Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Help choosing a 7mm Remington Magnum

I am looking for a 7mm Rem Magnum for longer shots primarily for elk hunting. Looking for a good quality rifle with about 26 inch barrel that has the attributes of long range rifle should have. The only one I have seen so far are the Browning X bolt and A bolt. Before I buy one of those I thought I would ask how good they are and if there are other better choices that you all would recommend. My Budget is about 1200. However for a really good buy and quality I can be a little more flexible.

Many Thanks

Sendero

A bit of background. How do you hunt elk? Terrain? Backpack, horses, etc?


What is your experience in long range shooting?

7 Remington Magnum's are too inconsistent.

Whats long range for you?

I have shot elk at about 300 yards with both a .308 and a 30-06 with shooting sticks. I have passed longer shots. With shooting sticks I would draw my shooting limits at about 400 yards maybe 450.

I am essentially looking for something that gives me reach out to about 450 yards with authority with good accuracy and does not have a nasty kick.

So is the 7mm not very consistent ? Are there better options for what I am looking to do ?

The rifles you have are perfectly capable to 450 yards...

7 RM is an excellent cartridge. Depending on where and how you hunt there are quite a few Remington 700's to choose from. The SS SPS or the Sendero are both decent rigs. A Stainless SPS dropped into a McMillan can be a rock solid choice. 450 yards is very doable with a sporter weight rifle shooting prone.

A Sendero would make a man out of most guys in elk country, but I've seen more than a few guys doing it. Quite a few do for a season but not near as many do it more than once.

The ABolts are pretty light rifles, I know a bunch of guys that really like them. The one I briefly owned was a shooter.

Put a 6x SWFA milquad on the 06, buy reloading equipment if you do not have any, and shoot a bunch. Post pics of dead elk.

You might look at what BSA did to a model 70 here:

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth.../1/I_ve_been_thinking_about_selli#UNREAD

Reloder28, not sure I understand what you meant by they are inconsistent? Could you maybe expand on this?

Thanks

Pieter

You almost couldn't find a 7mm RM that won't do what you want done at 450-500 yards. Go with the rifle that fits and feels best to you. I've had my old tang safety Ruger for 35 years and that 7 kills stuff pretty well. It is glass bedded and had the trigger done and shoots the 150 grain TTSX or NBT loads under 1/2 inch for 5 shots if I don't screw up too badly. There are several rifles way under your price limit that guaranty an inch or less Tikka, Weatherby Vanguard, and others but I like Brownings and wouldn't hesitate to get one if that is a rifle you like. As long as you load your own rounds and use a decent scope you should be able to get your 7 dialed in to hit deer vitals at 500 yards from a good rest all day long. Past 350 or so the wind is the most important factor.

You will find that most of the long range shooters will dial in their scopes for ultimate accuracy. At under 600 yards even those ranging reticles like the Zeiss z600 or 800 will be accurate enough for deer and elk hunting. The 7 is a good flat shooting gun that tends to be pretty darn accurate and doesn't kick much in comparison to its performance. There are several calibers that will do what you want, lately I think if I were buying a do everything rifle I might go with a 300 WSM and stick wth a short action that is very efficient shooting a 180 grain bullet near the velocity of the 150 grain bullets in the seven with similar felt recoil.

add a 6.5-20 leup, a muzzle break and you have it.

If I had $1,200 and wanted a 7mmRM with high odds of being a very accurate rifle, I would build it.

Get a model 700 SPS donor for around $400. Find a laminate take-off factory stock for $150 (they are solid and have some weight to them). Have a quality stainless barrel installed in factory magnum contour or maybe a #4 with a 1" shank ($5-600). Have the stock bedded and the trigger tuned ($200). You should come in somewhere around $1,200 and this would be my route for getting the most reliable accuracy odds for that money. The naked rifle would be around 8lbs. It is likely that the prices listed above could be beaten with a little research.

That would probably work well Reloader. I'd probably first look to find a good, used Tikka 695. I've been running one for 15 years and it's typically tikka accurate and very tough. You could probably find one under $700, put Doug's 3.5-10x44 Meopta on it and be set.

I've been eyeing the Roughneck Sako. Believe Europtic has some in 7 Rem Mag. First Stop Guns has one in a Cooper that keeps me up at night.

I bought a stock Ruger Hawkeye chambered 7mm Rem Mag a few years ago along with some Federal 150 gr blue box ammo. Ran it to 500 yards and the combo stayed in about 6". No need to lug a Sendero in elk country.

lf the cartridge was a lemon l would not have owned 15-20 of them ( there's three here now and l have lost count).It's perfectly suited to any open country elk hunting. I'd get a rem 700, Ruger, or Win M70.

Ruger 77 or Winchester model 70 for me please..

I'll take a Win M70 please!

BSA, I sure hope Bobin is listening to us.

Shod

We all know what he really prefers..