Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 7MM STW???

The 7mm STW was a hot item back in the 90's but you barely here about it now. Any reason for this?

As one who owned and continually used a 7mm STW with months since Layne Simpson's first articles coming out (and I still own one) - perhaps it's because people have actually noticed it uses about 35 to 40% more powder - produces about 50% more recoil and muzzle blast - all to achieve about a 5 to 10% increase in velocities - over a standard 7mm Remington Magnum.

Perhaps, many of today's shooters realize that the differences on game are a lot less than the percieved ballistic benefits of owning a cartridge that shoots bullets a few inches flatter at game a quarter of a mile away..

It's how I see it anyways. Look at the relative lack of popularity of Remington's "Ultra-Magnum" line of cartridges - compared to today's "short" mags. I believe it's for the same reasons.

The 7mmSTW is perfect - for very limited applications - but for most applications and for most people - most of the time - it's liabilities exceed it's benefits.

I read, and I think I still might have, the article on it when Layne first wrote about it. I was interested...for a while. Remington did a bizarre thing - it legitimized the 7mm STW, and then a year or two later brought out the 7mm RUM, which bested it...barely. Truthfully, I was more intrigued by the 257 STW. That looked like an absolute, freakin' laser!!! In the end, I own a 7mm Rem Mag and a .25-06. You never know, though. After I retire and get bored, I just might make up one of those 257's.

i've read about the 7stw and the other 7mm's and i from first reading about the 7mmstw i always wanted one and my first custom rifle which is almost done.it's done withe blue print now waiting for micky stock

...I won a Winchester classic model 70 in 7mmSTW on a 10 dollar ticket I'd bought supporting a Wisconsin Biscoe county hunt club. I took it to the range after fitting it with a Leupold 2.5-8X36 scope. That thing is a laser beam! It put three Winchester supreme loads into a group you could cover with a dime! Not once but several times! The only bad thing was I'd bought the ticket in my eldest son's name and had promised it to him. I'm no great fan of the 7STW but because the rifle is so extremely accurate I've tried to wrangle the rifle back from my son, but "no go".

7mm STW??? Heck is anyone still shootin it's Momma the 8mm Rem.Mag?

That's one I still regret selling off but I'm likely better off because I did.
Damn that thing killed at both ends.

BCBrian,, Well done, Great way to sum it up, I still have an STW, hate to get rid of an accurate rifle,, I too was riveted on Simpsons articles and still have them,, I still use most of his load data as the new manuals are watered down to barely match a 7 rem mag as you have referred to,,

Come on boys!

You could argue the same thing between the .30-06 and .300 win mag, the .300 win verses the .300 ultra, the 7mm rem mag verses the 7 ultra, the .300 ultra verses the .30-378.

The 7mm STW offers increased performance over the 7mm rem mag at a cost of efficiency and recoil. The goal is performance and flatter trajectory with the bigger magnums, not cost and efficiency.

How much better is the 7mm rem mag than the .280???? Should everybody be shooting a 7mm-08 if they are launching 7mm bullets?

Have to agree with Timberbuck .However you slice the pie,you can purchase a 7mm to give about any performance level you want.If a light carry gun with little recoil and efficient powder burn is your objective,the 7/08 is a good way to go,and you guys know the rest of the story as you climb up the 7mm performance ladder.

When it comes down to starting 7mm bullets fast,with plenty of powder capacity to get you there without redlining your loads,not many cartridges do it as well as the 7STW.I have little personal experience with the cartridge,having owned only one;but that was enough to show that it is a solid wrung over the 7 rem mag in velocity,especially with bullets of 160-175 gr weight.

It may be tough on barrels,but that's the price you pay for performance.

I have an 7STW, the original 700 SS DM-B model...translated into english, it is a detachable magazine 700, with the screw on brake.

Gotta say as much as a Remington fan that I am, they really f'd up with that config.

24"bbl with a brake in a 7STW, WTF were they thinking? (hint...7RUM a year later)


Anyway, I screwed the brake off, and even in a 24" bbl, it still easily beats the MV of any 7Rem I have seen.

It is one VERY accurate round. My 7STW gets 3400 with a 140, almost 3300 with a 150 (haven't tried any 160s in it)...all with a 24" bbl. Gotta like that. My 7STW likes IMR7828 and RL22.

For the record, my 280 gets 2950 with a 150, pretty significant difference with the 7STW (+350). And yea, I know more recoil, noise, yada, yada, yada........

