Talk me out of 7mm Rem Mag

[actionshooter]

My Rbros 7mag shootsl 180 vlds at 3015fps 26" barrel. 300 win mags shooting 180s and 280AI's cant hang with that...

I am right at 3050fps with my Rbros 7mag shooting the 180 vld's, been shooting 2 different of these rifles for 7 years, no complaints with the 7mag.

 

[Zappaman]

Just HAVE to add my 2 cents here... since my Model 700 7MM-RemMag has killed well over a dozen elk over the last 30 years or so. That includes the 365 bull on my wall from 1991 (my first elk). I called a 400 yard neck shot on a cow one year- dropped right into the spine (and dropped her on the spot). Took one cow out to about 600 yards across a canyon too- longest elk shot for me. Also dropped plenty of muleys WAY out there (in NM) since about 1982.

But my dad's mentor shot a deer at 1200 yards in front of me with this caliber when I was about 8 years old- I didn't even understand what was happening then. Those old timers (Pappy Yost was his name) shot running quail in the head with 22 open site pump rifles. They were the first generation re-loaders using old WW2 4831 and LIVING on their ranches 365 days a year. Man they could shoot! - and in West Texas (where I'm from) in the mid 70's... little was shot under a few hundred yards it it weight more the 10 lbs (there were NO pigs in Texas then BTW).

I remember my dad's 1976 GMC Jimmy which had paint missing on both sides of the hood. We had several ranches in NM and Texas (all around 15k acres average) and shot coyotes and deer off that hood many times as sheep/goat ranchers. Most time those were 7mms.

Anyway, the "modern" rifles used out there (back then) were 270s, 7mm RM's, 30-06s, and 222's (The "Deuce" for Turkey and youth deer). 243's were (at the time) a kids/lady's gun and the 25-06 was what grandad retired into his last few years of deer hunting. Of course, I'm talking 1975 perceptions in West Texas here-- today we know better, and there are certainly many uses for the 243 (and the new "fangled" 223) amoung many new calibers (and a few old ones too- like the 260).

But in that day, my dad shot a Weatherby 7mm MarkV which was the "big" gun in those parts (no elk, just deer at 600-800 yards) and the 7mm RM was right behind that fancy caliber from old Roy I never even thought of a 300 WinMag until I started hunting elk in the 90s in northern NM.

I just bought a new 7mm RemMag after retiring the old Model 700 I paid $250 for in 1989. It is a Weatherby Vanguard WeatherGuard and it's a cerikote finished rifle- even the BOLT FACE is cerikoted! I hope I get a few more long range opportunities with this new rifle which is good for anything in North America (*with a 160g Partition; another OLD school legacy that hasn't been bested to this day-- IMHO anyway).

I guess that like myself, many here own more than a few rifles. But when I grab a gun for about anything I am HUNTING I tend to find myself always going to the old battered 12g pump, the 22 LR, or the good old (now new) 7mm RM. It's a classic without any doubt.

PS. with RL26 now out... it's a new game for this and several long-range calibers old and new

 

[jeffpg]

As a total gun nut with way too many rifles I will chip in here.

I own several dozen bolt action rifles, many of which are full custom rigs built for long range accuracy on lightweight platforms. My choices of cartridges are many, from 6.5 PRC to to 28 Nosler to 300 RUM. I also own at least a dozen rifles in 7mm Rem Mag, and my latest build is in the 7 Rem Mag. I have taken a lot of game with smaller and larger cartridges but the 7mm Rem Mag has been very good to me.

Day in, day out the 7 Rem Mag is really hard to beat for what you want. It is actually more than capable of doing what you want but is a great choice. I seem to have an addiction to custom rifles and one reason I chose this cartridge for my latest build is the huge stock of premium factory ammo that I have collected for it. There is so much good factory ammo out there for the 7 Rem Mag that it can be tough to decide what to go with, but there isn't much that you can't do with the 160 ish grain bullets in a good factory load.

Build your 7mm Rem Mag and enjoy it!

 

[rootacres]

7mm SAUM

You can role with a S/A which will alleviate some weight. It'll bring plenty of payload to the party out to 600yds. When I threw a new barrel on my custom build I went from a WSM to a SAUM to buy a little more mag box length room. IMO for your intended ranges its a solid caliber and package for elk size game and smaller in the lower 48.