X-Bolt II in 300 WSM

I have always loved Kaden's 300 WSM X-Bolt Hell's Canyon Speed rifle. This rifle weighs 8 pounds, is fully equipped for hunting and shoots like a house of fire. 

In the fall of 2024 I picked up a well used 300 WSM X-Bolt 2 Hunter Composite rifle at our employee sale. The rifle had been shot some by R&D with it showing some fire cracking in the barrel and a pretty rough stock finish but for the price, I thought it would still have some life left in it and be worth getting.

I shot the rifle a few times at my long-range steel range and on paper and the rifle shoots my 200 ELD-X handload sub-MOA just like my son's rifles do. It was smacking steel right down the middle on every shot I took, that being shots out to 822 yards. Yahoo!

The new Varitech stock on the X-Bolt 2 is nice for its adjustability and two grip options. I am running the vertical grip on my rifle. As I shoot more and more at targets from the bench I have become fond of vertical grips.

I was hopeful that the length of pull would be adjustable out to the length I need. Sadly even with the adjustable length of pull the stock has, at max length it is only 1/4" longer than the original X-Bolt length of pull. Because of this I had to add an additional 1/4" spacer in front of the recoil pad. You can learn why I require the extra length and how I use spacers to add the length in this article: Easily Adjust the Length of Pull on a Browning X-Bolt Rifle

For optics, I went with a Vortex Viper 4-16x50 HSLR. I love these scopes for big-game hunting rifles. It is a little heavier with the 50mm tube but I love the capped windage turret and the 24 MOA of adjustment in one revolution in 1/2 MOA per click adjustments. The adjustable comb is also nice but on this rifle I didn't require any height adjustment. So in the end, I have a cool adjustable stock on my X-Bolt 2 but probably would be better suited with a little lighter plain vanilla X-Bolt stock.

I thought that I would need a little height adjustment on the comb because with the 50mm scope tube, I thought I would need medium-height integrated rings. Come to find out low integrated rings had just enough height to clear the barrel with the large 50 mm object lens. With low rings this allowed me to keep the comb in its lowest setting. With this X-Bolt 2 rifle, low rings and the larger turrets of the HSLR scope I have zero issues with shells not ejecting (shells hitting the large windage turret and bouncing back into the ejection port) like you might have with the original X-Bolt. To have flawless ejection on my X-Bolt Hell's Canyon Speed rifle I went with a Leupold scope with a small windage cap to make sure I had flawless ejecting of shells. You can learn more about that here: X-Bolt Hell's Canyon Speed Rifle — Setup Lightweight and Long Range Ready

With the heavy scope and a Browning Warden sling the rifle is weighing in right at 9 pounds. With the heavier scope and stock my rifle while still light is about a pound heavier than Kaden's 300 WSM X-Bolt Hell's Canyon Speed rifle.... but still much lighter than my 28 Nosler X-Bolt.

After years of hunting and experience with different calibers and rifles, I am now of the opinion that the 300 WSM in a lightweight configuration like this is the best all-around mountain rifle for elk. A little of an overkill for deer but maybe the best all-around backcountry big game rifle. This is why I wanted to get this particular rifle. It is light, accurate and shoots 200 grains of pure deadliness.