7saum popularity?

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Dec 30, 2014
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Ok so how does this sound for a back country hunting rifle?

carbon 6 20” barrel
Tbac dominus
Mesa precision altitude stock
Stock tikka long action from 300wm
(I believe I can run the long Bergers in the tikka LA magazine and have enough coal?)

Sounds good. mine is a 22" carbon tikka that used to be a 300wm.

Note that the WSM/SAUM cases are fatter than WM cases so the long action magazines don't work without modification. I use the hells canyon mag rather than messing with the factory one.

AG alpine hunter > Mesa precision altitude.
 

EmperorMA

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Isn’t the 6.8 western supposed to essentially be an “upgraded” 270 wsm?

Personally I like the way saum sounds better than wsm but maybe that’s just me.
Not exactly. It is more like a PRC than a WSM.


It does, however, correct the flaws in the .270 WSM original design in that is a bit shorter, has a longer neck for seating long, heavy bullets and is spec'd to tighter tolerances (like the Creedmoor and PRC cartridges) for more consistent chamber dimensions.

It is also spec'd for 175gr bullets and a 1-8" twist barrel. You can't even get a 175gr bullet in a .270 WSM standard chamber without compressing a shit-ton of powder and even if you could, the 1-10" twisted barrels wouldn't stabilize it.

Winchester Ammunition (Olin) is expected to announce its debut of the 6.8 Western cartridge with new ammo in January. While I am not certain of it, I believe the first loading will more than likely be with the new 165gr Nosler ABLR at somewhere between 2900 - 3000 fps. They might even have a proprietary 175gr bullet at around 2850, as well.

There also will have to be (one would think!) a simultaneous announcement of at least one rifle chambered for the new cartridge. My money goes on Winchester XPR and possibly Model 70 along with a perhaps a Browning offering or two, leveraging FN's ownership of both. If one of these new rifles happens to be a Browning X-Bolt Western Hunter Fiber Fusion or Winchester Model 70 Extreme Weather, I will be IN!!!

With the new 165 and 175gr bullets being produced for it, it will essentially mirror the 7 SAUM in performance with its 175-180gr bullets.
 
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Ucsdryder

Ucsdryder

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Ok next question...

I believe when I have the barrel built they’ll need to throat it for the longer Berger bullets? If so, will that have any negative impacts shooting a “normal” length bullet? There’s a good chance I’ll shoot an LRX for elk where a lot of my shots are sub 100 yards.
 
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So I've seen a manufacturer or to post videos basically bragging that they got this round to feed smoothly.

Which lead me to believe that some don't???

But I've never researched the round specifically. Just something I came across searching builder's.
 
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So I've seen a manufacturer or to post videos basically bragging that they got this round to feed smoothly.

Which lead me to believe that some don't???

But I've never researched the round specifically. Just something I came across searching builder's.

The SAUM? Or the new Winchester?
 
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7 saum

I could be totally off. Was just thinking maybe short, fat cause loading or feeding problems.

I probably read to much into it.

My recollection is that a lot manufacturers struggled with reliable feeding / ejection with the SAUMS and WSM in the early days. I'm not sure I'd worry about it now. I've never had issues with any of my 3 short mags feeding/ejecting. One is a R700, one is a Xbolt, and one is a tikka, so we must have figured things out.
 
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Ok next question...

I believe when I have the barrel built they’ll need to throat it for the longer Berger bullets? If so, will that have any negative impacts shooting a “normal” length bullet? There’s a good chance I’ll shoot an LRX for elk where a lot of my shots are sub 100 yards.

Throat (or freebore) is more a matter of bullet bearing surface length than it is overall bullet length. The thought is you want bullets seated with bearing surface starting in front of the neck/shoulder junction. I'm not familiar with 168 LRX but there's a good chance you would want a LONGER throat for that then you would a berger which typically have longer noses and shorter bearing surfaces.

My SAUM is throated for 175 ELDx and in turn is a little longer throated than ideal for 180 hybrids or 175 elite hunters because the ELDs have longer bearing surfaces. In testing seating depth with copper 145 cutting edge lazers, the long freebore seems like it will work well.
 
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7 saum

I could be totally off. Was just thinking maybe short, fat cause loading or feeding problems.

I probably read to much into it.

Yeah there were problems with feeding from ADL and BDL. Now that more hunters are comfortable with and know the advantage of DBM, and manufacturers have also improved the ADL/BDL mag/spring/follower to handle the short fats, the feeding issue is gone.
 
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I think the 7saum train is already rolling! Tons of new builds and Q&A on some other forums and FB groups as well.

Mine is getting put together as we speak for an ultralight/short handy option.

Also- seems like tons of guys jumping on the various flavors of 7mm Sherman options.

