My son sent me this question and I would like to ask y’all’s opinions:
Howdy, I have a question about cartridges! I’m currently looking into both the 7PRC and the 300PRC and was curious about your thoughts.
I know I’ll want it to hunt elk ethically as well as target shooting at ranges above and beyond 600-700 yards. I currently own and love my .300 Winmag and have been loving .308 for years before that.
Im just curious about your thoughts since I will be hand loading and already own the .300 Winmag. Thank you!
Between those 2… in my opinion 7prc all day. But i wouldnt not look at the 6.5 prc. 300 is very heavy to pack around and has a pretty good recoil. I have a 7prc bergara mg lite. Supressed it doesnt kick at all. I just started load developement and got a sub moa group at 100 yards.
To me, a 300 prc is a very niche cartridge. Great choice for shooting to and beyond a mile. But it’s a magnum length action and more difficult to shoot accurately in a hunting weight rifle.
A 7 prc packs quite the wallop. I just don’t see any real need or advantage to the 300 from a hunting perspective. Plus, the 7 prc uses higher bc bullets.
It terms of rifle overlap, the 7PRC and the 300WinMag are “fairly” similar. Recoil, velocity, etc. Not a huge difference between them. Same hunting profile. If they want something different and if the primary goal is long range, then the 300PRC would fit that bill. But if they are replacing the 300, then I think the 7PRC is the better choice.
I went with the Beragra Crest Carbon and put the Backfire pad on it, reduced the recoil dramtically. Enough that I could spend a few hours at the range on Saturday and not even have it cross my mind - stayed on target between shots fairly well also.
I guess that is also something to consider bewteen the 2 cartridges if long range shooting is the primary goal - can they stay on target with the 300?
It feels like there is a weird .30 caliber gap that the 300 PRC just didn’t fill. 7 PRC on paper is slaying it, my only hesitation is that some hunts/states require a minimum .30 caliber for certain game animals. If I ever want to do bison or a bear hunt in Canada, I’d need another gun (not a terrible idea!)
300 WM is legendary, but needs a facelift.
300 WSM I know the least about. It loses the belt, but seems to shoot lighter bullets compared to the 300 WM, loses a bit of performance, and doesn’t seem to deflect wind or shoot flatter.
300 Wby is an awesome cartridge, but proprietary rifles and ammo just cripple it. Also needs a facelift.
Just feels like there’s a huge opportunity for a new .30 caliber to come in and dominate this market segment.
He doesn’t mind heavier rifles or heavier recoiling rifles. He has a .375 H&H Mag and would love it if it weren’t in a 6-7 pound platform. He’s got a .45/70 and loves it, though it weighs 10 pounds and is throwing 350gr all day with no problems. He’s just looking into something that would shoot up to and beyond a mile when he goes back to Texas and has the ability to stretch a cartridges legs a little!