Winchester

Sure.

And listening to what they had to say, by the way, it concurred with what I experienced in my lifetime shooting big black bears but to listen to them was really interesting I had six guides that for over a decade had all been hunting for Jim Shockey taking hunters out and you know one thing they said that was just I probably shouldn't repeat it I'm going to start a firestorm they said we would prefer a hunter shows up with a 308 anything be it a 308 Winchester a 30-06 a 300 windbag but a .308 caliber bullet anything than a 7mm Remington mag.

They said we need more bears lost to the 7 Remington mag than anything.

And, of course, I know why.

Today, we're heading to San Jose, California, to a house built by a grieving widow and to the one discovery made after her death that tells you more about her than any legend ever has.

Sarah Winchester married William Wart Winchester in 1862.

William was the son of Oliver Winchester, founder of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, the business behind the famous Winchester rifle.

By any outward measure, Sarah had married into extraordinary wealth.

Then came the losses.

Some of the most legendary hunting rifles we've ever had.

The Winchester Model 70 Pre-64, the Remington 700, Remington 760s, and a whole bunch of new guns you can get this chambered in.

I would say if you're a walnut and blue steel guy and you want a bolt gun and you're looking for the biggest variety of options, since this one has been so popular for so long, you're more likely to find a good older gun in this caliber, the 30-06.

Now in the 50s, the military looked at the 30-06 like the ballistic performance with, you know, things they were trying to do.

And again, all the ones I've talked about thus far are 308 caliber.

I know this one's called the 308, but they're all .308 diameter bullets, 30 cals.

The next one predates that 308, but this one's a 27 caliber, the 277 diameter, 270 Winchester.

You take the 30-06, you neck it down, make the bullet smaller, and you're gonna shove them a little bit faster.

Yeah, the 454 Casull is 65,000 PSI, which is the same as your PRC cartridges, your-

Same as the 270 Winchester

... 300 Winchester.

Yeah.

Yeah, so it is a r- it's a bottleneck, full pressured rifle, you know, pressure type stuff in a handgun.

They were walking a lot.

They were carrying a gun in their hands.

And, you know, you, you, you take a, you take a slick Winchester 94 or Marlin 336, and you carry it in the woods in your hands versus some of the, you know-

Hello, John McAdams here, and you are listening to episode 440 of the Big Game Hunting Podcast.

Ron Spomer is back on the show again today, and we're talking about two cartridges that came out the same year, look almost identical on paper, and have been argued about ever since they came on the scene in the 1950s, the 243 Winchester and the 6 millimeter Remington, which was originally introduced as the 244 Remington.

Now, Ron is that rare guy who has actually spent a lot of time at the range and afield with both cartridges.

He has hunted deer, pronghorn, and predators with them.

And so-

Yeah

... today I... we're talking about the 6 millimeter Remington and the 243 Winchester, and-

Mm-hmm

This next great question is via Charlie McDonald.

The 300 WSM, which debuted in 2001, stands for Winchester blank Magnum.

Randall definitely doesn't have this.

Another confident room.

The 300 WSM, which debuted in 2001, stands for Winchester blank Magnum.

When I hosted trivia at the, uh, at the ELR match-

Okay

And now I got another action like that and I wish I still had that barrel.

Because there's a lot of little compromises in here that you can make.

For instance, if we would say, you know, the .308 Winchester is, I think, the greatest pick.

Some guy could say, well, I have a .300 Savage, and that comes within about 50 feet per second of it with the same bullets.

What's the difference? Sure.

I want to go way down to an old classic considered to be a dual-purpose cartridge.

So what we're talking about, even though that .30-06 is, I'll give it – The 100 to 220 grain versatility line.

But for everyday hunters, I think the old .243 Winchester remains what it was when it became famous for this.

I want a cartridge that I can relatively inexpensively shoot varmints with.