Generally speaking, with rifle weights being equal, recoil is only slightly more than a 30.06 with heavy loads. Remember, a good recoil pad takes care of a lot of it. Also, the factory ammo seems to be loaded hot for the wsms, so handloads would tone it down about. Again, good recoil pad, good recoil pad, good recoil pad. I prefer the Pachmayer Triple Magnum first and the Simms Limbsaver second.

I as well would suggest the pachmayer recoil pad. I have a 325 and love everything about it. But, there is a lack of off the the shelf ammo, thus I started reloading. I actually enjoy it now but in the beginning the thought of it was over whelming. That being said there are a lot of bullets availible in 8mm(.323 plus 2 cents is .325). I have found everything from 150grain all the way up to 225 grain. But If your looking for a wide selection of off the shelf stuff you had better go with the 300 wsm.

I looked at both before settling on my .300 WSM. Big deciding factors of me were choice of rifles and availability of ammo. There are a plethora of loadings available for the .300, but not many options for a .325. The .300 also has something like 90 percent of the energy of a .325.

The .325 is a good round and a buddy of mine has one. I've seen his go shoulder-hip diagonally through a brown bear with Accubonds. But it really hasn't caught on like the .300.

are you limited on what scope you can put on that gun?

I would recommend that you buy the best optics you can afford. In my case, I put a Leupold VX-II 3X9 on my .300 and am thrilled with it. Good optics are an investment. Aside from having better optics, better sight picture and more fog resistance, you'll gain higher quality construction that can withstand magnum recoil without losing zero. You won't get that with a $50 scope from Wal-Mart. There's nothing worse than waiting months for a hunt and putting a lot of effort and money to be in the right space at the right time, only to lose a shot to a scope that's fogged or bumped off zero.

Watch the eye relief, too. You don't want to crowd a magnum.

I have already mounted a scope on on my .300 WSM. Frontier rifle. It is a leupold vari-x III 1.5 - 5 with a one inch tube. I went with this scope because the majority of my shots will be within 200 yards and the short length of this scope looks perfect on a gun as short as the frontier.

Axis

Excellent choice on a scope.
I put a 2x-7x on mine and have never had any doubt.