In 1961, Norma (www.norma.cc/us) introduced the .308 Norma Magnum, which was designed in 1959, to the US market. The .308 Norma Mag. is a standardized version of the wildcat .30-338 Win. Mag. The .308 Norma Magnum was and is a good cartridge, but its brief run of minor popularity essentially ended when Winchester introduced the .300 Win. Mag. just two years later.

In 2012, 51 years after Norma's first foray into the .30 caliber magnum market, the CIP standardized the .300 Norma Magnum at a maximum pressure of 63,817 psi. The .300 Norma is a big case, .30 caliber super magnum match cartridge based on the .338 Norma Mag. case necked down to accept standard .308" diameter bullets. (The .338 Norma Mag. was itself based on the .416 Rigby case.)

Neither the .338 Norma nor the new .300 Norma Magnum is well known in the US. The .300's dimensions include a rim diameter of .588", head diameter of .585", shoulder diameter of .563", shoulder angle of 20.5 degrees, max case length of 2.492" and cartridge overall length of 3.681". A huge cartridge about the size of the .30-378 Weatherby Magnum (which was also loosely based on the .416 Rigby case), the .300 Norma requires a rifle with a long, oversize magnum action.

From a 26" test barrel, the .300 Norma is about 60-70 fps faster than the .300 Remington Ultra Mag with a 180 grain bullet and about 100 fps slower than the .30-378 Weatherby. It is also a whopping 357 fps faster than the old .308 Norma Magnum!

The only Norma factory load for the .300 Norma at the time this is written (2017) is a Berger 230 grain Match bullet (BC .743) at a muzzle velocity (MV) of 2985 fps and muzzle energy (ME) of 4551 ft. lbs. from a 26" test barrel. At 300 yards the remaining velocity is 2598 fps and the remaining energy is 3448 ft. lbs. Zero that load at 300 yards from a rifle with a scope mounted 1.6" over bore and the trajectory looks like this:

+3.3" at 100 yards, +4" at 200 yards, 0 at 300 yards, -9.1" at 400 yards, -23" at 500 yards, -44.7" at 600 yards

More practical for the civilian hunter, Norma reloading data shows that a maximum load of 94.7 grains of Norma 217 powder behind their 180 grain Oryx bullet (BC .354) achieves a MV of 3317 fps and ME of 4398 ft. lbs. (Generally speaking, if you think you need a bullet weighing more than 180 grains in a .30 caliber cartridge, you would probably be better off with a larger caliber cartridge.) Incidentally, the recoil energy of this load in a nine pound rifle is 33.5 ft. lbs. and the recoil velocity is 15.5 fps.

Plug this Norma data into a ballistics calculator for a 300 yard zero and the result shows a maximum midrange trajectory of 4.07" at 175 yards. The bullet drops 3.96" below the line of sight at 350 yards, at which point the remaining velocity is 2377 fps and the remaining energy is 2258 ft. lbs. The bullet drop at 400 yards is -9.47"

For comparison, the .30-378 Weatherby 180 grain factory load (also manufactured by Norma) using a 180 grain Barnes TTSX bullet (BC .453) has a MV of 3360 fps and ME of 4513 ft. lbs., also from a 26" test barrel. Zeroed at 300 yards, that bullet hits +3.4" at 200 yards and -8.1" at 400 yards. I think it is reasonable to conclude there is little practical difference between these two cartridges.

In 2016 the US Special Operations Command selected the .300 Norma as their new advanced sniper rifle cartridge, replacing the .300 Winchester Magnum in this role. As to what this might mean for the popularity of the .300 Norma Magnum among civilian shooters and hunters, we will have to wait and see.