Help me decide on a new 300 WM

I have decided that I am going to buy a 300 WM rifle for an elk hunt this fall. I have narrowed it down to the following 4 guns:
Savage 110 HS Precision
Savage 111 Long range hunter
Remington 5R
Remington PSS
In the end I want the most accurate gun with the least amount of required tweaking to get it to shoot to it's potential. I want a long range hunting gun that I can work with to extend my range with as my skills advance. I will use the gun after the hunt for some long range steel shooting also to perfect my skills. I don't mind lugging around extra weight if in the end I have a little more inherent accuracy. I will be mounting a Vortex 4-16 PST FFP scope in Burris signature rings on a Ken Ferrel base on this gun. I would like to shoot 190 to 215+ grain bullets from the gun. Let me know your thoughts.

Whichever one comes with a muzzlebrake installed.

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Originally Posted by Rooster 50

Whichever one comes with a muzzlebrake installed.

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For a guy aged 1 this is really good advice! :)

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Originally Posted by sav250

For a guy aged 1 this is really good advice! :)

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too lazy to change that. BTW looked up the long range hunter. it comes with the brake. outstanding rifle.

Most people think in terms of recoil reducing when discussing muzzel brakes. Although that is an advantage to having one,
the primary one would be the control of muzzel jump. That in turn allows for the shooter to see bullet hits when shooting at distant targets.
Nothing about he man or wimp status about it. Those in the know have them and those not dont. That simple.

Few years back a buddy bought one of Savage's package rifles in 300 wm. Blued barrel, syn stock, really nothing special. With very basic load work up it was shooting better @ 1k than you would believe. It wasn't a heavy gun by any means and recoil was certainly there but not unmanageable by any means. He still lives out in WY and has dropped a number of mulies and elk with it. Even shot a coyote one time, if you've ever seen a coyote shot head on in the chest with a 300 wm you know its a trick of physics.

Honestly if it were me I'd look at a 110/200, don't think you can beat them for an accurate, dependable, well handling hunting rifle.

I have a long range hunter that I'm currently breaking in and working up a load for.
That would be my pick as I think that, for the money, it's a good rifle at a fair price for what you get. Mine's a 6.5x284 Norma.

Vince

That's an easy one. The 116 bear hunter hands down. A premium hunting rifle for sure The 116s are my favorite and the bear hunter has all the bells and whistles.
Sure wish they would catalog it in standard long action deer calibers. (and Leftys)

I like the bear hunter also just wish it had a longer barrel for the 300WM.

I've posted about this before on this forum. Some things to consider about the 300wm is that they are all NOT made equal ! I don't shoot mine anymore but I did a load workup on my son's and found some interesting facts. His is a Tikka and the magazine is very short so you can only load to factory length. Thats ok but the freebore is .250! This makes it hard to get max velocities and still load from a mag. My other son has a savage and while his magazine is longer the throat is still long (.1 something?). Mine is way different. The magazine is longer than the other two and when loaded to magazine length I have .050 jump. These number were all with Nosler 185 gr. bullets. What I getting at here is the 300 (to me) is a different bird as far as what I normally load for. So that being said, I think for hunting they all load and shoot very good but to get top performance in loading for precision long range shooting I think you'll end up single loading. I would like to hear others opinions on this. I think if I were headed in your direction I'd get a good action with a long DBM and a barrel with a custom chamber. The one I have is just a Savage 111 that I bought otc new about 15 years ago and is all metal except for the stock. I really didn't know it was special until recently. Maybe none of this is relevant but just some food for thought.

About 8 months ago, I went though the same process in picking out a 300WM. I looked at all the rifles you are considering. Since I was on a budget, I decided that I was gonna buy a savage 110 in 300wm or 7mm mag and re barrel it with a shilen or McGowan match grade 300wm barrel.
I found a nice used wood stocked 110 in 300wm for $250!!! I figured that once I put a $300 aftermarket barrel on it I would still be well under the price of "all of the above listed guns" and most likely have a better shooting "custom rifle"
Before ordering a new barrel I shot the factory one. And much to my suprise I shot a 5 shot .4" group @100yds with my $250 rifle. So needless to say, I didn't order a new barrel. I put a nice vortex scope on it, and put it in a $100 Boyd's Taticool stock. And that is my long range elk and mule deer rifle.
One other thing to consider: I don't know what type of terrain you will be hunting, but several of the rifles you listed above are very heavy. My entire set up of rifle with scope/rings, 50mm scope and a bipod and sling weighs in right at 10lbs. I wouldn't wanna go much heavier for the type I elk hunting that I do in oregon wilderness areas. Some of the rifles you listed above are pushing 10lbs with no optics, rings or bipod. Just something to consider.
Good Luck,
-Leo

With a 10 lb. rifle, you do not need much of a brake. My rebarreled Striker in 300 WSM weighs only eight pounds with no brake, and the recoil is not bad.