Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles The Red-Headed Step-Child: The 7mm Remington Magnum!

Take the two best selling cartridges (270 & 06) combine the best of both add a little more powder and a belt and presto a 7RM.

On two occasions it was the only center fire I owned, I think I will always have one.

I like to see when it gets top pick by the long range shooters. My only complaints are that its lost the glitz and some of the glamor it used to have. Seems like the loading manuals keep reducing the pressure safety margin too.

Then all the ones I have worked with were almost boring in how well they shot. I would take as many as 12 different loads and the rifles would just lay them in. Shot one group on the target I left on the backstop with about 60 shots, three different bullet weights and probably three different powders and it was one ragged hole of about 2 inches with a couple of flyers.

I have thought that if I was going to write an essay on the perfect western all-around cartridge, it would be on the 7MM Rem Mag. It can do everything the .270 can do, and then some. Ditto the 30-06, although it will never have the franchise the '06 has because it wasn't carried by countless GIs. The 300 Win Mag is beginning to get into the zone where mastering recoil becomes a challenge, which reduces its versatility and universal appeal.

A one gun hunter with an 8 1/2# 7 Mag, a light fast load for open country hunting, a heavy load for elk and thick cover, and the bases would be covered for everything between the 100th Meridian and the Coast Range.

I have to admit I love the 7mm RM, it has killed everything I have ever shot with it...deer, elk, pig.

I have used other guns on animals, but I just keep coming back to the 7mm...it just plain works. My gun was made the same year I was born so it's fun hunting with something as old as I am.

Nice Bull!

Rifle/load details?

I can't argue with anything you've said. I've owned a 7 Mag and I liked it. It worked fine for western hunting but I still like the 270 and 30-06 better. With a little less recoil and required barrel length they can get it done in a lighter, handier rifle and if you handload you can mess with different 06 combinations for a long time.

bwinters:

Its a Ruger M77, with McMillan stock(green and black web painted by Rick), timney trigger(2.0 pounds), 2.5-8 VXIII. The metal work has been coated with Moly resin in matte black.

I was shooting 160grn Accubonds. 1st shot 25 yards, 2nd shot 30 ish yards, 3rd and final about 40yards in the neck.

In a nut shell...............

Plus you can find ammunition anywhere.

For me, personally, it's not a lack of love that keeps the 7 Mag. in the safe more often than similar rounds. The problem with the 7 Mag. is that it's just too good at too many things. The "curse" of the 7 Mag. is it's versitility.

The 7 Mag. may be the closest thing existing to the perfect "all-around" North American rifle caliber, possibly better overall (and I hate myself for saying this) than the .30-06.

"Most" hunters in the US are deer hunters shooting primarily at ranges under 300 yards. At those ranges the 7 is as flat shooting as anything available. It's typical bullets will fully penetrate at any range, any angle and hit hard enough to kill with authority. However, in that role there are so many other rounds from the .270 through the .30-06 that will do the same thing.......the 7 "loses" shooting time because it's just boringly effective. Other more "exotic" rounds seem to steal the spotlight.

At the extreme ends of it's effective window.....the 7 also suffers from being boringly effective. At true long range (400+ yards.....which very few shooters should be trying anyway) and open ground, the big 7 is outstanding.

For "smaller" game of deer size or less, the slightly flatter shooting and more "gentle" rounds like the .25-06, .257 Weatherby and .264 Mag. get the nod.

For larger game such as elk at such ranges, the 7 also shines, but the larger .300 Mag. is just a bit more so with heavier bullets and more "thump".....and just as "flat.

For elk-size game at more "normal" ranges, the 7 is great.....but no more so than the .30-06 and slightly less so than the .300.

When stepping outside the 7 Mag's "comfort zone" and shooting smaller game (antelope to varmits) the lighter .223, .22-250, .243 class guns shine brighter, while for game larger than elk (moose, bears) the larger .300, .338 and .375 work better.

The 7 Mag. is good at everything, but just too "common" to interest gun nuts in it's best zone of use and beaten "slightly" at both ends. For older shooters it's just too close to the performance window of the .30-06 to win out.

It not lack of love that dooms the 7 Mag......it's just too dull and effective at everything, but master at none.

I do still have my 8mm Rem. Mag. bought back in '78, a cartridge that really got no respect. Kix[/quote]


I love my 8mm but could not stand my 7mm rem.How the 8mm fell thru the cracks is beyond me.

Of all the cartridges out there the 7 mm Rem Mag is the one I am perhaps least interested in, mainly because it takes a time and a half the powder to get the same job done. Yeah, it is a red headed step child.

I have no real use for a 7 magnum, prefering the 300s..but were I to go out and buy myself a 7 mag. it would be the 7mm Rem Magnum..I can push a 175 gr. Nosler at 2900 to 3000 FPS and that is an ideal deer and elk round as one could find without all the fuss and BS that goes with the other 7 mags who make claims of daring do at the expense of barrel life and mostly just on paper anyway as the gains are so blown out of porportion or needed in the first place..My only 7 is a 7x57, a caliber I really like.

What's wrong with the 7 Rem Mag? The first rifle I put together for myself is a 7 Rem Mag.

