The 325 Winchester Short Magnum, or 325 WSM, is a relatively new thirty-two caliber short magnum centerfire rifle cartridge.
It was developed by Winchester ammunition and made its debut to the shooting public in 2005.
The new short magnum cartridge is chambered in Winchester’s Model 70 bolt action rifle.
The 325 WSM is a commercial cartridge based on the 404 Jeffery cartridge case, shortening to 2.100″, necking down to .32″ caliber, and sharpening the shoulder angle to 35 degrees.
This cartridge has enough case capacity for all of its offered bullet weights which also offers good effective down range bullet energies.
The 325 WSM cartridge achieves its useful purpose as an excellent all around cartridge for all of North American big game species. Hunters have successfully taken animals from white-tailed deer to moose, and even bear.
The 325 WSM cartridge is a very well thought out cartridge as Winchester recognized the need for something in their Short Magnum platform capable of launching 200 plus grain bullets with high inherent accuracy plus energy levels capable of stopping the largest North American game.
The 325 WSM does all of this with lower perceived recoil in a lightweight rifle design that included help from rifle designers at Browning.
The 325 WSM is an ideal cartridge for the serious elk, bear, moose or other large and dangerous game hunter where a lightweight short magnum rifle is desired, delivering almost 2 tons (actual 3,941 FT/LB.) of energy at the muzzle and over 1 1/2 ton (actual 3,316 FT/LB.) of energy at 100 yards with a 220 grain bullet.
The 325 WSM cartridge offers a good balance of power with manageable recoil.
325 WSM Ballistics Chart:
The below 325 WSM Ballistics Chart shows Winchester 220 grain SuperX Power Point
| Muzzle | 100 YDS | 200 YDS | |
| Velocity (FPS) | 2840 | 2605 | 2382 |
| Energy (FT/LB) | 3941 | 3316 | 2772 |
| Drop (Inches) | 0 | -3.6 |
To learn more about different rifle ballistics, check out our main chart.
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