And guess what my old friend and absolutely top-drawer gunmaker Jerry Fisher hunts with? An old 7mm Remington Magnum he built for himself decades ago.
Blair, Dunno if Jerry ever told you this, but he told it when Melvin Forbes and I visited Jerry's shop a long time ago.
His Model 70 was originally a 7x57, but when the 7mm RM came out (along with all the hoopla) Jerry decided to rechamber and otherwise convert his rifle. He said he kind of regretted it, because "all it did was kick harder, but didn't kill any better." That said, I don't believe Jerry is a long-range hunter.
He also told a story about how he took the rifle to New Zealand on a red stag hunt. The outfitter assured Jerry that he had plenty of 7mm RM ammo on hand, so not to bother bringing any--and Jerry didn't. However, when he got to the lodge (like many in NZ, pretty remote) the outfitter looked in his ammo stash and found exactly ONE round of 7mm Remington Magnum ammo. As Jerry said, "So much for the scope-checking shot."
Jerry didn't know what the bullet was, and I can't remember if he even told me the brand. They decided to go hunting anyway, due to the nearest ammo shop being a day's drive away--and Jerry wouldn't shoot unless the shot was 200 yards or less. He killed the stag neatly, then headed home to Montana.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
