Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters FInn Aagaard on the 7mm BR

Nice contour and field photo of the 30BR.

The 30BR is a performer, proven highly accurate and no doubt effective in the field.

Folks, not a big deal, but I referred to Finn Aagaard ealier in a comment about the 7/08 on elk, I stand corrected, I am almost sure it was Sam Fadala, not Finn who that write up was about, his wife using it. None the less, I just wanted to correct that.......

Huntz - Yes, the TCU would indeed be a viable round in an AR platform. Now with the various 6, 6.5 and 6.5 on PPC type rounds, they may be the easier way to go......save the endless 223 / 5.56 brass supply. COL would have to be checked to see what bullets could be seated and run thru the magazine. The smaller 5.56 case would allow more rounds per mag I would assume than say Grendel or similar. Just another thought.

As to the above question on the Howa Micro- if it's like the old Sako L469 and 461 actions, I am not sure if you have enough bolt to work with to open to the '308' round sized head diameter. A Grendel may be the max, I know Sako did PPCs in a limited # and the old 7x33 Sako round, not sure offhand how it compares.

Ctsmith - like to hear the specs on your build, ever nice set up. With the can, are you hunting with it? Hal Swiggest used the Ballistic tip often in his 30-30 TC's - the 125 seemed to blow up much more than the 150, though in the BR round I would think the 125 would give a more usable trajectory. When I ran a 30-30 10" TC, it doted on Speer 130 Mag-tips. They seemed stouter for hunting than the 125 BTs. I ran a BT thru a jug and into a stack of telephone books and a log. It did not hold together well, for whatever that can say about it's use for hunting. No doubt in the lungs or neck deer would not be happy.

I remember reading an article by Bob Milek about Remington's trio of BR cartridges. After reading that article I found a Remington Model Seven KS in 7mmBR at a gun show. I really enjoyed the rifle but I did not handload at that time and ammo was hard to find. I sold the rifle and purchased a Ruger M77 limited run in 7.62x39 which I used for several years as my primary deer rifle. I moved on to TC Contender Carbines in 7x30 Waters, 30-30 Win, and 35 Rem. I enjoy the low recoil and low muzzle blast.

I was not thinking about the head size of the cartridge when I asked the question about the Howa Mini action.

65BR, I am assuming that you have bolt actions in the BR chamberings. What actions have you used and is getting them to feed from the magazine a problem?

Yes. I know a bloke who has done several BR based cartridges on the Howa Mini.

Open boltface.
Open up the factory 7.62x39/Grendel magazine box.
Fit new barrel.

Shoot.


I have a 6mm BR on a Pierce Ti action and use slightly modded plastic AICS 223 magazines. It feeds flawlessly. There is a Bartlein barrel sitting here to become a 7mm BR some time in the near future.

Interesting about the Howa - I would consult with some good gunsmiths to be sure that would be safe, and it may well be, perhaps the bolt is thicker than a small Sako......I know it's been said the PPC is about the Sako is safe to handle.

As to feeding in bolts, I ran a SS Model 7, used 700 stamped follower and it fed 7BR slick as glass. 6BR tended to angle upward with lighter bullets and did not feed well out of the mag, but ran some 6BR w/105s thru my 7BR just to test and they seemed to feed just fine also.

It isn't about the size of the bolt body, but the size of the locking lugs and their abutments.

If a bolt action can handle a 6.5 Grendel, then it can handle a BR case AT NORMAL PRESSURES. Unlike the AR bolt head, a normal bolt action is not structurally undermined by making the boltface larger.

65BR,

Its a Bighorn SR3 action, Manners EH6 stock, and Bartlein #3 15 twist at 19" plus the can. Chambered with the Robinett reamer. Rem 700 223 follower and spring, with the box modified by Jon Beanland. Beanland built the rifle. The box holds four down and its the best feeding rifle I own. Jon really focused on feeding and he nailed it.

Rifle is a dedicated southeast Alabama deer thinning rig. Its amazingly pleasant to shoot, no hearing protection warranted.

As for the 125 BTs, I'll let you next year how they work on whitetails, it will account for 10+ in season. I'll give them a year and re-evaluate, unless there is a total breakdown.

As for a load, based on above target, I loaded 10 rounds at 29.5 and fired a 10 consecutive shot group for a final proof before loading. There's a little vertical in the load, but it will do. Plan to chrono (magnetospeed) today and will report back.

Excellent - thanks for sharing. Reading of impressive velocities in the 30BR, guessing you are getting perhaps 2800-2900 with 125s ?

I think you will be fine on the BT if you use Lung, Head/neck shots. Not sure how they would do on shoulders at high speeds.

