The 300 Winchester Short Magnum is a relatively new, thirty caliber short magnum centerfire rifle cartridge developed by, you guessed it, Winchester Ammunition.
Making its debut and introduced to the shooting public in 2000, the short magnum cartridge was originally chambered in Winchester’s Model 70 bolt action rifle.
The 300 Winchester Short Magnum is a commercial cartridge based on the 404 Jeffery cartridge case, shortening it to 2.100″ and necking down to .30″ caliber.
Sharpening of the shoulder angles to 35 degrees was also done, and the 300 WSM cartridge has plenty of case capacity for all of its offered bullet weights.
The 300 WSM cartridge is a very well thought out cartridge as Winchester is no stranger to highly successful .30″ caliber cartridge development.
Winchester has now developed four highly successful cartridges in this caliber:
- 30-30 Winchester in 1895
- 308 Winchester in 1952
- 300 Winchester Magnum in 1963
- 300 Winchester Short Magnum in 2000
The 300 WSM cartridge offers a good balance of power with manageable recoil. It achieves its useful purpose as an excellent all around cartridge for all of the deer species of wild game animals walking in all of North America, from white-tailed deer to moose.
The Winchester, 300 WSM factory ammunition loadings show a velocity of 3,300 feet per second for a 150 grain bullet.
For deer hunting this translates to moderate recoil for the shooter with plenty of bullet energy at the 500 yard mark to flatten a white-tailed deer size animal.
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The 300 WSM cartridge, chambered in a short actioned rifle may well be the ultimate rifle for all of the North American game animals, factory bullet selection in the 150 – 180 grain weight range is the key for success in this cartridge offering moderate recoil with high down range bullet energy.
300 WSM Ballistics:
| This is a ballistics chart for the 300 Winchester Short Magnum rifle: |
| Rifle barrel length: 24 Inches. Ammunition: Winchester 150 grain E-Tip bullet. Bullet diameter: .308 inch. Bullet weight: 150 grains. Bullet ballistic coefficient: .469. Rifle zero: 242 yards, 2″ mid-range rise. |
| Range | Muzzle | 50 yds. | 100 yds. | 200 yds. | 300 yds. | 400 yds. | 500 yds. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bullet Velocity: | 3,300 fps. | 3,190 fps. | 3,083 fps. | 2,877 fps. | 2,681 fps. | 2,493 fps. | 2,312 fps. |
| Bullet Energy: | 3,628 ft.lbs. | 3,389 ft.lbs. | 3,166 ft.lbs. | 2,757 ft.lbs. | 2,394 ft.lbs. | 2,070 ft.lbs. | 1,781 ft.lbs. |
| Bullet Drop: | – 1.8″ | + 0.3″ | + 1.6″ | + 1.4″ | – 3.1″ | – 12.4″ | – 27.4″ |
| This is a ballistics chart for the 300 Winchester Short Magnum rifle: |
| Rifle barrel length: 24 Inches. Ammunition: Winchester 180 grain XP3 bullet. Bullet diameter: .308 inch. Bullet weight: 180 grains. Bullet ballistic coefficient: .527. Rifle zero: 260 yards, 3″ mid-range rise. |
| Range | Muzzle | 50 yds. | 100 yds. | 200 yds. | 300 yds. | 400 yds. | 500 yds. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bullet Velocity: | 3,010 fps. | 2,918 fps. | 2,829 fps. | 2,655 fps. | 2,488 fps. | 2,326 fps. | 2,171 fps. |
| Bullet Energy: | 3,621 ft.lbs. | 3,404 ft.lbs. | 3,198 ft.lbs. | 2,817 ft.lbs. | 2,473 ft.lbs. | 2,162 ft.lbs. | 1,884 ft.lbs. |
| Bullet Drop: | – 1.8″ | + 0.9″ | + 2.5″ | + 2.4″ | – 2.6″ | – 13.2″ | – 30.4″ |
If you’d like to see our comparison between the 300 WSM and the 300 Win Mag cartridges, click here.
