Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 7 Rem mag as good as it gets

Never shot a 7mm Mag, or owned one.

The safe is full.

Send prayers.

OTOH, I'm OK with pipsqueakers for most purposes. If horsepower in necessary I have that covered. In spades ^4.

I remember reading that pard...at same time I think, Mr Bowman bugged Sierra to come out with a long range bullet, and we got the 160 SBT. They were hunting in a very hard to get to area up above timberline? I liked Mr Bowman's writings a lot. I also remember Col Askins saying that he wondered why Remington came out with the 175gr ammo first as (his quote).."everyone knows the 7mm caliber balances best with the 160 grain,," He went on and killed a big bear with the 175gr load and said it seemed to work fine ( of course, never as fine as an 8mm cal, his fave! ha)

A 7mm RM was as good as it needed to be when I only had one rifle for deer and elk and it worked well. Then one cold November day shooting an 8 point buck that scope hit me in the forehead and knocked some sense into me. A similar built Kevlar stocked 7# 7mm-08 has worked as well or better for the deer ever since.

I agree that a properly hand loaded .270/.280/30.06 will run right with a 7mm Rem mag on about 99% of game. I also believe that there never has been that many hunters who actually handload. They don't use chronos either. "Faith" is a very comforting thing...and loyalty to a caliber/factory load can be too, ha. "Most" of the folks I talk to here in Utah like the 7mm Mag as a deer/elk combo round. It is very popular, rightfully so, but there are still many, many .270/30.06 users. I used 1 Mod 77 .280 as my first bolt action, it was great up close with 150CL factory load (15yds) to 276 steps my 139gr handload. I replaced that rifle after 3 yrs with my first Mod 700 7mm Mag as an all around rifle (deer/elk) for about 10yrs in SE Texas and Georgia. From a tree stand it was a great "beanfield sniper", but as a woods walker rifle, it was a bit heavy and slow handling for me...but I was raised on a Mod 94! I might have been "tainted/spoilt". I started out with the 175 corlokts factory load ( to save meat, and it did!) handloaded later it loved the 150 PT and 160 PT. I made one hunt in CO (no elk) with it then lent the rifle/160 load to a friend who used it for elk in Colorado, I got a mess of meat for that! I found that the 150 PT acted like that 175CL but was flatter shooting...plus it was "my load", not factory. I was frustrated when I finally got to use a guys chronograph...while my 150pt actually was right at 3200fps, what I "thought" was a 3100fps 160NP load was 2950. Bummed me out. Later in life, I "wanted that 3100 or more with the 160" so went to the 7mm STW and then the 7mm RUM. My last 7mm Rem Mag was a 26" barrel Mod 700 and with R26 I finally got a hum dinger 3100fps/160 SBT ragged hole shooter. I also finally got a bit over 3000fps with R33/175 SBT. Played with a 7mm/08 in a finicky M84 Kimber, finally settled on a Mod 70 FWT 7mm Mauser. I have "access" to both a 7mm RM (Tikka) and a 300 RUM if I want to use one in a future hunt. Meanwhile, I enjoy hunting with what is essentially an English type Stalking Rfile which is better for how I hunt now. I love a 7mm "anything", and am thankful for the experience...but happy now...pretty certain...maybe..:)

For whatever reason I could never warm up to the 7mm bore, save for one very accurate 280 rem, and that one because of the accuracy and it's a light rem mtn rifle......80s vintage. Had two 7 mags that got sold, and two 7-08s that also got sold. All very nice rifles that I wish I had back.........in a 30 caliber.

This may surprise only you.

1962 minus 1906 = 56 years head start for the 06. It should have killed more game.

And I suspect the 06 is in second place to the diminutive 30-30.

Neither by itself makes either one better.

Just sayin......


Jerry

An Addendum:

I respect the 06
I like the 06
I use the 06

‘Most’ factory 06 ammo is mild but handloading certainly wakes it up. But as was also stated
most hunters don’t reload or use a chrono.

Jerry

I too am a big fan of the 7mm. When I was 12 my Father gave me his first year Model 700 in 7mmRM and I used it until I was in my 40's to take a few dozen deer and it served me well. After getting the itch to buy a few new rifles I ended up with a Model 70 Super Grade in 280 that is my main squeeze from here on out with a 308 W Sako for a backup.

