Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 7mm Big Game Cartridge Showdown

I never followed the .284 diameter other than a 7x57...but a hunter friend of mine who has more of his wife's money than he can ever spend, bought every new offering that came along. He also buys other related stuff, like when borescopes came along. Rainy, boring, windy winter here...he gets out his trusty bore scope and examines his .28 Nosler....my phone starts ringing, along come the cell phone text and pictures of the .28 Nos throat area. Of course I know nothing about throats, alligator cracking, borescopes or the .28 Nosler. He is sick, the pictures do look a lot like a dry lakebed. I asked how it shot, and he said it never was a tackdriver, but he thought it was about the same.
But here's the corker, he claims the rifle only has about 140 rounds through it...he bought 5 boxes factory when he bought the rifle, fired them up, reloaded with some magic load from the Nosler forum, and fired about 40 more in load development, testing, and zeroing for the CDS dial.
My question is, could it be possible to burn a throat a little in 140 rounds?
I wonder if someone bought the rifle, tried it, maybe a lot of shooting, didn't like it and resold as new. I just can't imagine an alligator throat at 140 rounds...but I know beans about that.

It's possible with cartridge like that to get "gator skin" within 140 rounds--but that doesn't mean the barrel's burned out. They'll keep shooting about the same for quite a while, but eventually chunks of the throat start flaking off, which is when groups often start to open up.

In have seen traces of throat erosion in .223 Remingtons after a couple hundred rounds--but they still kept shooting well. The most interesting one I know of belonged to my late friend Chub Eastman, who worked for Nosler for years. His favorite prairie-dog .223 kept shooting "minute of dog" out to 300+ yards for around 20,000 rounds, and at that point he had the guys in the Nosler gun department section the barrel. There wasn't a trace of rifling for about 10" in front of the chamber....

On the flip side, my 7x57 is two shots for two elk and never not ready to go hunting.................[/quote]

What load did you use for the elk sir? I finally had to just have a rifle made up to get an accurate 7x57. The previous four I tried ( 2 Mod 70's, 1 Mod 77 and 1 Mod 700) were all used rifles. I heartily suspect all I got hold of was "other folk's Culls", lol. So I had another nice donor Md 70 fwt in .270 , and had my gunsmith put me a new barrel on it. Yes I paid a little more than most folks, but boy did I get a Gem! I left it at 25" and just preliminary load workup it is plenty fast ( I've only shot some 150 ELDx handloads and a few Lapua factory 170gr) Technically, it isn't "broke in" yet, but with components like they are, I'm thinking "oh yeah it is! ha.

I don't have 100 rounds down the tube on my 28 Nosler.
The bore scope does not paint a very pretty picture.
Thankfully I have what I consider to be a very good load.
The barrel that's on it will spend its time flattening deer.
It does that very well.

dave

How does the 28 nosler compare to the 7mm STW for throat erosion?

The STW I had some years ago wasn’t easy on the throat, the gator skin look started after around 120 rounds. I’m currently getting a 28 put together so in a few months I’ll be able to compare the two. But I’d bet there won’t be a lot of difference! These type cartridges just can’t be range toys unless you like replacing barrels quite often.

or 7mm-08....

At 72 years old, I've developed quite an attachment to the 7/08. Deer fall just as dead, and for this old geezer the recoil is next to nothing.

I use 120gr NBTs in mine for deer and 160gr NPs for moose. It's all the rifle I need.

I just got one Anything that's accurate over 2900 fps with a 175g A-Frame will make me happy.

Only reason I did not transition to the 7/08 from my 280's is my original love for the 308, of which I have several. Either the 7/08 or 308 are very fun to shoot. Not that age has anything to do with it, at 65 years of age I am loving my 308's still.....since 1978.

Pixie Dust and BS in fair proportions get really swell velocities in the 7 RM as touted above. I don’t think you’ll get 3,000 fps out of a 24” barrel with 175 gr bullets and stay within SAAMI pressure specs. But some folks don’t care about such. It’s their story and they can tell it however they like. After all, this is Mr. Gore’s innanet.

What load did you use for the elk sir? I finally had to just have a rifle made up to get an accurate 7x57. The previous four I tried ( 2 Mod 70's, 1 Mod 77 and 1 Mod 700) were all used rifles. I heartily suspect all I got hold of was "other folk's Culls", lol. So I had another nice donor Md 70 fwt in .270 , and had my gunsmith put me a new barrel on it. Yes I paid a little more than most folks, but boy did I get a Gem! I left it at 25" and just preliminary load workup it is plenty fast ( I've only shot some 150 ELDx handloads and a few Lapua factory 170gr) Technically, it isn't "broke in" yet, but with components like they are, I'm thinking "oh yeah it is! ha.[/quote]

The load i have in stock now for it is a 160 gr Nosler partition and 49.5 grs of imr4831, but the elk were shot with a 150 gr corelokt and 48 gr of imr 4350 , I know , the powder is not temperature insensitive and the bullets are not trendy, but they just work.......

+1. Not calling anyone a liar, but I would have to witness it. SAAMI is 62k psi for the 7 mag BTW.

thanks for sharing

Brand new here, so hopefully nobody minds if I chime in. I'm amazed to see posts from some old timey gun writers and rifle builders that I've been reading, and reading about, for decades!
I'm old enough to remember when the 7mm RM was introduced.
"Shoots as flat as a .270, recoils like a 30-06 and hits as hard as a .300 win mag!"
Seem to recall the initial factory loads were a 150 gr advertised at 3110 fps and a 175 gr RN advertised at 3000 fps. Both Remington core-lokt bullets. "The deadliest mushroom in the woods!"
Remington may have used a 26" test barrel and their numbers may have been "pie in the sky", or both?
Of course, it's possible my memory fails me.
I'll keep my 7RM and leave the new fangled stuff to the youngsters.
Thanx for sharing!

My 7mm & 30 caliber magnums have been gone for a long time, & so, far, I don't miss them or regret the decision to not use mid-magnums any more.

But if I were to want a 7 mag of some sort, it would likely be a WSM or a PRC version w/o a belt................but it still wouldn't do anything that my o6, 270, 280 or 7-08 won't accomplish as well.

I don't pretend to shoot 1500 yards or even 1,000.

I prefer lighter rifles with 22" barrels, as a package, much better than longer, heavier rifles, any day, all day.

YMMV

MM

Welcome to the Fire' Stan..

7mag. shooting 175gr. @ 3000fps? That's 7STW territory.

welcome, Stan. my memory is about as old as yours.. but it coincides !

You didn’t read what he said.