Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Another 7mm Mashburn Super question

Run a 7 mm ultra and step away from the others.. That's the only 7mm I have interest in.

Good! You want a 26" tube, 9 pounds of rifle and a hat load of powder,one source of brass, that's your Huckleberry

It goes faster for sure

Good to know what you like, now you can step away from this thread on the 7 Mash Super...

Dober

You guys suck. Now I'm thinking about M70 donors and pondering ordering case forming dies. Just what I need.... a fifth 7 Mag.

KDK: What 5 7 mags do you have now? Are they all 7RM?

Actually, Bob, it's four now... 2x7WSM, 2x7RM. A Mashburn will probably not do anything more than what I have (at least that I can utilize) but I like the idea of doing something a little different than the norm.

KDK: I can understand that.... You're more than suitably armed
So the Mashburn is tough to justify.

That said, what drove me to it was many years spent with the 7 RM,which is splendid as is,but when convenient I built them with a long throat and a H&H action,set up to seat heavy bullets "out"...I found this did not give much more velocity(some),but did prevent those funny walls that seemed to pop up as I approached top end.I see this even here with guys running into velocity walls with the cartridge..the cure is generally pretty simple...it's throats and barrels.

I always felt the case body and neck on the 7 RM could have been longer;and since all the rifles I've had for the 7RM had H&H length actions anyway, I might as well use it.

The Mashburn eliminated all these tiny faults (riflemen understand);has a longer neck,more case capacity without going over board,and gets its' velocities,easily, from 24" tubes(it goes even faster, easily, with longer barrels).

What I have found is that it gives that 3050-3075 or so with a 175 gr bullet,and with todays powders,easily hits 3200+ with 160's;even better than Page and Hagel promised, with todays powders.

What Art Mashburn found back in the 50's (there were actually 3 7mm Mashburns),was that going to a bigger case than the Mashburn Super, did not provide significantly more velocity than the Super,and just burned more powder.Hagel discovered this himself working the 7mm-300 Weatherby...maybe not true with todays powders, but a glance at loading manuals for the STW and the RUM points out this is true,especially with 160-175 gr bullets.And avoids the large powder charges and 26" tubes of the larger cases.

Said another way, the Mashburn Super hits a "sweet spot";not too big, not too little,and can be put up in a 24" barrel and under 8 pound rifle,takes reasonable powder charges,and gets velocities close to the larger cases without straining things.

It just works good.While hard for some to justify (understandable),for me it makes just as much sense as a 280 AI,comes in rifles of the same weight and length,and outperforms that cartridge easily.

Whether it is worth it or not is up to everyone to decide for themselves, as with most things shooting related.

Plus.....it's got a ton load of panache and the cult is growing..

Dober

Laffin'....geez is it ever!

Not a day goes by I'm not getting emails or PM's of some sort...you, too I know..

I hear Redding had to hold a special meeting to crank up die production...it was not in the stable until we sent cases for dies....

who do u think was on the conference call...

Dober

Ha! I did not know......mmmm....somebody didn't gimme all the facts!


Investigation is ongoing...

Main problems I see are related to all the steps needed for case forming (annealing, resizing, fire-form w/inert material, etc).. Awful lot of fussy-work to get a few fps more - speed that any animal it's used on will have no clue it's needed..

Just my very humble .02...

My experience has been different from yours with it Redneck. The only diff tween what I do with this case and any others is the intial work with the form die and the trim die. Neither take any lube to do the work. Just set the die, run the case up and down. Next time I do a bag of 50 I'll time it. Not sure exactly how long it'll take me to do the 50 but I spect it's less time than it takes to cook a frozen pizza.

As for fire forming, I do about 100 rounds a year of it, and in all honesty 50 rounds would do me just fine so I think I'm taking an extra 8 or 9 minutes per year to prep the case over others...

I load em, shoot them and move on. My FF load is good to go at my local range to 434 yds (as far as we have to shoot at this range). I've never noticed anything wrong or difficult about it. Just good practice is all I see.