I still have the 700, and a Model 70 Classic DBM in 7mmRM and will cherish them, but the 280 and my two 7mm08 get more interest these days as bullet tech has improved and the Magnum just isn't necessary for me anymore.

Back in the day,when I was greener than a June bug,I wanted one rifle to do it all. There wasn't any talk forums and the only source of info was hunting mags of all names. Growing up,I read dozens of different hunting and fishing publications every month. Consequentially when I wanted to buy my first big game rifle on my own,the best I could afford in my mind and the best caliber was a Winchester model 70 in 7mm Rem Mag.

I always had ambitions that I would buy my perfect rifle and hunt big game all over the world,even perhaps become a magazine writer. That's why the 7 mag was chosen. It was big enough to kill everything,but have still have light recoil and be light weight.

Sadly,that old XTR model 70 never saw anywhere but Alabama,but I shot it a lot and killed jugs as far as I could find places to shoot. I killed dozens of nice deer with that rifle and even shot down a Christmas tree every year for our family. I would just go into the woods behind my house. I live about a mile off the main road and there's miles of undisturbed woods all around. I would walk about a mile down to the big creek and shoot the top out of a big Spruce. I would be way up on the side of one hill shooting down into the other side of the hill and not just shooting a bullet up into the air.I never was dumb about guns.

Now,I have about every caliber smaller than that first 7 mag,but for some reason I never found a need to buy anything larger. That old 7 mag doesn't kick much more with 150's than my smaller caliber lighter guns though. I've only tried 175's in it once though.

7 mag is way more than I want for deer. Too long of barrel, too much powder burned, too much of everything. The old .30-30 is perfection for the woods hunting I do and that is said after having used everything from a .222 to a .30-06 and many in between. For hunting deer in more open country I like a .243 just fine but feel the new 6.5 Creedmoor is absolute ballistic perfection for that use and it may take over as my new favorite. Time will tell but somebody else can have my share of 7mm magnums.

I'll take the .444 or the .45-70. I can mostly hunt anything anywhere for similar recoil.

Somebody else does have my share of the 7mm magnums. I sent two of them down the road.

I love the 7 Mag but have not owned one for years.

Just the thing for iguanas.

Mike, I've never shot a 7 Mag that recoiled like a .444. It'd take me a while to count up the different 7s I've had plus those I've shot of others.

As to weight ? ? that's a whole diff story. I remember holding/carrying/ and shooting a Marlin 444, don't remember now who owned it.
Heavy is an understatement.

Sometime before '94 I went to a LGS with the intent to get a Rem 700 S S Laminate (grey/black) stock in 7 Mag. When I picked it up, immediately I was SO disappointed. The gun alone was WAY TOO heavy.

At present I have a Tikka T 3X Lite SS in 7 R Mag. With identical scopes it weighs 3 OUNCES more than my Tikka T 3 Lite SS 270 Win.

Jerry

I've shot 45-70's that recoiled way more than my 7 mag.

Someday I would like to come up there and see the deer ya'll need 7mm RM to kill.

There is a better cartridge....it's used quite a bit all over the world, it been around quite a while and IMO beats the 7MM mag....it's easily the old .30-06!

I had my first Mod 700 7mm Mag Mag-Na-Ported. I just wanted to try it out, having never done so before. It made the 150/160 a bit milder in bucking, but it didn't do alot when I fired a case full of H870/175 NP. It was not "bad" in recoil, but it did benefit a little from the porting. I have never been able to tell that much difference between them and the 300WM. The 7mm STW was a heavy Sendero, no brake needed at all. I had the Sporter weight custom 7mm RUM braked just so I could see my downrange hits, well, with the lighter bullets anyhow. Fit of the stock to shooter determines that more than anything, of course, but the "perception" out here is the 7mm mag kicks "less" than the 300's. Put a good brake on them and they all are easily handled even by teens. I "do" like the power of a magnum for shooting up close on bigger game or reaching a out a bit "flatter". I must add that I am a "point and shoot" hunter, I like holding on hair and detest twisting turrets. Just an old phart thingy...

You don't need a 7 to kill a deer, but it sure makes hitting them at a distance very easy.. Not all of us shoot deer in timber or over bait..


The .30-06 is a good cartridge, I shot one steadily from the time I was 15- 25... Then I tried the 7 and realized it was flatter shooting and the recoil nil... I have three 06's.. I like them, but mostly use them to prop the safe door open to get something else..