Last-- Seems like companies are on a wildcat 7PRC- McWhorter is necking up the 6.5PRC, calling it the 7SPRC and supposedly getting 3000+ from a 180 (26" barrel). I guess maybe they use the 'S' to delineate using the 6.5prc and not the 300PRC
 
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Last-- Seems like companies are on a wildcat 7PRC- McWhorter is necking up the 6.5PRC, calling it the 7SPRC and supposedly getting 3000+ from a 180 (26" barrel). I guess maybe they use the 'S' to delineate using the 6.5prc and not the 300PRC

That one is a little harder to understand the logic of with saum, SS, and 284 brass out there already..
 

EmperorMA

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Last-- Seems like companies are on a wildcat 7PRC- McWhorter is necking up the 6.5PRC, calling it the 7SPRC and supposedly getting 3000+ from a 180 (26" barrel). I guess maybe they use the 'S' to delineate using the 6.5prc and not the 300PRC
That is a lot of velocity out of 6.5 PRC case with a 180gr bullet. The 6.5 struggles getting a 156 there with anything shorter than a 24" barrel, and maybe not even then.
 
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Ucsdryder

Ucsdryder

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Throat (or freebore) is more a matter of bullet bearing surface length than it is overall bullet length. The thought is you want bullets seated with bearing surface starting in front of the neck/shoulder junction. I'm not familiar with 168 LRX but there's a good chance you would want a LONGER throat for that then you would a berger which typically have longer noses and shorter bearing surfaces.

My SAUM is throated for 175 ELDx and in turn is a little longer throated than ideal for 180 hybrids or 175 elite hunters because the ELDs have longer bearing surfaces. In testing seating depth with copper 145 cutting edge lazers, the long freebore seems like it will work well.
Do you see accuracy issues with a bullet that is a little short of the throating? Is that the potential issue? Speaking of the 180 hybrids and 175 E.H. You mentioned.
 
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Not exactly. It is more like a PRC than a WSM.


It does, however, correct the flaws in the .270 WSM original design in that is a bit shorter, has a longer neck for seating long, heavy bullets and is spec'd to tighter tolerances (like the Creedmoor and PRC cartridges) for more consistent chamber dimensions.

It is also spec'd for 175gr bullets and a 1-8" twist barrel. You can't even get a 175gr bullet in a .270 WSM standard chamber without compressing a shit-ton of powder and even if you could, the 1-10" twisted barrels wouldn't stabilize it.

Winchester Ammunition (Olin) is expected to announce its debut of the 6.8 Western cartridge with new ammo in January. While I am not certain of it, I believe the first loading will more than likely be with the new 165gr Nosler ABLR at somewhere between 2900 - 3000 fps. They might even have a proprietary 175gr bullet at around 2850, as well.

There also will have to be (one would think!) a simultaneous announcement of at least one rifle chambered for the new cartridge. My money goes on Winchester XPR and possibly Model 70 along with a perhaps a Browning offering or two, leveraging FN's ownership of both. If one of these new rifles happens to be a Browning X-Bolt Western Hunter Fiber Fusion or Winchester Model 70 Extreme Weather, I will be IN!!!

With the new 165 and 175gr bullets being produced for it, it will essentially mirror the 7 SAUM in performance with its 175-180gr bullets.

Ah interesting! I hadn’t read too much into it yet- only that something 6.8mm was in the works.
 

Jakeweb09

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I shoot a 7 Saum I had built last year, and I’ve been wanting to build another custom soon, and I’ll honestly probably end up building another 7 Saum. It’s just the perfect round for me. Carries energy out a long ways and is very accurate. Mines actually built on the previous mentioned Mesa altitude stock and a Stiller predator short action with 26” proof barrel, Wyatt box and hawkin bottom metal. Shoots the 180s fed from the box at 3010 FPS no problem into tiny little holes. If I build another rifle soon I’m gonna do another 7 Saum on a terminus Apollo lite action with a 22” bartlein carbon barrel, and a manners compact stock with bdl mini chassis. I would probably hunt it suppressed.


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Moneyball

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At one point I was going to sell my 7 SAUM before I realized that I was only going to be moving laterally and the setup that I have and caliber really is excellent and well beyond my needs or capabilities.


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N2TRKYS

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I love the 7 SAUM cartridge. Mine is a Remington Model Seven SS with a 22” factory barrel. I’m shooting 160 grain Partitions at 2980fps and Accubonds at 2950fps.

I’ve had zero feeding issues with it.

I’ll never be without one.
 

B23

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I considered both the 7 SAUM and 7 WSM before my 7mm build but knowing I was using a long action Rem 700 I went with a 7mm Blaser Mag instead. Had it been a SA Rem 700 build it would have been a tough decision and I think the ADG brass may have pushed me toward the SAUM
 
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Do you see accuracy issues with a bullet that is a little short of the throating? Is that the potential issue? Speaking of the 180 hybrids and 175 E.H. You mentioned.

I don’t think there is any universal truths in relation to this. In general you should be able to still find an accurate load with too short and too long a throat for a given bullet. With a long throat you could end up with bullets not supported by the full length of the case neck, jumping a long ways to the lands, or both. Some might see it differently but I’d rather have to jump a little to the lands with too long a throat than have to seat deeper in the case from too short a throat in most cases.
 
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