I considered a 257 Weatherby but figured the 7 Rem Mag with 120 grain bullets could do all that and more. It gets plenty of respect around here.

Deer respect it.



Hogs respect it.


Coyotes fear it.


Coons hate it.


I do admit that my hunting partners have called my 7 Rem Mag some ugly names. Several have refered to it as "that cannon". One who helped field dress the first deer I shot with it calls it "Thor's Hammer". And I can't repeat here what my prairie dog shooting partner called it after I splattered several dogs he could not reach with his 22-250.

There's no flys on the 7 Rem Mag.

I agree PDS.

If forced today, to chose just one cartridge with which to hunt what I hunt for the rest of time, the 7 mag would get the nod.

Carl

I have a 7rm and will never sell it. I bought it at 16 years old and have killed a lot of deer with it, including my Kodiak Island Sitka Blacktail and a Wyoming mule deer. However, while elk hunting this year, the 338 got the nod. But much of the decision was based on carry weight. My 7 weighs in at 10# ready to hunt and the 338 is about 9. My buddy used his 7 and killed both elk with 1 shot each.
Back in the early days of deer hunting for me, everyone used 30/30's and 32's and the one 7mag in camp was the "cannon". Now everyone has 300's and 7's and even bigger.
For the guys that want to turn them into something else like a 257 or 264, why would you make it smaller? Just out of curiosity? Isnt the 264WM and the 7RM built on the same case? So wouldn't the 7 be faster with equal bullet weights and also have the ability to run heavier bullets? Just askin.

I know a gunsmith who rebarreled several Winchester M70
264WMs to 7RM back in the early 60s. He said it was all
the rage when it was introduced.

My point is, in another post the 280AI was mentioned, and the 280AI is more efficient than a 7 mag. The 7mag takes a lot more powder for modest gains, kicks more, and has more muzzle blast than a 280AI. I actually think the 280AI is probably the perfect 7mm, but that could be debated forever.

If powder, recoil, and muzzle blast aren't factors, then one could argue the 7STW is superior to the 7RM...

The 7 RM was my favorite cartridge for Western long range hunting and still would be my choice for mulies and pronghorn. Some 280 AI's would probably equal my reloads of 3150 fps with 140 Nosler BT's but I still prefer the 7 RM.

It has a recoil level just slightly more than a 30-06, but shoots much faster and flatter for long range hunting.

People can say whatever ill they will about the 7mm Remington Magnum, I wouldn�t want to part with mine. Used 160g bullets in mine since I got it in 1982 and it killed with boring regularity both near and far. Never lost an animal or even had to track one as most dropped where they stood or went only a few feet.

Nowadays I use 140g bullets as I use 165-168�s in my .308 and .30-06 and sometimes in the .300WM. The 140�s work, too. Boring.

Did someone mention the belt? Although it offends my aesthetic senses, I have yet to figure out what the problem is, unless .5MOA is a problem...

I went to the Nosler website since they are now the ones credited for making the 280AI a "commercial" round.

Not the best comparison, but good enough.

Using 140gr bullets for both, Nosler has the 280AI with 64grs of RL-22 to get 3265fps at 106% load capacity.

The 7mmRM with 65.5grs of RL-19 to get 3318fps with an 84% load capacity.

Humbly, "Efficiency" has no place in the discussion.

In other words, you have to stuff the 280AI plum full of powder to fall short of 7mmRM velocities. I don't consider 1.5gr of powder "a lot" of powder.

Midway USA: Nosler 280AI brass 50ct $58.99 (only brass available)
Midway USA: Remington brass 100ct $54.99 (among many others)

There isn't a frugal argument for the 280AI no matter how you slice it. Not that there should be, but simply dispelling that notion as reasoning behind choosing it over the 7mmRM.

My initial sentiments weren't that the 7mmRM is in any way SUPERIOR to ANY round, but that it clearly is well within the same league as so many touted cartridges and arguably better suited for many applications. YET, the 7mmRM is the chamber found on so many rifles on sale racks and at the center of so many terrific deals. I wonder if we'll ever see the 7mmRM in the middle of a well deserved comeback in which legend and merit are the primary factors?!

That's about as good a summation as you can get about the cartridge.It just works,on everything,while providing about as much recoil and ranging ability as most can honestly handle.Guys that use it are not hung up on the nuances of case shape, short actions (good grief),burning 5-6 grains less powder in order to get less velocity in the same action length and same barrel length(aka 280 AI,an affliction I'll never understand),and the whining and moaning associated with belts or a lack thereof.

A 160 gr bullet started at 3000 to 3100 fps is one of the world's great, universally applicable,mythical all-round loads, easily capable of taking any of the world's soft skinned game,very much on a par with the legendary 300 mag-180 gr,with recoil levels within the reach of most of us,while shooting flatter than BOTH the 30/06 and the 270.

And it feeds slickly from all types of actions, notwithstanding the dreaded belt.....

After dicking with a lot of cartridges and rifles over th years, the 7 Rem Mag and 270 win are the only ones I reach for anymore;as someone has already stated, if there's a cartridge more suited to the wide range of Western hunting, I don't know what it is...