopes but got so into it I realized I was ready for a dedicated gun that was specifically made for just that one thing… shooting long range.

Ruger came out with the Precision Rifle and I had a few friends who had bought them and were really having some great experiences with them. Being a gun collector who wanted different calibers in my collection I was particularly interested in the Ruger Precision Rifle in the 300 Win Mag. It was a caliber I didn't have, in a round that I knew the military deemed good enough for long range, in a gun that others were having great luck with… so I picked up a RPR in 300 Win in 2018.

I initially put a Nightforce Benchrest scope on my new RPR (now have a Nightforce NXS on it) and, already being a handloader, was able to work out a great load for my new Win Mag in short time. This also coincided with me meeting some other shooters close to my home who had an excellent shooting range out to 1300 yards. I was able to get my rig in working order quickly and got to test it out in an excellent spot all while comparing how it performed with various other calibers the other guys were shooting. The other more experienced shooters had 6.5 Creedmoor's, 280 Ackley's, 338 Lapua's, 300 Norma Mag's and a few other calibers. Most were shooting bolt actions… some modified factory rifles, some were other RPR's, and a few had full custom built guns. An excellent opportunity to see how, not only the RPR stacked up to custom guns, but also how the 300 Win Mag held up against some of the most popular long range cartridges currently on the market.

In order to save a lot of time, let me skip the details in the process for my initial learning of the long range game. Let's just say it took me some time to learn to hold for wind, get my trigger control and breathing down, get all my components figured out and fine-tuned, and learn the drop data for my rifle and load. Since working out all those matters, I have been able to shoot hundreds of rounds down range with the RPR 300 Win Mag side-by-side with all those other calibers and gun configurations listed above.

A little bit of online research will yield a wide variety of opinions on the 300 Win Mag's viability as a long range cartridge. Some people are downright mean about it… insisting it is old and no longer viable. Honestly, I have no idea what they are basing their opinion on but it is not based on facts! My RPR 300 Win Mag will shoot just as good, if not better, than the other calibers listed on any given day. I can consistently, repeatedly engage steel targets out to 1300 yards. I have hit a 2 liter bottle at 1000 yards. I have killed a doe with one shot at 910 yards and dropped a trophy buck at 1080 yards with one shot. I have also, on multiple trips to another range, hit a 2.5'x3' target at one mile with the RPR 300 Win Mag with a first round hit on one occasion and a second round hit on another! The gun does exactly what I need it to do as long as I do my part.

The RPR itself is a little heavy, coming in around 17 pounds, but it is a dedicated long range rifle so the weight is a good thing. I strongly recommend the Ruger Precision Rifle but this article is about the caliber and not the particular gun. I have absolutely no regrets in choosing the RPR in 300 Win Mag. It is launching a 210 Berger VLD with IMR 7828 at 2850 fps. My groups are .75" at 100 yards on the worst day and as tight as .5" at 100. The group is little of my concern however because the proof is in the long range performance as listed in the previous paragraph. Simply put… I really don't know what else I could want from a caliber and I have absolutely seen no reason to use anything else. I like all those other calibers my friends are using – 6.5 Creed, 280 Ackley, 338 Lapua, 300 Norma Mag – but they do absolutely nothing any more effectively than my 300 Win Mag. And for the other handloader's out there, I am now on my 6th reload with my Nosler 300 Win Mag brass and have yet to need to throw a case away. No loose primers, no cracked necks… I've not even had to trim my brass!

Let me be a little bit more specific about some of the difference I did see in the calibers. The 338 Lapua and the 300 Norma Mag have a noticeably louder muzzle blast and do appear to hit the target with more energy, which is to be expected. Those guys are shooting 220 or 250 grain bullets around 200-300 fps faster than I am shooting the 210 Bergers. The overall difference in ballistic performance has been negligible though! Their overall hit percentage is no better than mine and, the individual shooter's wind doping ability aside, there is really very little difference in how much they have to hold for wind as compared to what I have to hold. I'm going to say a max of maybe 6-8 inches more wind hold for me at 1300 yards than they are holding.

Really, the 300 Win Mag spoiled me a little bit on how little I have to hold for wind and I didn't notice it until I had a full custom 6.5 Creedmoor built this past year. Check out my video for a full in field range comparison between my RPR 300 Win Mag and my Custom 6.5 Creedmoor. I basically have to hold double on my dope for wind on the 6.5 as compared to my 300 Win Mag (my 6.5 is shooting a 140 VLD at 2900 fps). It became most obvious after I took my 6.5 Creedmoor to a long range competition after spending a weekend getting some dope shooting my new gun all while still shooting my 300 Win Mag more that same day. I was still very much used to how to hold wind for my 300 and not for the 6.5. My performance in the competition was terrible because I kept naturally trying to dope wind like I do with my 300 but it just wasn't near enough. That 6.5 is a tack driver but it just doesn't come close to bucking the wind like my 300 Win Mag does!

Another big advantage to the 300 Win Mag becomes evident when engaging targets at 1300 yards and beyond. The 300 Win Mag will very much shake a silhouette target at 1300 in addition to sounding off with the beloved "ping" that comes after an impact on steel. The 6.5 moves it very little and you often have to silently wait for the sound of the "ping" if you don't literally see your bullet impact at that range. On my one mile attempts with the 6.5, it was just downright frustrating. I was not able to walk myself in to any hits on the one mile target with my 6.5 Creedmoor. We just couldn't catch any splash in the dirt on my misses to be able to walk me into the target. I really may have even hit the target but we just couldn't see or hear anything after the shots. My 300 Win Mag not only causes significant splash in the dirt at one mile but it can also be heard on some occasions when I have impacts. I realize the 6.5 is capable of hitting at a mile but it was WAY easier to get hits in no more than 3-5 shots at a mile with the 300 Win Mag. I gave up after 5 shots with my 6.5 because we just couldn't see or hear anything.

So, say or think what you want about the 300 Win Mag but I believe the proof speaks much louder than random opinion. And as I alluded to earlier in the article, the military and police forces in the USA still use the 300 Win Mag as a sniper caliber so that should tell you something about its capability and reliability. You have to have a gun that is made to shoot long range. You have to have a good range finder and a quality scope to go along with that rig. If you have those quality items… in my opinion and based on my many real life, in-field examples… the 300 Win Mag is a perfect choice for caliber in that dedicated long range setup. You won't be buying my rifle as your new long range rig though… I'm not letting go of my 300 Win Mag!