The .300 Weatherby Magnum is a
.30 caliber
In guns, particularly firearms, but not #As a measurement of length, artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge ( ...
rifle
A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...
cartridge created by
Roy Weatherby
Roy Edward Weatherby (4 September 1910 – 4 April 1988), was the founder and owner of Weatherby, Inc., an American rifle, shotgun and cartridge manufacturing company founded 1945. Weatherby created an entire line of custom cartridges, and was ...
in 1944 and produced by
Weatherby
Weatherby, Inc. is an American gun manufacturer founded in 1945 by Roy Weatherby. The company is best known for its high-powered magnum cartridges, such as the .257 Weatherby Magnum, .270 Weatherby Magnum, .300 Weatherby Magnum, .340 Weatherby ...
. It has become the most popular of all the Weatherby cartridges.
Background
Roy Weatherby already had experience with other custom cartridges such as his own
.270 Weatherby Magnum when he created the .300 Weatherby. Like most of his other magnum cartridges, this is based on a blown-out
.300 H&H Magnum case, using the signature Weatherby double-radius shoulder. The Weatherby was first introduced in 1944, and the
.300 Winchester Magnum was introduced in 1963.
In recent years, Remington, Winchester and Ruger have produced rifles in this caliber, and most major ammunition manufacturers now supply factory loads.
Performance
Historically, Weatherby claimed that this is the most powerful .30 caliber magnum rifle commercially available, but the recently introduced
.300 Remington Ultra Magnum, the
.300 Norma Magnum and Weatherby's own
.30-378 Weatherby Magnum are now more powerful. Of course there are quite a few very large .30 caliber
wildcat cartridge
A wildcat cartridge, often shortened to wildcat, is a custom-made cartridge (weaponry), cartridge for which ammunition and/or firearms are not mass-produced. These cartridges are often created as experimental variants to optimize a certain ballis ...
s.
When comparing the .300 RUM and the .300 Weatherby Magnum, however, there is a difference in factory loadings. Performance data is often listed on the side of the ammunition box for those who wish to do an in-store comparison. On average, Weatherby factory ammo is loaded to higher chamber pressures than Remington or Winchester magnum rounds. The Remington round can be handloaded to equal pressures, and as a consequence, surpass the .300 Weatherby in power.
The .300 Weatherby is commonly used by
big-game hunter
Big-game hunting is the hunting of large game animals for trophies, taxidermy, meat, and commercially valuable animal by-products (such as horns, antlers, tusks, bones, fur, body fat, or special organs). The term is often associated with the ...
s all over the world.
.300 Weatherby by Chuck Hawks (subscription required)
/ref>
Use
The SAS captured a rifle chambered in .300 Weatherby Magnum during the Falklands War
The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...
.
See also
* List of rifle cartridges
List of rifle cartridges, by primer type, Caliber, calibre and name.
File:Cartridge Sample 2.jpg, 350px, From left to right: 1 .17 Hornady Mach 2, 2 .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire, 3 .22 Long Rifle, 4 .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, 5 .17/23 SMc, 6 5mm ...
* 7 mm caliber
This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets in the caliber
In guns, particularly firearms, but not #As a measurement of length, artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated a ...
other cartridges in the same caliber range
* Table of handgun and rifle cartridges
This is a table of selected pistol/submachine gun and rifle/machine gun cartridges by common name. Data values are the highest found for the cartridge, and might not occur in the same load (e.g. the highest muzzle energy might not be in the same ...
References
.300 Weatherby Magnum at Accurate Powder
Cartridge dimensions.
{{DEFAULTSORT:300 Weatherby Magnum
Pistol and rifle cartridges
Magnum rifle cartridges
Weatherby Magnum rifle cartridges