Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 7mm Remington Mag?

Does the 7mm Remington Magnum perform best with a 24" or 26" barrel?

Define "perform"..

For one thing, it wouldn't be gay, like a .270 or 7x57 or leopard print spedos�.

Beautiful rifle DF. I have a 26" on my Winchester classic stainless and it seems a bit cumbersome. I'd probably love to chop 2" off of the bastid, but realize I'd lose about 80 fps by doing so. In the end, it would probably be worth going to a 24" tube.

I had the same gun it clocked 3150 with Federal 160 grain partitions on a 100Degree day in FL Factory ammo. The gun was a tad heavy not bad but definitely heavier then my Buddies Custom shop KS in 280. Add yet another one to the ignored list ^^^^^^^

Pull the barrel and slap a 338 win mag on it.

Shoukdnt be shooting animals with anything less.

BSA,oldelkhunter is ignoring "wrongway" not you.

I'm beginning to wonder if Boxer's little brother has recently joined our forum.

I think I'll also be putting someone else on ignore.

Thank You for clarifying that. Zero chance I ever put BSA on ignore.

Does the 7mm Remington Magnum perform best with a 24" or 26" barrel?

All things being equal(they rarely are)a 26" barrel in 7 Rem Mag should deliver higher velocity than a 24". But velocity can vary as much between two different 24" barrels as it will between a 24 and a 26",depending on make of barrel, throat,etc etc.

Out of numerous 7 Rem Mags, all mine have had 24" barrels,except for a couple of M70 Classics,which had 26". They did not hang around long at that length.

Hard to generalize,and there are many variables that crop up, but these are the velocities I have seen with hand loads in 24" 7 Rem Mags:

175's- about 2900 fps.

160's- 3000-3100 fps

150's- 3150 fps

140's 3200-3300 fps.

Pull the barrel and slap a 338 win mag on it.

Shoukdnt be shooting animals with anything less.

I hate over moderated forums but some morons need to be shown the door.

What could I expect to gain over a 22" barreled 270 Winchester?

We could talk about lighter bullets and higher velocities in the 7 Rem Mag as well, but to me the key advantage of a 7 Rem Mag(or any magnum capacity 7mm) is the ability to push heavy 7mm bullets at the same or higher velocity than can be obtained from the smaller 7mm's with lighter bullets.

/ on a .300 Winchester Magnum to 22". It still got 3000+ fps with 180-grain bullets using published data. That's more than any 22-inch barreled .30-06 or .308 will get.

With the 26" barrel over the 24" there is about 50 fps differance in mine. But the results on all deer with that 139 gr. bullet have all been bang flops. I don't think the deer had a clue which was which.

Look at it this way, if you like.

A 7 Rem mag will do with a 160 gr bullet about what a 270 will do with a 130 gr.

And it will do with a 175 gr, about what a 270 Win will do with a 150 gr.

We could talk about lighter bullets and higher velocities in the 7 Rem Mag as well, but to me the key advantage of a 7 Rem Mag(or any magnum capacity 7mm) is the ability to push heavy 7mm bullets at the same or higher velocity than can be obtained from the smaller 7mm's with lighter bullets.

If you remove the last 2" of a 26" barrel, just be sure you cut where the rifling is pointing downward.

If you don't, it will fling your bullet almost vertically straight up as it exits the barrel and can come down on your head.

BTDT.

Klik,

Dang! I forgot the magic .308 and .30-06 powders.

Do you know where I could buy some?

VAhuntr -

For a bolt-gun carry rifle 24" is max for me. That's what my Ruger 7mm RM has and it has worked fine since 1982 when I bought it.

Any gain over a 22" .270 depends on how you load them. Whether any such gain is results in a usable advantage also depends on what you are hunting and at what ranges.

If you want the benefits of a longer barrel and the handiness of a short rifle, you can always cut two inches off the stock-

Klik,

Dang! I forgot the magic .308 and .30-06 powders.

Do you know where I could buy some?

What could I expect to gain over a 22" barreled 270 Winchester?

..... If in a packing rifle, I've noticed that bbls around 22" seem to balance better in the hands, but I don't notice when packing or shooting a 24"....... I don't get the 'fast handling 7 mag' concept.

What could I expect to gain over a 22" barreled 270 Winchester?

Little update here: Wound up going with a Remington 700 ADL 7mm RM with a 24" barrel. Topped it off with a VX3, 3.5-10x40. Very happy with how well it shoots.

Little update here: Wound up going with a Remington 700 ADL 7mm RM with a 24" barrel. Topped it off with a VX3, 3.5-10x40. Very happy with how well it shoots.

HuntnShoot: The concept of fast handling 7 mags probably goes back to the days when guys like JOC and Warren Page set the parameters of what was then known as a "mountain rifle".As it turns out these mountain rifles proved to be pretty good all-round BG rifles.

Those guys back then tended to specialize a bit less,but traveled a great deal to hunt,here and abroad. The rifle might not only see real mountain duty but also use in Africa, for deer (almost anywhere with the myriad conditions where they are found)and elk back here, as well as black bear,moose, grizzly,African plains game, etc. It should be able to reach 400-500 yards on elk if called upon, but should be maneuverable in the confines of a leopard blind, or take a 70 yard kudu,whitetail or elk in confined quarters of brush country where fast handling is at a premium.

They might be transported by truck, plane, mule or horseback.

Reason is simple...you can't travel with a lot of rifles to suit the many circumstances you might bump into,and people who have to travel from home to hunt frequently don't know what they will encounter.

The rifle has to be more of a grand compromise than a highly specialized piece of gear,and those 22"-24" 7 mags (270's, 280's, 30/06's etc.)weighing 7-8 pounds do a better job of handling a lot of hunting than a heavier rifle with long barrel.....which may be just the ticket for some open country stuff, but a PITA at 10,000 feet on a mountain,and ridiculous in a blind or heavy cover trying to hunt animals that actually move and don't want to be shot.


I've hunted with 26" barreled rifles (300H&H and 264 WM)and it was no great burden but in building a 7 mag for myself,give me the lighter 23-24" #2 contour,and bring it in at 7.5-8 pounds. I know it's gonna work at a bunch of chores,including those fast shots we sometimes have to make.

No real need to worry as a 24" 7 RM will handily outrun any 280 in barrels of the same length. I would be surprised to see the 280 come close.

7 mags still seem like long-shooting rigs to me, rather than do-it-alls. Maybe it is because I've seen several lost animals from close-range shots and 7RM.

I have a relative who has lost two good black bears on less than 50 yard shots with his 7 Rem. mag. and 150 Ballistic tips. Neither bear was lost for good. They both just ended up staying on their feet long enough to end up on somebody elses wall. I just got a Ruger 7 mag myself and bought some 175 Federals. If I don't start loading for it before Fall I figure these will do the job well at close range or farther out.

VAhunter,

I can't remember if I've ever killed anything with a 7MM Rem Mag Core-Lokt. I do have five boxes of very old 150 grain Core-Lokt. I've chrono'd a few rounds out of my 24" barreled 7MM Rem Mag @ slightly better than 3200 FPS. From what I understand, newer Core-Lokts might be a little more tame, not that any animal would be able to figure out.

If I were going to use factory loads, I'd use Core-Lokts.

[quote=VAhuntr]
Out of numerous 7 Rem Mags, all mine have had 24" barrels,except for a couple of M70 Classics,which had 26". They did not hang around long at that length.