Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 7mm Remington Magnum Outdated?

Pondered this thread a bit before posting. I had a 20 year love affair with the big 7. Killed lots of deer and things with it with 140 to 160 grain bullets of various makes. Some created a mess on 50 yard deer, some worked very well without all the mess.

When Re 26 came out, I happened to have a Kimber Montana 270. My pet load ran a bit over 3000 ft/sec with a 150 Partition. Killed a couple elk and a few deer with that combo until my rifle, and everything else in the truck, became "liberated" in Independance, MO (quite the naming coincidence). Various 7mm mags I had could break 3100 with a 150 and 3000 with a 160. Damned if I could tell the difference in ability to kill things between the 270/150 and the 7mm/160. Plus the 270 recoiled less. I don't own any 7mags of any flavor but do own a 270. If I ever stick my toes back into the 7mag game, it will likely be a 7 SAUM.

I always thought that rifle probably had a decent bark to it myself.

Kinda the point.




GR

Noticed a difference shifting from a hot 130 gr. to the 150 gr. at a moderate speed.

Not as many droppin' in their tracks, but none of'em runnin' very far.




GR

Well, if you've hunted a while, and killed lots of game animals, you'd know that you can shoot identical animals (say a cull, mature whitetail doe) with the same rifle/ammo combo, shooting them in the same place (outside of DRT CNS shots) and they may react differently and often times do. This proves nothing, zero, nada.

I’d agree JG. Typically I don’t care if a deer runs anyhow. Honestly dying exactly where I’ve shot it doesn’t change anything about my hunt.

Jg’s right, and most of us know that. Plus some shots you may not really know anyway. So many variables. I remember one buck I shot in the deschutes canyons. Hit him with a 165 from a 300wsm at 600 yards. Perfect shot, but the only reaction I saw was him cartwheeling off the side of the steep hillside. Sob landed 150+yards from where he was shot. Then the next one in that same canyon was shot at 648 yards with the 7mm rem mag and a 160 btsp. He did a little kick when the bullet hit, a little death wobble and then he was down. I’ve seen many elk drop quicker than that. You never know what they are going to do. Deer generally die quickly, but you punch a clean hole right through the heart and they could run another 80 yards. We’ve all see that, if we’ve hunted long enough

JG,

I've done quite a bit of culling over the decades, including in Texas, but also in Africa and a few other places such as Ireland and New Zealand.

The only real trend I could discern was during a big cull in South Africa which I mentioned recently on another thread. A total of 184 animals were taken by me and a dozen other hunters during the month-long cull. After analyzing the results, the only really noticeable trend was that none of the animals that were wounded and either got away, or needed long trail-ups, were shot with rifle chambered for cartridges under .300 magnum recoil level. My interpretation is that many of the hunters using .300 Magnum+ cartridges flinched in varying degrees, especially after they'd been shooting for a while.

Related to this, I am always amazed at the number of claims of bullet failures without evidence.

We have all seen a well hit animal run 75 yards out in the open and suddenly drop with no initial blood trail, the blood tail might start say in 25 yards. Yet, I consistenly see claims from people that they took a 150 yard shot and the animal disappeared into a large thicket say 10 yards away and was never found. The shooter is thouroughly convinced the bullet pencilled thru (failed him/her) and that was the cause of losing the animal. They are 100% certain of this even though they have no physical evidence. All they have is a lack of evidence which is not a very strong case for 100% certainty.

Can’t understand the need or use for magnums in a culling operation. Bring a 308 Win and you’ve covered your needs nicely.

It is amazing how you could know so much from no animal.

The funniest part is why would you hunt with a bullet that you have one iota of thought that would perform poorly?

RossImp,

Many of the shooters on the South African hunt brought larger rifles because they'd either never been to Africa before, or been once or twice, and were also planning to take bigger game--and trophies could be taken along with cull animals. And quite a few of the culls were "elk-sized," from gemsbok (cow elk) to blue wildebeest (bull elk).

Plus, many had fallen for the often-heard theory that African big game is far harder to kill than American game--which is BS. (I have my own theories about how that myth started, and have mentioned them on the Campfire before, but don't want to stir up that stuff right now.) And the gemsbok and blue wildebeest mentioned above have reputations for being even tough than average for African game.

As a result, many brought two rifles, one for smaller animals and one for larger and/or trophy animals. Some did bring a .308 as their lighter rifle, or something similar like a .270 Winchester, 7mm-08 or 7x57. I was invited on the trip both to hunt and to accompany some of the other hunters, who liked to BS about rifles. Consequently I not only got to witness 59 of the animals taken--and the two quickest kills on blue wildebeest were with a 7mm-08, and a .300 Winchester Magnum which the guy could shoot well.

Curious JB, if you had any info on the bullet used in the 7/08 and shot placement, etc. Thanks.

But there is a noticeable trend curve... if one has, "hunted a while, and killed lots of game animals."

The question is RE: the 7RM, which have no experience with, and other suitable cartridges that, have a great deal of experience with.

If one does not notice, then one is not payin' attention.




GR

Be very interesting to observe results in a quicker twist .270

Heavy, high BC bullets at extended ranges, sure.

The 130's with good presentations and not too close generally work exceedingly well.

But the 150's at moderate speed will still drop'em, and up close or off angles aren't as critical.

Suits my hunting.




GR

Last fall my son shot a whitetail at about 40 yards with his 7-08 and 139gr Hdy soft points. That thing left an obscene blood trail for over 100 yards. The shot was quartering and the lungs were soup. Sometimes things make you scratch your head.

I love snowy blood trails myself.

I do as well! I can even track them. Lol

He was so used to seeing game go down within sight he was a bit worried. He was leaving for two years in a couple of weeks and this was his last hooray for hunting for that amount of time. He said that when he saw the deer make the timber that he was a goner. After 100 yards of trailing him I started to think the same. :-)

Yeah, I was sitting right beside him when he took the bull. Range was around 150 yards, and he put a 140-grain AccuBond behind the shoulder as the bull stood broadside.

He was one of several guys on the trip who brought a "deer" rifle for the smaller animals (the 7mm-08) and a rifle chambered for a bigger cartridge for elk-sized animals, in his instance a .300 Winchester Magnum. But he also recognized partway through the hunt that he'd started flinching with the .300, so switched to the 7mm-08 for the rest of the hunt.

Another guy did the same thing with his pair of rifles, a 7x57 and 9.3x62--which is the combo I brought. He started flinching with the 9.3 so used the 7x57 on everything--and it worked fine.