.300 Win Mag replacing .308 Win as Army Sniping Round?

[rhodesbe]

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/USA-Orders-499M-in-300-Winchester-Magnum-Ammo-05493/

$49.9M US Contract for 300 Winchester Magnum Ammo
10-Jun-2009 14:54 EDT

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ATK subsidiary Federal Cartridge Co. in Anoka, MN received a $49.9 million firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract for .300 Winchester magnum ammunition. Maximum quantity is 80,100 boxes of 480 rounds each, minimum is 117 boxes. This ammunition will be used by U.S. forces engaged in combat, and by the US Navy in Match Team competition.

300 Winchester offers longer range, better accuracy, and more hitting power than standard NATO 7.62×51 mm rounds. The MK248 MOD 1 cartridge grew out of the .300 Winchester Magnum Product Improvement Program…

The .300 Win Mag PIP aimed to improve the cartridge’s range from 1,200 yards to 1,500 yards, decrease the effects of wind on bullets in flight, and offer a reduced flash propellant that remained stable at temperatures from -25F to 165F.

The .300 Win Mag cartridge is already in wide production for competition use. As one might expect, Winchester 300 Magnum ammunition is equally popular with law enforcement specialty teams, and sport hunters like it, too. That popularity helps .300 Win Mag rounds offer considerable cost savings over the larger .338 Lapua round favored by other sniper systems like Britain’s L115A3. The other advantage is that the MK248 MOD 1 can be fired by snipers in the field armed with existing rifles.

D.E. Watters of The Gun Zone adds that .300 Win Mag is used in the Mk13 sniper rifle, another Remington 700 long receiver derivative that’s assembled from parts at NSWC Crane. The most recent version is the Mk13 MOD 5, which allows the use of the same sound suppressor as the Knight’s Armament Company SR-25/MK11 sniper rifle.

Meanwhile, there is movement within the Army to modify their Remington 700 derived M24 sniper system to .300 Win Mag, starting with individual units. Some Special Forces units have already made this conversion. The concept of wider .300 Win Mag conversions is now being explored by Picatinny Arsenal.

Work on this order will be performed in Anoka, MN, and will run until June 2014. Contract funds in the amount of $1.3 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with multiple proposals solicited via the Federal Business Opportunities website. One offer was received by The Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division in Crane, IN (N0016409-D-JQ56). See also FBO solicitation.

 

[Shooter00]

Could this mean a higher availability of surplus brass?

 

[Old Fart]

It's a dang nice, flat shootin', hammer packin' round.
Makes sense.

I guess it'll start getting hard to find next.

 

[elwood]

Great news. 300winmag is a favorite of mine. Hopefully this will be a shot in the arm for an already popular caliber!

 

[ez bake]

Sweet - looking forward to some cheaper .308 now that some of that surplus can be shipped to ave joes

 

[man of many calibers]

They finally learned what we have known for years.

 

[fltmedic]

I have to agree with ez-bake ha ha some cheap 308's to play with and to make project guns and the 300 Win Mag is such a great rifle I think they made a good decision.

 

[ez bake]

I'm going to throw out a devil's advocate opinion on the matter.

For midrange sniping, is .300 Win Mag really that much better than .308 (yes - its certainly ballisticaly better, but by enough to justify this big of a change)?

From 100-300yds, was .308 that bad?

For 500+ yards, sure - go with a different caliber, but would .300 Win Mag be the first choice? There's a lot of other options at that point.

I don't know - .300 is a good caliber and for long-range, it certainly beats the .308, but that's a huge change to make and as a result, lots of Military rifles will have to be changed out (and a number of the accessories won't work with the newer rifles either since the change means going from short action to long action).

Just seems like a lot of change when most of the long-shot folks are already using something different than .308 anyways. The Army has a host of other antiquated arms/cartridges that they could be working on besides this one - just strikes me as odd that this is the first change they would make.

I don't know - I'm a .308 fanboy, so I guess I'm biased - the .300 win mag is a great cartridge so I guess this is a good thing.

 

[elwood]

All I can say on the subject is a 300 is effective. White tail that I've hit with mine do not run, they drop. I don't yet own a 308 so not sure if they are as devastating/effective, but I personally do not care for following blood trails.

 

[QTRMOA]

I'm going to throw out a devil's advocate opinion on the matter.

For midrange sniping, is .300 Win Mag really that much better than .308 (yes - its certainly ballisticaly better, but by enough to justify this big of a change)?

I don't know - .300 is a good caliber and for long-range, it certainly beats the .308, but that's a huge change to make and as a result, lots of Military rifles will have to be changed out (and a number of the accessories won't work with the newer rifles either since the change means going from short action to long action).

Just seems like a lot of change when most of the long-shot folks are already using something different than .308 anyways. The Army has a host of other antiquated arms/cartridges that they could be working on besides this one - just strikes me as odd that this is the first change they would make.

I don't know - I'm a .308 fanboy, so I guess I'm biased - the .300 win mag is a great cartridge so I guess this is a good thing.

Weapons are like tools in a mechanics tool chest. Not one toll does all the jobs equally. The .300 Win Mag is going to have a much better first round hit percentage than a .308 past 600m.
The .308 is a great cartridge out to 600m but from 600-1100m the elements will start to challenge the best of "snipers" which make the first round hit sometimes very difficult.
A buddy of mine was stationed in Al Amarah and provided over watch for their compound. Their unit was mortared 2-3 times a day but the mortar teams would set up anywhere between 1000-2000 yards away. The unit was only armed with M24's (.308) and could only watch as these teams pulled up in a truck and set up position. After a few weeks of this a SF sniper team shows up with a Barret 82A1 and changed the whole playing field for the mortar teams.
The .308 is good for say 70% of all engagements. This leaves the .300WinMag MK13 for max range of 1400m, .338 Lapua Mag max range of 1700m(which has been in testing at the AMU for over 2 years now) and the .50 BMG with max range of 2200m.

The Army's/Navy's M24 Sniper rifle is a Long Action Remington 700 rifle in which the barrel and bolt face is the only element that will need to be changed out.