The .300 Ruger Compact Magnum or .300 RCM is a rimless, short-length rifle
cartridge designed for the hunting of Medium-to-Large-sized North American game. It is designed to closely duplicate the performance of the historic .300 Winchester Magnum cartridge, yet to be chambered in a short length action rifle. The cartridge was designed by
Hornady and
Sturm Ruger in partnership and released commercially in 2008 and chambered in various Ruger rifles.
Design & Specifications
The .300 Ruger Compact Magnum uses a unique case designed by Hornady and Ruger based on the powerful
.375 Ruger
The .375 Ruger (9.5×65.5mm) is a rimless, standard-length rifle cartridge designed for the hunting of large, dangerous game. It is designed to provide an increase in performance over the .375 H&H cartridge, yet to be chambered in a standard-len ...
cartridge. The case is of a rimless design having the base and rim diameter of which is the same diameter of the belt on belted magnum cases based on the
.300 H&H Magnum and
.375 H&H Magnum. This allows the cartridge to have a greater case capacity than a belted magnum case given cases of equal length. As Ruger intended the cartridge to be chambered in short length bolt-action rifles
the case length was shortened to which is similar to the
.308 Winchester
The .308 Winchester is a smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge widely used for hunting, target shooting, police, military, and personal protection applications globally. It is similar but not identical to the 7.62×51mm NATO ...
case. Unlike Winchester Short Magnum cartridges, the Ruger Compact Magnums share the same diameter from case head to body. This allowed Ruger to chamber the cartridge without extensively redesigning their M77 rifle to adopt them to the new Ruger cartridge.
While the .300 H&H Magnum is longer than the .300 Ruger Compact Magnum, the latter cartridge has a greater case capacity than the former. This is due to the .300 H&H Magnum having a long tapered body while the .300 Ruger Compact Magnum follows modern cartridge designs in that it has very little taper and a sharper shoulder. The dimensioned drawing is of the parent case .375 Ruger.
Performance
Hornady manufactures ammunition for the .300 Ruger Compact Magnum cartridge. The Hornady Superformance Ammunition drives a Hornady Interbond or SST bullet at and the SST bullets at . The.300 Ruger Compact Magnum's greater case capacity, and the "short fat" cartridge efficiency lead to increases in the neighborhood of 150 fps over the H&H cartridge and is essentially the same performance as the
.300 Winchester Magnum
The .300 Winchester Magnum (also known as .300 Win Mag or .300 WM) (7.62×67mmB, 7.62x66BR) is a belted, bottlenecked magnum rifle cartridge that was introduced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1963. The .300 Winchester Magnum is a m ...
or
.300 WSM
300 Winchester Short Magnum (also known as 300 WSM) is a .30 caliber rebated rim bottlenecked centerfire short magnum cartridge that was introduced in 2001 by Winchester.
Specifications
The overall cartridge length is 72.6 mm. The cart ...
.
See also
*
Table of handgun and rifle cartridges
References
C.I.P. TDCC (Tables of Dimensions of Cartridges and Chambers) .300 RCM
{{DEFAULTSORT:300 Ruger Compact Magnum
Sturm, Ruger & Company
Pistol and rifle cartridges