Just to give you some food for thought.......
If you think about your own experiences, ask around, or can search up the old poll that was done on here, you will find that the vast majority of animals are shot at under 150 yds....and the farther out you go, the less often those shots happen. Because of that, I start with a group of bullets that I know will perform up close at top velocities.....these would be your Barnes, accubonds, partitions etc. From there I look for ones that have the lowest minimum velocity needed to function, as that will get me the longest useable distance.
Usually these days, that ends up being the Barnes LRX......realistically no upper limit on speed, they will smash through and hold together at the highest velocities. they also have a reasonable bottom end....for your 300WSM that would be about 1600 fps and 1000 ft/lbs for the 175 and 190 LRX. On your 300 WSM that would put the 175's operating range approximately 0-700 yds comfortably. Ive been loading barnes for 20 years and have never found them to be difficult to tune.
There are softer bullets out there that will get you more distance, but you will have to sacrifice performance up close for the very rare occasion that you may need to go long. Not worth it in my books, set up for your most common shot, and make the compromise on your least common shot
JMO
Chris
Excellent explanation Chris !