Remember its a 19" barrel. 2575 fps with the 29,5 grain load. I originally was shooting a 31.0 load but it started showing pressure signs that I originally overlooked. That load was 2650. At 2575 there is no pressure signs and its relatively mild. Doubt I'll ever shoot out the barrel at that rate.

I shot a 7BR for Standard Rifle High-Power Silhouette for about 5 years and it worked great - mild recoil, easy load development, 120 Sierras for chickens, 140 Sierras for pigs and turkeys, 168 Sierras for rams. I lost fewer rams with the 7BR than any other caliber I ever used, they went over slow but they ended up falling most everytime even though it was a slow motion affair. The 7BR will make a wind-reader out of you though when shooting 500 meters but I was lucky that I developed my wind skills with it because just about any other high-power slihouette cartridge cuts the wind better. I had it in a Fajen Silhouette stock . it was built of a Rem 700 Varminter7/08 with the barrel cut back and rechambered to 7BR. Perfect weight and perfect shooter.

I have a friend who sold his 7BR with a documented 12,000 rounds through the barrel and it is still shooting compeitively, about the only thing that shoots easier is the 7TCU but they will leave rams standing more often, expecially if the wind is hitting them from the back side.


The 7BR is a very under-rated cartridge. If it will push a 55# ram off a rail at 550 meters it will surely kill a deer.

drover

CT, yes, but the data I read was surely much higher pressure.........as some tend to do.

Drover, great stuff! Seen a few 700V done that way......my 7/08 shot so good, only thing I did was drop in a VLS stock with Ebony tip, floated it, and chopped to 21" - loud but it shot bugholes.......I never shot silhouette, just deer.

As to the BR, in 7 and 30 the barrel life seems forever........

I love the 7BR and the 7TCU. I have a 10" Encore 7BR barrel that I used to shoot IHMSA production with. Using 19 grains of SR4759 and a 145 grain RCBS Silhouette cast bullet, I could take the 200 meter rams with no problem. It was very pleasant to shoot.

For hunting, I have used a 14" 7TCU barrel on one of my Contenders and a 120 grain Nosler BT pushed by 28 grains of 2460 to take a few GA whitetails. Longest shot was 123 yards. Excellent performer.

Just recently I picked up a Remington 700 SPS Varmint in .223 for a song. Had the action worked by LRI and I threaded a 18" Wilson Remage barrel from Ragged Hole Barrels chambered in 7TCU onto it. Put a Trigger Tech Primary on it and swapped out the mag spacer with one that is only 1/4" and put the whole thing in a Mesa Precision stock. With my Dead Air Sandman Ti threaded on the end, it is still very maneuverable in a blind. The first load I tested in it was 23.2 grains of H4198 with Nosler BT. It shot five 5-shot groups into an aggregate average of 0.958". I took that load to my annual hunt in middle GA and was able to put a good doe and my biggest buck on the ground with that load. The doe was at 93 yards and the buck was at 17. Doe was a perfect broadside and bullet performed as expected. Caliber sized entrance, 2X sized exit. Good blood and she went 25 yards and down. The buck was quartering to pretty hard, but it was right at dark and he was getting ready to walk into my wind, so I put it right on the top of his onside shoulder (I was 20 feet up) and pulled the trigger. He bucked up, went 12 yards into the woods and crashed. The bullet drove through the top of the shoulder and exited the lower ribcage on the off side. The jacket was still in the deer.
I honestly think that this is the perfect 200 yard and in whitetail rig, and chambering the rifle in 7BR would stretch that to 300-400 yards.

Great report, very efficient in short handgun barrels as you noted. Nice to use such a mild load and knock down 200 yds rams.

Many folks would grossly underestimate the field effectiveness of these smaller capacity rounds. The 120 BT is near ideal for hunting in a BR or TCU.

What kind of speed are you seeing out of the rifle with 4198? I usually use R7 in mine but can’t find any and wouldn’t mind an alternative.

I got best speed with IMR4895 and 2015 BR - not in that order...with 120s, in a 21"

I actually haven’t run that load over a chrony yet, but I can look at my notes for drop and come to a pretty close approximation when I get home this evening,

I’d appreciate it.

Took a look at my data. Based on my drops from 50 to 200, I would say that my load is somewhere in the 2300 fps range out of my 18" barrel with a suppressor on the end.

6.5 BR is what the 7 BR is trying to be....think outside the box........

Start at the start, Lapua brass

...or Peterson

https://www.petersoncartridge.com/match-grade-brass/brass-rifle-casings/7mm-br-rem/