I have two rifles coming, both Christensen Arms (Ridgeline FFT Titanium & Evoke) with 16.25-inch barrels, so I am fairly invested in the 7 Backcountry right now. I will report back on accuracy before Saturday, as that is when I'm flying out to Alaska for my deer hunt.
When it comes to reloading, several people on YouTube have already confirmed it's fairly easy to reload and steel should be good for 5-7 shots. For ammo availability and cost, I have found it on the shelf at every major retailer in New Mexico and pricing is on par with other factory performance ammunition.
The only thing exclusive is the peak alloy. If you bought $1,000 worth of ammo from Federal, that nets you 18 boxes of 20, or 360 rounds. If you reload each case 5 times, that's about 1,800 trigger pulls. If what some people say is correct, the barrel is now burnt out. So I don't think long term ammo is an issue, even if Federal stops making it in 6 months (they won't).
Some rifles have reported issues with sticky bolts, with the YouTuber having his rifle completely jammed. In each instance I have heard of this, the rifle manufacturer has made it right and Federal has replaced the ammo with a newer version. Additionally, some users have reported the rifles becoming "better" with more rounds down range. I'll report back on this with my sample of two.
In your use case, I'm not sure a 24-inch hammer makes sense. When keeping standard length barrel, so many other rounds shine without the potential hassle of sticky bolts or exclusive ammo manufacturer (as you perceived it). To me, personally, 7 Backcountry makes the most sense in a 16-18 inch barreled rifle running a 5-6 inch suppressor, for an effective barrel length of 21-23 inches pushing high BC lethal bullets out to around 500 yards.
Link to a thread I created....
