Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 7mm Rem Mag Vs the 270 Wby

Mark, what are you saying?

AD

Couch Tater asked if things are bad with the 7RM then why haven't people moved on to the 7 Wby.

I am merely saying that they are not bad, therefor there is no reason to move on.

The other thing I was trying to say is that I've found it to be just as easy to work with as a 300 and just as effective.

Tis all I was attempting to say......grinning

Just trying to give my opinion and was alway not trying to take any pots shots at you or anyone else. Just stating my beliefs is all.

Dober

For what it's worth, most shots have been less than 100 yards but my last was at 259 and the 7mm rem mag did fine although my first shot was just a bit low (I was chilled to the bone and stiff and I miss judged the range and fired assuming it was about 175 yards). All eventually ended well.

I assume most folks are quite happy with their 7mm rem mags because they do not own chornographs.

In factory fodder, the 7mm rm is quite anemic compared to the 270 wby.

My newest and current most favorite stand has potential for 300 yard shots and the 270 wby would offer some advantage. I have a new 257 wby but have not had a chance to shoot it yet!

I can see that judicious handloading can achieve what I want/need in the 7mm RM but it's nice to be able to buy speedy wby mag ammo right off the shelf. it's pricey but I don't shoot that much at big game anyway. you can typically buy the hornady bullet loads in 240-270 wby for $39.99, not much more than the premium load from other brands. I just looked at the corbon tsx load for the 25-06 and it was $42.

I owned a 7mm Rm for years pre-chrony so have no idea what I was getting with my "book" loads but killed a couple pick-up trucks of deer with it and the famous Nos Part's bullets. That 7mm 700 became my present Gentry 270 Wby with which I've also taken some deer; in fact Hagel was the inspirtaion for the Wby too.

I've read AD's assertions before but was too care-free in my youth shooting deer to be concerned or notice it personally. My 270 Wby does 3250 out of it's 24" tube with 140-gr TSXs and shoots well but I don't know if I perceive much differenct between the two.

Gdv

Just curious but have you given any thought to a 257 Wby?

You're not shooting very far so you don't really have a need for all the gas but I can surely understand the want for it.

Also I do understand what you mean by the factory ammo speeds.

Good luck to ya

Dober

And my Wby Euromark 270WM will do just over 3200fps with a 150gr Hornady out of a 24" barrel. Current manuals however no longer recommend the amount of RL22 used to accomplish this. Still, some cases have gone 3 loadings after factory firing with no signs of failure and no other red flags at all. And the load grouped very well. One suggestion, don't try std 130 gr cup&core bullets if you want penetration. Had bad experiences with factory loaded Hornady 130's at less than 200 yds. Over expansion, poor penetration.

What honest-to-goodness MVs are reasonable for a 175 grain bullet out of a 7mm RM with the usual 24" barrel? When I look at current load data from, say, Hodgdon, it barely beats the aught six with a 180 grainer. And the 7mm Wby, with just a smidgen more capacity, has 100-200 fps more juice.

I shot the .270 Weatherby and the 7mm Remington side by side for several years culling Aussie feral game. Here are the facts.

On deer sized game as your area of interest, I found the .270 Wby to be far and away the more emphatic killer. I would suggest that the reason for this is that the bullets are mostly designed for standard .270 Winchester velocities and when you push them that little but harder, they open faster and more reliably in medium game.

I also found the .270 Wby very sensative to powders. When you load 130 grainer to around 3300fps with the 4350's it is quiet and mild recoiling. When you load up to a full 3400fps with the 4831's there is a noticeable jump in muzzle blast. It gets very noisy.

The .270 loaded with the heavier 150 nd 160 Partitions makes it capable of handling much heavier game than you would think and it has been used on a great many water buffalo in Australia.

The 7mm is more a game cartridge as I found it quieter and an easy cartridge to load for myself. However, and there is always a however... it did not kill as efficiently as my 7x57 when shot side by side against it on medium game.

That does not mean I think the 7mm remington is less a cartridge and I feel you would be happy with either.

I personally, would shoose the rifle I liked most and worry about the cartridge second.

Bullets are getting so good today it is getting harder to make a bad choice.

AGW

Changing from a 7 mag to a 270 mag is an exercise in futility, a waste of your hard earned money. There just isn't hardly any difference in performance other than you can shoot heavier bullets in your 7 magnum and thats a plus IMO...

As to killing power and range, not much difference in anything from an 7x57 to a 300 Wby if the truth were known, in the field that is....

Guess that puts me in the barrel.

Just a reminder, I already have a 257 wby (and a 240 as well).

