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

Shod: Two are customs...a Len Brownell on a pre 64 action. A Bansner stocked M70 Classic with Brux barrel, and another Classic with Borden Rimrock that is not quite "done"...but all are M70's.

I try to stay open minded with other folks taste in mind ( grin).

They sound like awesome rifles Bob. Especially the model 70 part

Bobin sir...you're taste is impeccable! (Grin)

Shod

Bought a inexpensive 700 ADL and put it in a B&C Alaska, timney trigger and mounted a Nikon 3x10 I think. Under $1000 for sure. Accurate hammer to 800 yards. Been to a 1000 need a little more scope for me at that range. Berger 180's over a stiff dose of Ramshot Magnum. Have another in a mickey but that cost a bit more.

Here's one I'll bet would really shoot.... Shameless plug on my part.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=450428923

I'll bet that rifle shoots like a house on fire. What's wrong with it???

that's cheap enough.

add Bansner stock, 2pc mounts and shoot elk

I just put together my second 7mm Rem Mag.

A six digit stainless classic featherweight, that is currently at the smiths waiting to be bedded into a McMillan Edge.

Bbl is 24"....weight should be right around 8# with Talley LW and a 3.5-10 VX3 with CDS.

I have 160 Partitions and 162 A-Max loads ready to go over RL 25 and 7828 SSC.

Good man. Your bullet selection sounds like mine . I also have some 140gr. combined tech bullets, but have never tried them . My rifle weighs in at 8.4 pounds and it is so sweet and manageable to shoot. One of these days I'd love to throw mine into an edge and shave almost 1/2 a pound. You have great taste in rifles. How does yours shoot by the way??

Never fired a round out of it, but it�s built right.

Not sure yet BSA, I tend to bed first and shoot after.

After my smith finishes up I'll let you know.

As an aside, when he's done I have a 6 digit classic stainless in 7 STW and a Pacific Research Rimrock he'll bed next.

Back in the 80's, as now, most manufacturers made 7 rem mags a bit too much on the heavy side. I solved this by sending a pre 64 FWaction with alloy BM to Butch Searcy along with a Krieger 9 twist tube. We played with the contour until we got it right and Butch bedded it in a Brown Precision stock. The result was a rifle that weigheda skosh over 7-1/4 pounds scoped.

It was incredibly accurate with 7828 and 160 partitions at 3100 fps; 140 BBCs at 3250 or so. I hunted it all over for about 15 years. It was a big hit and someone was always trying to buy it. Eventually the barrel went south. I have built a couple more aon Classic actions that went under 8#s but never quite as light.

Have an "early" M-70 classic, too in 7RM, tho it started life as a 280.

What happened at 7 digits?

Weighs in at 7.45# all up w/Zeiss in an MPI. That is about right for carrying all day and off the bench with 160s. Have 7WB chambered, too, but the 7mags (for me) get pretty obnoxious in a very light rifle when loaded to the max. There a line there somewhere and they get to be two different critters especially around that 7# mark... Between my ears, the 7RM is best as an elk cartridge and may be the best one if such a thing was possible...outside of print.

Put a Timney in a Remington 700 TI action yesterday...as much as I like that rifle, adjusting sheet metal components isn't a confidence building exercise. Prefer the Mauser & M70 (with the "open" trigger design, thank-you) for stuff that may get abused for a week or two at a time.

"back in the 80's' I was trading Belgium Brownings for guys. Got a 7RM that was a beautiful gun for an African bound dentist and it weighed a full 9# due to heavy barrel. I took it outside and shot the designated stump. The muzzle seems to stay almost flat. That was quite a contrast to the really abusive ADL I was hunting at the time.

It is about impossible for me to give abolts et al any real consideration after having their predecessors thru my hands....

Lionclaw, did you look at the Kimbers?

Here's mine recently back from a redo by Jon Beanland. I've been away at work for 3 weeks so haven't got the scope on it or weighed yet. Something to do this week!

M70 classic stainless, Bartlein 5R #2B 1-9 twist at 24". McMillan hunters edge stock, PT&G aluminum bottom metal cerakoted satin mag. 375 H&H magazine, follower & bolt stop to allow longer COAL.

That's just good etiquette as far as I'm concerned. I've been doing the same thing.

I used to shoot my rifles first and then bed. Every single rifle still got bedded and all shot better.

Now I bed first.

Shod

Im playing with 3 Winchester mod 70 long range rigs in 7 STW, one is a Custom shop, Sporting Sharpshooter, Mac stock,timm trigger and Schneider barrel, the other 2 are Laredos, one is 24" plus a BOSS, the other is plain barrel 26" Classic Laredos LRH, The jury is still out as to which is the most accurate. I am using Rem 140 gr cor locs and Fed Prem 160 gr Accubombs, I also ended up with 2 sets of dies. I was able to buy a case of the Federal so I would have plenty of brass but dog gone the factory ammo is so accurate I have done no handloading. When I figure which gun I like the most I will sell the other 2, 300 yards is as far as I have reached out thus far and the BOSS gun was sub 2" at 300, good enough for me and a dead Whitetail any day. I will post photos a bit later as Im going to tune the Sporting sharpshooter today.
Going back to the OP, Im Winchester to the bone,usually pre 64 mod 70's but these darn things are turning into a barrel of fun! very best WinPoor

Don't want to be critical. I have owned several 7 RM's over the years, worked up loads for friends 7 RM's & talked to several people who have also found the same issues with them. They show a tendency to exhibit sporadic pressure variances. That equals inconsistency to me. For years they may shoot fine & then one day they don't. The last one I had I could not even get past the load work-up stage before it started.


David Tubbs, has also spoken about this cartridge citing the same observation.


Meanwhile, here is an excerpt from a 2003 24CF thread from Mule Deer:
Perhaps a more accurate term would be "wide pressure swings" rather than spikes. It seemingly occurs with about every hunting weight bullet in the 7mm Remington Magnum.

In general, the labs expect maximum pressure swings of 2000-5000 psi with most cartridges, but of course look for the lower as a sign of a consistent load. It's pretty easy to find this sort of spread in most cartridges.

But the 7mm Remington Magnum will swing 8000 or even 10000, and often after several identical rounds have stayed within 4000 psi of each other. And oddly enough, the 7mm STW, which has the identical shoulder angle and short neck, doesn't show the same swings! This indicates that the shoulder angle/short neck theory probably isn't correct.

The problems with the .243 don't show up as much until the throat becomes a little worn--and again, only with bullets in the 100-grain weighr range. Once again, they don't know why.

Despite all this, the 7mm Remington Magnum and .243 Winchester have reputations as accurate cartridges, at least among hunters. I have used both a lot with excellent results. But nobody picks them as target rounds, and the erratic pressure swings are one reason. Oddly enough, if you neck either case up a little, to .30 from 7mm in the case of the magnum, and from 6mm to 6.5mm in the case of the .243, the problem goes away. Why? Nobody knows.

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John