Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Tell me about the 7STW

Great input BobNH - thanks!!

Most likely just go with the 300WM - I just find the 7STW interesting for some reason though??

Since you already have a 7mm mag i wouldnt build an STW

If an STW intrigues you then why not just get a extra barrel spun up and swap them out?

You could get a 300win mag done while you are at it and just swap barrels as you see fit, its alot cheaper in the long run.

If i was doing alot of hunting and had a 7mm mag, i would skip the 300 and probably get the 338-300ultra or 338 edge in a hunting type rife or 338 lapua in a heavy gun, i think owning those 2 would be a nice combo for killing big animals.

I would be thinking 2 builds and mulitple barrels if it were me.

When the &mm STW first came out, I thought it was a stupid cartridge. After all, the 7mm Remington and the 7mm Weatherby both had more than sufficient capacity for any powder which was readily available and the velocity difference, when load of equal pressure were fired from the same barrel, were nothing like what Simpson claimed. I refused to chamber it for the first year or so until it finally occured to me that I was turning away money and if someone wanted to spend their money stupidly, who was I to say no? With this in mind I bought areamer and, in the first year, I chambered about 35 of the stupid things. The next year dropped to about ten and, after that, the 280 Remington was much more popular. Sometime in the early nineties, I sold the reamer and have regained my pride. My shop is, once again, STW-free. GD

I had a SS Sendero. The throat was too long to reach the rifling with a bullet that'd seat within mag length. Didn't affect accuracy in any way I could tell. It'd put 3 160 grain partitions and 3 120 grain ballistic tips into the same three quarter inch 200 yard group with no sight adjustments. Pretty darn handy.

If I remember right my loads were 83 grains of 7828 under the 120 and 87 grains of H5010 under the 160.

To begin with I was unable to get bulk STW brass so I started down the path for loading 160s by fire forming WW .300 H&H cases. This worked well though the necks were short. I never did get one long enough to trim even once. With the long shank of the 160 partition, the necks were *long enough* even if "short" which is all that mattered. I finally got some Remington bulk STW brass which is what I used for the 120 grain ballistic tips to have enough bullet shank in the case neck for good alignment.

If I had a shot out 700 to rebarrel, 7mm STW would be high on my list of choices for long range. Still, there are new cartridge options available that were not available when I went down the STW path and there are new bullets that elevate the game for some older established cartridges. The choice is not so clear. I believe I would make it based on ready availability of components, brass especially.

Tom

The 300 win with 208 amax's at 2950 is not a bad place to be.

Bb

Jeff, sell off all those parts and break down and get that Gunwerks in 7mm LRM. You will love it and can thank me later. If you want, drive down here to Indiana and take mine for a test drive.

Joel:

Just ship it to me up here in PA to try for awhile...................I'll send it back with your NightForce!!

Jeff. You are only about 4-5 hour drive from me. Come on down spend the night and we will ring some steel.

Father in Law has a 7mm STW. He's has killed a lot of animals with it. But, there are just a few things he doesn't like.

Number 1 is a very short barrel life. He's only put about 400 rounds through it and he's started to have some accuracy problems. By the way, this is the second barrel in 7 years, about to be a third after this season.

Number 2, he doesn't like having such a long barrel. His moose and elk days are behind him and most hunting is done in the Texas Hill Country for Whitetail at no more than 100 to 300 yards, so he wants to move to something a bit more compact, so he's considering moving to a short magnum.

A short magnum for no more than 300 yards?

And on texas whitetails... classic.

Factory ammo just sucks except for the Nosler stuff. Eats barrels. I haven't seen anything from a STW that a 300 Win couldn't handle.

Just got mine back from having a new tube installed. The factory Nosler ammo they used to test it was 100 bucks a box. 160gr Accubond

If the action wasn't set up for a long magnum round, it would of been a 7mm-300 Win with no other changes

I had PTG make a reamer with Minimum SAAMI spec with zero freebore,1 1/2* leade angle. This is our second reamer with this configuration, they shoot like a house a fire.

Some folks think that stuffing the bullet down in the case destroys accuracy which is dead wrong.

I have 238 rounds on one barrel, leade has grown very little, shoots very small groups. If your father's rifle only got 400 rounds on the barrel before accuracy went bad, this is not typical and should not be regarded as normal.

With there not being any 7 STW brass being made by anyone but Nosler, this should be taken into consideration before going to this cartridge. The 7 Mashburn and the 7/300 Winchester are very viable alternatives for those wanting a Big 7.

I've taken 3 bull elk w mine. No complaints, has worked very well. I've got enough brass for this barrel and another.

If you want one, don't get talked out of it.