In the grand scheme of rifle cartridges, we tend to think of rounds like the .300 Win. Mag. as existing on the upper end of the power spectrum. In reality, the cartridge is much more of a middle-of-the-road option that has, in our current AR-centric era, become one of the “big boys.” The .300 Win. Mag. is not purely a shoulder-destroying powerhouse reserved for moose hunters; instead, it’s a surprisingly versatile round that offers a tremendous amount of value, even at shorter ranges and on a variety of game and targets.
What needs to be understood about chamberings like the .300 Win. Mag. is what and who they were initially designed for … not necessarily what we see them as today. The cartridge was born in 1963 out of a moderate corporate necessity to compete in the growing world of magnum cartridges. The era that spawned the .300 Win. Mag. is commonly called the “Magnum Craze,” which lasted for about a decade in the post-World War II era and came to a close in the
