Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters JB/MD - .284 Win and 7WSM

John, looks like we posted within seconds of each other!

Yep!

And the combination of our posts confirms the simple reason why so many cartridges have appeared that duplicate the ballistics of previous cartridges--especially since 2000: They appear to sell more rifles....

Unfortunately, that's also one of the reasons for our present "shortages" of brass in some chamberings: There isn't enough manufacturing capacity to produce all those minor variations on one theme--such as all the short/fat/beltless magnums that appeared shortly after 2000.

It's also why my present "reduced" inventory of hunting rifles only includes one 7mm--the antiquated belted magnum that appeared in 1962....

Reading through these posts , enjoy them all, got me thinking, what calibers during my adult life , have I never been without, and which did I fall back to when in doubt? Lo and behold, 270 win and 30/06. In over 70 years, those are the two and only two , excluding 22 rimfire, I have not had at least one or both in some form , those years included living and hunting in three premium hunting states, Colorado , Wyoming , and alaska. Course like most of rest of you I tried dozens of other calibers both standard and wildcat, but unlike mule deer,and others , have not gotten the gumption or wisdom to start thinning the herd, stay tuned. Problem I have with firearms , I never met one I didn’t like, or had to try and I’am having a heck of time overcome that addiction. However after many days of anguish and reflection I concluded I only need ( what in hell is need ?) five firearms, and the winners are: good 22 rimfire rifle, accurate 22 bolt action center fire, accurate bolt action center fire rifle in 30/06, bennelli 20 gauge auto shotgun, and smith and Wesson model 686 357 mag. But boy is it going to be hard, like impossible?, to get there, anyone have any suggestions on over coming such an addiction other than death threats from ones wife or significant other, or death itself. Any suggestion for an old rifle looney will be appreciated and given the deepest consideration . Thank you, A tormented gun looney,

"This is an overall trend I've been following for a while now--sticking to readily available cartridges, rather than those which have been increasingly difficult to deal with given the increasing trend toward "shortages" in ammo and components."

My sentiments exactly!

I've got a 7 WSM and I love it. I didn't buy into the hype of what a lot of came out in print regarding WSMs. But, I had always drooled over Winchester's Featherweight Classic, but being a lefty none were available. Then the WSMs came out with the Featherweights in LH. I snatched one up and stocked up on brass. But yea, the 7 Rem mag will be around for ever and ever. Not so much the 7 WSM outside of my and a few others gun safe.

As a 257R and 270 Win owner I've wondered why I have both. Load up a 110 TTSX or 110 Hammer Hunter in a 270 Win @ 3400 FPS + and it'll do whatever a 257R does plus some. Load it down to 3100 fps for recoil sensitive shooters and go hunting. The mono bullets help a lot in this regard.

So right John. I took this friend out on his first ever elk hunt. While the outfitter and guide poo-pooed the 270 as an elk cartridge in camp, I had taken him out the long summer before to practice with the Federal 150-gr Nosler ammo we had rounded up for the hunt. I assured him it would work if he did his part. We had worked at different ranges from field positions, studied and talked about the importance of placement.

It’s tough to beat the 270 Win. It works.

But I have the “270 Short”, the 284. My hand loads fall only a couple of inches behind a hot 270 hand load at four hundred yards with similar bullets (G1 BC’s, etc). I was just comparing them again the other day.

But If I were starting over, because of the great OTC ammo, I’d build a 270 with a few tweaks.

George,

Looks like the elk your friend took an "OK" bull!

Phil Shoemaker also will take brown bear clients who use 150 Partition Federal factory loads, and hasn't had any "failures" so far....

John

Nothing wrong with sticking to a "tried and true" easily available cartridge for 90% of a person's hunting. And nothing wrong with using just one rifle for everything, as well.

But, for a lot of people, experimenting with different combinations, and trying to find the "perfect load" in the "perfect rifle" is where the fun is.

If it were about practicality, we would be buying our meat at the grocery store, since that is the least expensive option.

JMHO

(and there is, no doubt, a few exceptions where hunting is cheaper than the grocery store, but those are the exceptions)

That isn't my experience, but I was born and raised in Montana--and after living a few other places have been here since the late 70s. Of course there's more public land here (where we mostly hunt) than in other states, where apparently the long-term trend is toward buying/leasing hunting land, especially east of the Mississippi.

But most of our game is killed within 25-30 miles of our house, on public land. However, even here this has started to change. With more hunting pressure from the increasing number of "new" Montanans, many deer and, especially, elk have moved mostly onto private land, where access is limited. It also depends on weather, especially in the mountainous western third of the state--where we live.

This fall I decided to essentially pay a fee for access to private land where more elk are ending up. It was a late-season cow elk hunt, which ended up providing 150 pounds of excellent boned meat, at about what beef goes for these days. But most of our game meat still costs less than commercial meat.

Which is one reason I've deliberately lived for decades somewhere I can hunt on public land within a few minutes of our house. That was always one of my goals, even long ago. (Oh, and it also includes fishing. Have caught rainbow trout up to 25" long within a 2-10 mile drive of our front door--along with plenty of "pan-sized" fish, whether trout or other species.)

I sold a Tikka .270 WSM several years ago that I won at an RMEF banquet. Never fired it. Good move for me now since ammo and brass is now unobtainium. I love my .257 Roberts and 7x57 for deer hunting and I have two 7mm Weatherby’s so I figure I don’t really need any of the short fats. It has been a couple of seasons since I fired the 7mm and .300 Weatherby’s, but yesterdays range session reminded me of how much they recoil!

That’s remarkable in this day and age John. Especially in the lower 48. You and your better half, I expect, have done it more completely than but few others.

If it wasn’t for the whole experience of elk hunting, cost-wise, I would have been better off just buying Costco ribeyes.😮
Not to mention all the…rifles and other gear.

Enjoyed it all.😊

Bingo!
I only wish the designers and marketing people might admit the obvious regarding bottle neck cartridge case design.
Their predecessors pretty much nailed it in 1906, 1925 and whoever birthed the .375 H&H.
Imo, no shoulder or a gentle shoulder is about ease of chambering and extracting a case. For hunting.
It is about utility, using this case many times and about extended barrel life.
We already had extraordinary downrange results.
I rest my case.
The case for the 30/06 and the 270 wcf in particular

Hi George,

Well, we also got lucky in our choice of careers, because we got to hunt quite a few places around the world at least partially on somebody else's dime--though we couldn't bring back any meat from many of those hunts. Canada can be pretty easy, but otherwise it's either impossible or very difficult (though did bring back 6 dozen doves from my first trip to Argentina, due to their being dressed, and frozen). Am not sure that was technically legal, but somehow talked the customs people in Miami into it.

We also invester quite a bit on "travel" hunts from 1999-2011, because we knew the experiences would be valuable to our writing--both in terms of hunting itself, but also Eileen's game cookbooks. She has quite a collection of cookbooks and recipes from various places around the world--and also gained considerable experience from the cooks on various hunts.

But by 2012 decided we'd done about everything we really wanted to, were getting weary of long plane flights, and decided to mostly stay home and hunt locally.