As for what's worth it, well we've only ourselves to please is I think the way that Steely says it. IMO once we get beyond the 223, .270 or 06 and the 375 H&H it's all pretty much for fun and giggles.

I don't see it as any more fussy work than I would say in working with a 264 vs a .270, One would have to wonder if the extra fps one would get is something that most people are ever gonna use or get to take advantage of...

Plus, I can easily find 300 Win brass without ordering it, and something like the 264 will take me more time...grin. So, bottom line is we do what makes us perk is all, no wrong just different I spect.

Just my humble opinion..

Dober

Dober's right...no lube at all in the form process, until of course you resize fired brass...but not for forming.

Once it's formed,it needs nothing.

Annealing? No more than one would do to any other brass, which for me has been "never"...I don't do it.

Forming is a cake walk; I can run 50 cases through form/trim/FL in about 20 minutes, if that...it's nothing.Boom, boom, boom.

I use both COW and live fire to form brass....using COW I form 75-100 cases in 2-3 hours at the range....it's easy.

For live fire, I use Dobers load,65 IMR4350-139 HDY.I could easily hunt with it.I shoot it routinely out to 600 yards(just last week).At 600 it shoots slightly lower than full house 160's and 175's...no need to touch the sites.

I will COW another 100 rounds...plus maybe 200-300 I have accumulated through live fire....I could hunt the next 10 years with that, if I did not shoot so much.

BTW, you are talking to a guy who HATES to reload...I only do it because I have to to afford to shoot...this thing is a cakewalk

I never said a thing about lube.. I am only going by the notes in Ken Howell's book, which mentions the steps I noted above.. I had to look it up - I've never seen/fired the Mashburn.. It just seemed like a lot of falderal to me.. But then, I don't reload for anything not SAAMI.. I've gotten too old/lazy.. Hehehehee..

But I hear ya re: the 'something different' deal..

Probably been discussed extenseviley before but why a Mashburn over a STW. Is it the awesome factor? As in you're at the range, and your neighbor says "what are you shooting there"? and you reply "7mm Mashburn Super", your neighbor then asks "what's a 7mm Mashburn Super"? You then get a serious look on your face look him dead in the eye and say...."awesome".

Since I've been recently dissapointed with my 7RM handloads and a lover of the .284 maybe I need to look to a bigger case.

jr:No, it isn't that....anymore than it is with any wildcat..no one really gives a shidt what ya shoot anyway

Just like for 280AI shooters,it's a way to get a bit of an edge,velocity wise,without leaning hard on a cartridge.That's all.....anyone at the range asks what I am shooting I just say...."7mm Mag"

Your experience with the 7RM (and what you say above about your 7RM),is the reason I tried a couple of larger capacity 7mm's,like the STW and the Dakota.I have seen the velocities like you are getting....but a 140 gr bullet at 3050 is not why I buy a 7mm magnum....I expect that with a 160-175 gr bullet. So, for the same reasons many on here want a 280AI, I wanted something that handled heavy 7mm bullets, faster.

Tried the STW....good choice of course but most of the bluster and thunder comes from 26" of tube,which I don't like or want...I simply did not want an STW......and the Dakota was a very good cartridge with a single source of brass,but I encountered some brass problems with it in the form of splits on the second firing....plus if you hunt with a 7mmDakota, you just might as well have a wildcat, cause you will not find ammo anywhere.

The Mashburn just works the way it was designed,no mysteries, very straight forward, and easy to use and like.I can form it easily with commonly available 300 Win Mag brass....Well balanced, efficient, it gives the velocities that everyone has said it will give... like any tools that we use, you don't want any surprises.

It's my fun rifle,as well as being a good load for the hunting I do.....when I don't feel like playing, I grab a 270

Being able to say I'm not shooting a 7 Rem Mag is reason enough for me to get a Mashburn Super, were I in need of a magnum 7.

How about a pic of a 7 mashburn super cartridge?
thanks

The madness continues

Talking to Dober about the Mashburn is like talking to the Apostle Paul about Christ... you'll likely come away converted