Tony

It is. And it's fantastic! Oh, you SHOULD, you SHOULD!!

One of the guys at deer camp has and uses one. He is one of those hunters who is not interested in shooting, and I'm sure a box of cartridges lasts multiple years for him, and he never shoots farther than 70yds. I hear that some time before I hunted with him it took a long time to get him to give up using a single shot shotgun for a model 94. One day he won about $1500 at the casino so he bought a new deer rifle, and that is what he came away from the store with.

Well - yes and no.

When comparing cartridges - up to a point, for moderate powder and recoil increases you get substantially flatter trajectories.

But near the top end - you start using huge extra amounts of powder - and getting big recoil differences - all to attain small gains in trajectory.

Eventually - you can't even see the difference in the field.

It's the definnition of "over-bore" - and an illustration of the "law of diminishing returns".

Yes, you can neck down a 378 Weatherby to 7mm - and it'll be slightly faster and flatter shooting than the present 7mm STW or 7mm Remington Ultra-Mag.

The fact it's rarely being done - tells you something.

It just isn't worth it.

The market has spoken.

For most hunters - most of the time - the biggest available cartridges are - already - too big. That's why most hunters are opting for less than the most potent round in each respective caliber.

I am on my second 7stw , my first was a sendero ( should of never sold that one )my current stw is a 40xb rangemaster and I love it !! most of my hunting is south texas out of a tower blind so the 11 lb cannon is not a big deal .

I have a custom rifle in 7mm stw based on a Remington 700 action.

You see quite a few custom rifles in this part of the world in 7mm STW and quite a few sendaros. I'd say for big time South Texas hunters they may even rank in the top 10 for cartridges I see of people who hunt down there year in and year out.

Out of staters/towners don't bring em down there very often tho.

Weight of rifle and recoil aren't really that big of a deal if your shooting out of a box blind, tripod, or high rack which is how 95% of deer are taken in South Texas. It's not a bad choice for shooting way out there, as good as any other.

I rarely hunt with mine as I rarely hunt out of a box blind, high rack or tripod. I do shoot it at least 3-4 times a year at a 1,000 yard range tho.

Having had rifles chambered for a wide range of 7mms,
(7-08, 284 win, 280, 7 rem mag and 7 RUM)I find the 7 STW a refreshingly fast round with reasonable recoil. I just had to try one, so this year I stuck a 26" SPS takeoff formerly a 7 rem mag on a model 700 in a Ti stock. I chose the 168 Berger VLD. I had my doubts it would shoot with the seating depth so far away from the lands. At .170" that rifle sings. It weighs a hair over 8 lbs with approx 37 ft/lb of recoil. The small amount of wind drift "way out there" is amazing. Add turrets and this one will hunt. It will most likely be the rifle used for my coues hunt this year.

I love fast 7's.

I stopped using mine because I got tired of packing it. A sako with 26" tube was murder to pack around.

When they are big boys in the back pasture being jittery, my brother and I pull out that 7stw and go for it.

Rounds as overbore as the STW always make me worry that about the time I get good load worked up and figured out, it'll be time for a new barrel <g>.

Jeff, me too, thats the reason why I have 4 of STW's. One of them has 2011 rounds down the tube and it still shoots under MOA.

I�m a total 7mm nut and have had most of them, including two STWs, one a 700 custom with a Krieger and the other a Model 70 Classic Stainless I bought to build a .375 H&H from and ended up playing with for a while. In addition I load for a friend�s Sako TRG-S. All of these rifles have 26� tubes. When loaded not just for balls-to-the-wall speed but with loads tailored to give best velocity, accuracy and consistency for each rifle the simple mean average velocity increase over the five 7mm Rem Mag tubes I�ve records on, including Shilen, PAC-NOR, and Remington at 24� and a Sako at 22-7/8� is 159 fps. This is with the 140 partition. Powders were RL-22 and IMR 7828 in the STWs; RL-22, RL-25, IMR 4350 and IMR 4831 in the Rem Mags. I don�t know what effect cutting the STWs back to 24 would have on velocity but even if it only cut 50-60 fps the net difference from the 7mm Rem Mag would only be around 100 fps or so, which equates to roughly 1.1 inches less drop at 400 yards (with the partition�s BC) in exchange for nearly a third more recoil�worth it to some I know, just not to me