Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 7 Remington Mag Magic

My 7mm RM (Ruger tanger, 2 1/2 - 8 Vari-x 3) went to one of my boys 15 or 20 years ago. Been thinking lately (as I’m trying to reduce the number of firearms my wife will have to deal with when her elderly husband kicks the bucket) I need another one, nothing outrageous, maybe a 700 CDL. That would only make a bit less sense than getting a.30-30 when the right one comes along.

Making sense and buying rifles is lost on me

It’s exciting to get a new rifle

Sounds like fun, I like my 7mm Rem Mag. Certainly an effective cartridge.

I've had two 7RM's over the years. A Winchester Model 70 when they first came back out with CRF. It had an affinity for 162 grain Hornady BTSP's over IMR 4831. I killed nice Dall sheep with it back in 1995 with Gana River. I should never have sole that rifle. I still have a Browning 1885 in 7 Mag. It loves both the 145 and the 160 grain Speer Gran Slams and a good charge of IMR 4831. I killed nice west Texas muley with it several years back. 603 yards and the 160 Grand Slam laid him out. Unluckiest deer on the entire ranch. The old Browning is too purdy to take out hunting much anymore so my 7 SAUM gets that call most of the time.

my 7RM is magic!

It fires 160gr Partitions for my rare attempts at elk. Acts like a 280AI for deer with 120TTSXs at 3200. And pretends it’s a 7x57 deer rifle with 150GKs at 2600. Accuracy is impressive for all!🤗

Blaming the cartridge for the inadequacies of the bullet construction was almost a patent owned by gunwriters of previous generations. Elmer always did it.

Those same bullets that direct focus on the cartridge are famously perfect when propelled by a 7x57 or .280. Why is that?

Every cartridge needs bullet construction that works consistently with the velocity ranges it is designed for. Its that simple and alway was.

Have one!----It's just a skinny .30-06!

A "bloody mess" is what I wanted to avoid with my one size fits all early 7mm RM, so I never shot a deer or elk with a bullet lighter than a 160 grain NP. I remember a work buddy telling me that he threw away the front half of his mule deer because of the blood shot meat using his 7mm Weatherby Magnum. For years I borrowed a friend of my dad's Pre-64 .300 WM and decided that was outside of my recoil tolerance level, so a 7mm RM was my first choice when I bought my own rifle. A little too much for deer, but it worked well for everything that I hunted with it.

The only bullet used in a 7 Mag that gave me large amounts of meat damage was the Berger 140. The 150 BT and 160 Accubond not a problem. The Berger was extremely accurate but if you caught bone the exit was impressive. Just too much velocity for that bullet in my opinion. Doesn’t take away from the 7 though just wrong bullet selection.

GreggH