What Happened To The 300 Remington Ultra Mag?

[jackieschmidt]

It is hard to believe that it has been almost 25 years since Remington introduced this beast. It seems everybody wanted one.

Now, you rarely read or hear anything about it.

What happened?

 

[nwmnbowhunter]

Still reasonably popular with the long range hunting crowd.

Modern custom chamberings in 300 RUM really need a custom action capable of handling 4 inches of round length.

It's still super easy to tune and very accurate.

 

[jghoghunter]

I love mine. Its a toy to me. I play with it out to 1000. Next year I'll take it out to a mile. It will regularly put 5 shots into 5" at 1000 off of a bipod, rear bag and a bench.

 

[ChrisNZ]

With that level of performance, you need to go to an F-Open match and show them how it's done.

 

[jghoghunter]

Sorry i know better than that. I shoot benchrest and i know what it takes to shoot well and consistently, you would get your ass handed to you. The rifle shoots well but its a hunting rig and no more.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Its still somewhat popular with the long range hunting crowd. One of the reasons I never fell in love with it is its too long to fit a mag when throated properly. So I went the route of the 300 Norma imp. Thats been a very popular chambering for my customers. The 30-28 and 30 Noslers have been as well. When the rum came out there werent many other options. Now there are.

 

[SKWERLZ]

I shoot a wildcat of it, 338 edge.
You can get good brass for it thankfully.

 

[jghoghunter]

I shoot a wildcat of it, 338 edge.
You can get good brass for it thankfully.

same here also

 

[STOMP442]

Still fairly popular here in my neck of the woods, but long range hunting is the thing here. I build or work on 2 or 3 a year seems like pretty consistently. The Ultra is probably my favorite 30 cal magnum. It's very easy to tune and get to shoot well. Much easier than the .300 Win Mag in my experience. A 210gr Berger loaded to mag length under a max load of H-1000 and you are in business. The advent of the .300 PRC has guys moving to it rather than the Ultra but it doesn't do a damn thing different performance wise. Sure it fits a mag better but I've never seen an Ultra that didn't shoot extremely well even with a bullet shoved a little deeper in the case.

 

[okie]

As far as hunting goes, I think when berger came out with the high BC 7mm 180 gr bullet, a cartridge firing it made more sense in north am. than the heavier 30's???

 

[Keefe300]

Oh, the memories. I haven’t thought about the 300 RUM in years now.

I had a Remington Sendero stainless fluted when this round hit the shelves. It was a rifle that would bloody both ends. The scope I had at the time didn’t give enough eye relief, so every time I got complacent it bit me and added to my collection of scars.

The most fun with this round was loading up 125 grain Nosler ballistic tips and going groundhog hunting. It was total carnage.

 

[SBS]

Nothing over .30 cal. ever became popular with the average hunter -- the guys that buy the most rifles - simply because of recoil. The only half way popular caliber over .30 is the .45-70 which is downloaded for the Trapdoor. The big .300 RUM took the .30 cal. to a level of recoil exceeding most of the common larger diameter calibers. Because of the ballistics, hunters initially took to the .300 RUM like flies on honey, but the honeymoon didn't last long because of the recoil generated by 100 + grains of powder. Most of these guys only shoot sparingly during deer season and don't get used to this much recoil. Most have trouble shooting any magnum accurately. A large local sporting goods store quit taking the .300 RUM in trade several years ago, had too many trade ins on the shelf. Remington somewhat salvaged this round with owners by offering it in 2 different factory reduced rounds. Hardly ever see anyone buying hunting rifles in this chambering anymore. Many calibers may survive among a small number of owners, but popularity is another thing. ELR shooters have moved to bigger and better calibers, so not much of a niche left for the .300 RUM. If I remember correctly, Remington brought it out in anticipation of the Weatherby .30-378 being marketed. Guessing that Weatherby doesn't sell a lot of those to today's hunters either.

 

[Dgd6mm]

I had 3 .300 RUM's and 1 .300 Lapua. I decided to sell them and down size to cartridges that take under 50 grains of powder to shoot. Now days I primarily load and shoot .223 and 6br. I also shoot a lot of 22 rimfire.
It's all been easier on my wallet. The only magnum I have left is a 7WSM and it's like new.

 

[hogpatrol]

Seems more than a few that hunt Africa are using them and it gets some good ink on the Africa hunting forums.

 

[Ironworker]

When I bought one 20 years ago, I was shocked by how hard it kicked. I had a Viaz muzzle brake installed, which made it tolerable for a few shots. I shot a Black Bear with it and didn't feel any recoil.

 

[Ironworker]

Still fairly popular here in my neck of the woods, but long range hunting is the thing here. I build or work on 2 or 3 a year seems like pretty consistently. The Ultra is probably my favorite 30 cal magnum. It's very easy to tune and get to shoot well. Much easier than the .300 Win Mag in my experience. A 210gr Berger loaded to mag length under a max load of H-1000 and you are in business. The advent of the .300 PRC has guys moving to it rather than the Ultra but it doesn't do a damn thing different performance wise. Sure it fits a mag better but I've never seen an Ultra that didn't shoot extremely well even with a bullet shoved a little deeper in the case.

The 300 Win mag is one of our armed forces sniper cartridges. They must have found an accurate load.

 

[jghoghunter]

The 300 Win mag is one of our armed forces sniper cartridges. They must have found an accurate load.

I have found that a 300 win mag has been very easy to find a load for. I worked with at least a dozen over the years and have had great luck with finding good accurate loads with many different bullets and powder. I currently have one in a benchrest rifle that shoots pretty well. I drag it out when I want to have fun or its windy.

 

[rmr]

My issue with the RUM or PRC, is that it "fixes" a problem that i don't really *need* to fix. these days I'm not trying hard to win matches, just being somewhat competitive is enough. combine that with a extensive inventory of 300WM brass and experience, why spend all that money to re-invent the wheel? I'll improve my skillset more effectively by shooting what i have more often.

 

[jthor]

People probably realized

1: really large magnums suck to shoot in light hunting rifles
2: Large Magnums aren’t needed to kill 60lb southern whitetail or bigger game for that matter.
3: Remington sucks at marketing and getting the industry on board.

 

[jthor]

My issue with the RUM or PRC, is that it "fixes" a problem that i don't really *need* to fix. these days I'm not trying hard to win matches, just being somewhat competitive is enough. combine that with a extensive inventory of 300WM brass and experience, why spend all that money to re-invent the wheel? I'll improve my skillset more effectively by shooting what i have more often.

The PRC does fix the issue the 300 WM has with factory rifles and ammo using longer, heavy modern bullets; both in the twist rate and freebore that is ideal and doesn’t eat up the case capacity. Sure you can build a 300WM that has a custom chamber and different twist than what is SAAMI for the 300WM, but a minority of people have custom rifles built. It’s also nice to ditch the belt.