Based on my limited personal experence with the 7mm rm, it is a ho-hum killer of deer. I would attribute the relatively slow speed of the 150-160 gr bullets I typically shoot as the cause. In comparision, I have shot quite a few deer with my 270 win with 130s at 3050 pfs and it has always impressed me.

my current 7mm rm is a win 70 with a shilen barrel at 24". I really have no desire to experiment with loads and pressure and would be happy to buy a box of 270 wby ammo once per year or so at $39 to have speedy loads right out of the box.

the more deer I shoot, the more I am convinced that speed kills the quickest. I blood trailed a deer shot buy one of my guest last week for 300 yards on my hands and knees in briars and decided that I did not like that much. I found the deer, shot between the gut and lung that took some time to expire. the hunter could not even tell me what grain bullets he was shooting in his 270. they looked really long so I was guessing 150.

my point is that I think I would rather have a speedy out of the box 270 wby than a 7mm rm that I had to fool around with. who knows, maybe I just want something new to play with. I can screw a new tube on in 270 wby for $400 so that's cheaper than buying a vanguard at wally world and then buying a scope.

well see how long this itch will last.

I have a 8x56 swarovski ph that would be just right!

"Had bad experiences with factory loaded Hornady 130's at less than 200 yds. Over expansion, poor penetration".

Interesting observation, I have always had good results with hornadys in my 240 and various 257s. The flat base spire point is my go-to bullet for all chamberings.

Just for what it's worth, I have a 270 Wby that was barrelled up many moons ago with a 24" Douglas Supreme Air-Gauged barrel on a 98 Mauser. It was the best barrel available at that time, and was chambered with the standard Weatherby freebore.

From the day I got it back from the 'smith, it has shot better than I expected, and velocities have been over 3500 fps (yes 3500) with 130 gr bullets, 3200 with 150. The rifle has around 700 rounds through the tube, and after more than thirty years still shoots an inch at these velocities.

It kills game our lighter game, sheep and caribou, like lightning with center lung hits using 130 partitions.

Having said that, I also have an old three-lug SAKO in 7mm Rem mag. It is just as accurate, but does not seem to be quite as sudden a killer, especially on lighter game like sheep and caribou. Comparing 150 gr bullets there is no question that the 270 dispatches game faster, and the 150 Swift A-Frame in the 270 at 3200 is just amazing!

I could live with either, but am very pleased with the 270 Wby.

I'm struggling to understand what "kill as efficiently" means...

...A 0.277" or 0.284" barrel, Mr. Atkinson?

Boy I'm failing to grasp statements I'm reading here. The 7mm RM is a ho-hum killer where a .270 130 gr. impresses. AGW states the 7mm RM does not kill as efficiently as the 7X57...WTF???

Don't have any experience with the Rem. 7, but I've been playing with a '84 (Japanese) vintage Mk. V in .270 Roy. Fit and finish are superb. This version has a very lightweight sporter barrel in 24". While this tube heats up VERY fast, allowing time between shots makes this the most accurate rifle I have ever owned- and that's using factory ammo. Perceived recoil is quite tame.

Haven't taken any game with the rifle/cartridge combo. I've just started work with the 140 gr. TSX. If this loading project works out, the Mark V should prove very versatile.

What about the 7mm Weatherby Magnum? Would that be a less expensive mod, or would you just have to re-barrel anyway? If nothing else, at least you'd be able to use whatever 7mm bullets you have for reloading. Then there are other 7mm cartridges as well, RUM, STW etc.

I'm really curious as to why this 'issue' with the 7mm RM appears to exist in the first place.

Way back during the last Ice Age ('60s and '70s) I did quite a bit of reloading, shooting and hunting with the 7mmRM and 264 WM. Never could see that first whit of differnce, even with the 175gr loads in the 7, and eventually kept the 264 and sent the 7 on its way.

As a sidenote here, I had several boxes of 7mmRM 150gr Remington factory loads that generally gave sticky bolt lift - turns out that lot had been recalled, but at the time I was living out in the sticks and wound up shooting all of them.

I purchased a Mark V in 270 WM with a 3.5x10 Leupy in perhaps 1975 and still have it. I cannot honestly state the round is any better killer than a 264 or 7RM, but this rifle/scope combination has proven to be the most consistently accurate one I have ever owned. I lugged it up into the Alaska Range on two sheep hunts, took about every species of Alaskan game with it (no brown growler or goat) and have taken it Africa twice (Zimbabwe and Namibia both times). I suppose having confidence in it counts, but I cannot imagine anything in this power class being better.

I've never owned a 257 WM or 240 WM - yet....

I think the point is that the 270 wby is loaded hot right out of the box and the 7mm RM takes a little bit of judicious handloading to get it up to performance. I imagine that in the same bullet weight, with top handloads, performance would be similar in both.

For my purposes, the 270 with 130s would fit the bill perfectly. I have a 300 mag so I am not worried about the need for heavier bullets.