Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Great Quote from Mule Deer

These are wise words, and mirror my experience.

When things go wrong, very,very rarely is it something wonky with a bullet or a with an "under-powered" cartridge. Marginal hits and lack-luster shooting seem to have been the culprits nearly every time. I saw this as a teen, and I have seen it many times in the intervening decades, even with all of the fancy bullets that have come on the market since.

Been toting a 7mm Mag since I was 13 which would be in 1976. Father bought one in 62 or 63 when it first came out. Grandfather got one in 65. Brother got one the same year I got mine. I don't know how many heads of western game my family has shot with them, but it is a bunch. Mine also made 5 trips to Africa where I used it on things like zebra/gemsbok/wildebeest etc... I've never seen it fail in the field and if it didn't bring the game home it was the shooter's fault and not the round's fault.

Can't really say if the 7mm Mag is any better or any worse than the 06/270/300 mags etc... but I have helped hang a lot of meat that fell to it over the last 45+ years. Just sayin....

If you shoot a Sako, you never miss!

If I recall correctly. Elmer Keith wrote about how the 25-06 once again failed miserably. He took out 2 inches of a buck's spine and he still ran a long ways.

.280 I have read most of Elmers stuff.. Never remember if him shooting any big game with one..

Yep, fine round, but there's no magic there, same for lots of other rounds................pick one, use good bullets, hit the right spot.

As for me, all but my larger bore magnums have long since gone down the road, standard rounds work just fine for non-dangerous game, given the above comment.

MM

I could have mistaken someone else's writing for his.

Another kick to my ego... I think the 7 Rem Mag is just about a perfect round. Great ballistics and really good speed. Of course, if I was so great at knowing which calibers were awesome, maybe I wouldnt have so many different stacks of ammo on the shelf.

To paraphrase ( I think Finn Aagaard)

If he shot it with a 308 and it ran off.... he didn’t shoot it in the heart!

I sure hope I got that reference right...I think he was referring to nosler partitions but....


Someone out there has to remember that one.

Ben

Comparing the 7 mag and the 6.5 cm following in the same sentence makes a lot of sense to me. If you were a 7 mag guy back in the 80's it was the best because of the high bc bullets and the long maximum point blank range.

Before ballistic reticles and dialing scopes we all focused on our maximum range where we could hold the duplex on the game animal without any holdover and still land our shot in the vitals. With the 7 mag you could have a 200 yard zero and stay fairly close out to 300+ - yards. That was the old way of doing things.

Now with electronic rangefinders and ballistic reticles and dialing scopes the higher velocity isn't as important as high ballistic coefficient bullets and accurate range estimation. The 6.5 cm strength is similar to what the 7 mag once had for having the advantage over longer distance but the application is different and now even further down range.

In 2008 I drew a public tag for one of Utah's premier elk ranches (the 200,000 acre+ Deseret Ranch), which also included 1x1 guiding. When I got there, my guide--who I already knew--was in a foul mood. It turns out his previous client had shot a nice bull, but the bull did not drop immediately. When told to shoot it again, he said something along the lines of "no, I don't need to because this is a 7 Mag." Needless to say, the bull was lost and guide took the client on a three day death march looking for the bull.

Although I was not packing a 7 mag on that hunt, I use it probably more than any other cartridge because it combines the best attributes of the .270 and the 30-06. But one thing about my elk hunt was for certain--if my bull was still on its feet after my first shot I was not waiting to be told to shoot again.

6.5 Creed is the best.

Roll Tide.

I don't understand why some people think the 7mm Mag can't be shot well by most shooters. For the people who can't, I tend to believe it wouldn't matter what rifle they were shooting, because the rifle isn't the problem. Les Bowman noted when he guided that his clients who were shooting 7mm Rem Mags shot noticeable better than those who shot 300 mags of some sort. Muledeer noted that one of his PHs once said only about one third of his clients could shoot a 300 well. Considering the recoil of a 7mm Rem Mag is very similar to a 30-06(within two or three foot pounds of recoil), which was part of the design requirements when Remington developed the 7 mag, I don't understand why the cartridge itself would be a factor to blame for poor shooting. I also think the 7mm Rem Mag is one of the greatest hunting rounds ever developed. It will do anything a 300 can do, except hit the shooter with 20% more recoil. It delivers higher sectional density bullets than an '06 with more velocity, and higher BC values that really shine at longer ranges over the '06, all at very close to the same level of recoil as a 30-06. Seems funny to me, nobody says they have never seen anybody shoot a 300 Win Mag well, but that happens quite often. That round kicks, pretty hard. If a shooter can't handle it, is the round to blame? Chuck Mawhinney is one such example who shoots a 7mag, and does so quite well. But the reverse of what I said above is also true, it doesn't matter what rifle you put in Mr. Mawhinney's hands, he's going to shoot it well. The Secret Service used the 7 mag for their sniper round for a while. Someobody should have told them it can't be shot well, apparently they were unaware lol.

gatekeeper,

You may or may not have seen the article I did for American Rifleman over a decade ago after interviewing Chuck Mawhinney (more than once), but yeah, he used it on a lot of elk, sometimes out to over 600 yards with factory ammo. He liked it a lot--and he said his preferred method of hunting involved sitting down and glassing an area where he knew elk would move.

I do suspect, however, that some (not all) 7mm Remington Magnum users believed in its magic killing power so much that they were less skilled shooters than Chuck. I know this partly from my own guiding days in the 1980s.

I have a nice Weatherby chambered for 7mm RM. Its a good shooter and a fine round but its not my thing. I prefer less boom and pound.

I haven't read that article, but it sounds very interesting. I see the point in thinking the round to be magical, and thus not requiring marksmanship, obviously being a problem if an uninformed hunter thought that way. I think marketing and current trends influence people negatively at times. Kinda how some people think you absolutely need a 300 magnum to kill an elk. I used to be one of those guys who thought that, and I thought I was well informed lol. I just think the 7mm mag is a very efficient round for the level of recoil, but magical it is not. As a Marine myself, I find Chuck Mawhinney's rifle choice very interesting. He is a true icon of the Corpse, as well as an obviously phenomenal shooter. I would be very interested in reading it if I can find a copy. I knew from speaking with you he has hunted with the 7mm Rem Mag quite a bit.

That is exactly what turned me off on the 7 mag. Met a guy out hunting circa 1986 and his 7 mag was WAY better than the 270's and 6.5-06 we were using.

All three of us filled our tags, while he missed and wounded deer. To this day, I have never owned a 7 mag, and never will.

Irrational I know, but life's experiences are what influences us.

That deer's name was Chuck Norris.

Heart so tough the bullet just bounced back out the hole it came in.

I will admit, the benefit a 7mag offers over a 270, or similar standard cartridge, is slight. I have probably killed more deer with a 270 than any other round, and it is superb. I would feel confident shooting any non dangerous game, short maybe of eland (although I imagine it would still work if used properly), as I would my 7mm-08 or 308 as well. I carry a 7 mag for the rare event I could use the extra penetration and added horsepower at longer range, but honestly haven't killed anything yet that couldn't have been neatly killed with the standard 270, 308, 7mm-08. I still like it though, and it has performed well for me. I think rifle rounds are like the old saying, 'there's more than one way to skin a cat'. My way doesn't have to be your way.

John,
I believe I found your article on Chuck Mawhinney, "A Marine's Rifle". Excellent article. Interesting how Mr. Mawhinney, along with 15 other snipers reported never having any problems with their 700s. Those M40 reproductions sure sound nice!