.300 Weatherby vs .300 RUM

[30 Caliber Mag Fan]

Friends-

I have a dilemma. I have a .300 Weatherby and a .300 RUM. Both firearms shoot extremely well. My quandry comes from the fact that I don't think that the .300 RUM can do anthing better than the .300 Weatherby. In fact, I don't think I can get the .300 RUM to achieve the same velocities than I can achieve with the .300 Weatherby with anywhere close to the same efficiency.

O.K., set efficiency aside for a moment what would you long range shooters rather have from a performance standpoint, .300 RUM or .300 Weatherby and if so, why?

Thanks in advance.

[rost495]

Are you saying your 300 RUM is as slow as your 300 wtby with all things the same? That makes about zero sense to me but could be possible.

As to efficiency, getting more speed after a certain point, is usually costly. The answer to the question then, is do you really need OR want it. You have to answer that.

Jeff

[30 Caliber Mag Fan]

Jeff-

I did a lot of testing and load development with .300 Weatherby. I worked up a load that is pushing a 150 grain bullet at 3620 fps. Granted, I can only get 3-4 loading per round of brass from this load but I am hard pressed to find loadings of .300 RUM that greatly exceed this performance. Thus the performance gap between the .300 Weatherby and .300 RUM does not seem to be that great.

Hopefully, my original statement makes a bit more sense and I should have put more context into my original post.

[brian b]

I have loaded for both of these cartridges and with 180's the top loads in a 300 Weatherby are pushing 3200fps and the 300RUM are pushing 3400fps if you can really push a 300 WBY as fast as a 300RUM something is wrong, it might not be as efficient but the 300RUM is faster and probably a bit more accurate because it is not freebored like the weatherby .
B

[sniper2]

I have friends that shoot the 300 wby and the 300RUM usually walks the dog on them! What barrel lengths are you talking about and what powder are you using?

[goodgrouper]

I see why you're seeing less performance than what you're expecting. The Ultra mags "advantage" of a larger case pushing a bullet faster narrows considerably when shooting lighter bullets. When shooting 180's or larger, Brian B is exactly right with velocities. The Ultra mag has the muscle to push the heavier bullet faster than the 300 Wby. That being said, a 180 grain bullet at 3200 fps versus the same bullet at 3400 gives up roughly 5 inches at 500 yards. That is only 1 minute! 4 clicks! That is it! To get that 5 inches, you burn almost 20 grains more powder. Is it worth it? In all reality, neither the elk nor the gong is going to be able to tell the difference. A well placed shot from a .30-06 might be slightly harder to place because it drops a bit more than a 300 Ultra, but if you've done your homework, it is not a big deal. Just takes 4 to 8 more clicks!

[30 Caliber Mag Fan]

Accepting the premise that the .300 RUM is the top performer, is rechambering the .300 Weatherby to .300 RUM easy? It seems intuitive to me that it would be a really easy rechamber job save and accept for cleaning up the freebore. Any comments or suggestions?

Thanks in advance.