Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What's Petzals beef with the 7mm RM?

When combining all thing the 7MM Rem Mag sits pretty much at the top of the pile when we look at hunting cartridges.

Many do not understand how to use the reach it offers and are just as well off with lesser round but that hardly changes the facts.

While the .270 Win is a fine cartridge, for short to moderate range, it falls short of the 7mm Rem Mag. The idea that some can't use the extra reach of the 7mm Rem Mag is really not a valid argument.

Well, if we are all honest, there is a ridiculous amount of overlap and redundancy in the cartridge world. Lets face it, if you own a 22 rimfire for small game, a 30-06 for big game, and an "elephant rifle" for large dangerous animals, you are pretty darn well equipped for hunting this planet. Everything else is for entertainment purposes. There are so many cartridges that can do everything the 110 year old 30-06 can do and nothing it can't that it is almost mind boggling to me that they exist. A lot of people have a lot of money to spend on guns.....not saying that is a bad thing, actually quite the opposite!

I won't argue against the 7RM, but a .277 150gr VLD at 3k or so ain't anything to sneeze at. Even past "moderate" range.

JohnBurns, I'm not trying to be argumentative, but what facts would put a 7mm Rem Mag at the top of the pile over other 7mm cartridges with similar performance? Let's say as compared to .280 AI or 7mm WM or 7mm WSM? Thank you.

Yeah the 7mm Weatherby (and 7mm STW) are definitely more cartridge--and can safely get the velocities originally published for the 7mm Remington Magnum when it was introduced. Though those velocities were from 26" barrels, they were also at higher pressure levels than today.

Was working up some loads for my 7mm Wby. a couple weeks ago, and with listed charges of Norma powder got 3300 fps with the 160-grain Partition. But there were slight ejector-hole marks on a couple of cases, so I'm backed it down to around 3200, the max velocity listed by Norma.

That still beats any 7mm Remington Magnum I've loaded for, including the one I own right now. To tell the truth, the only reason I own a 7mm Remington is because of writing about handloading: Any handloading writer who deals with modern rifle cartridges has to own one, because every rifle manufacturer in the world includes it in their line-up. But I've never been wild about it.

Jack O'Connor pointed out that the 7mm RM's real-world ballistics didn't beat the .270 by a significant amount back in the 1960's and 70's, so what Petzal says is nothing new.

My friend John Haviland tells a funny 7mm RM story on himself. John says the csrtridge was so popular in the 1970's when he worked for a local sawmill, every worker was issued a hard-hat and a 7mm Remington Magnum. He had to have one too, and loaded it with Speer 160-grain bullets and a load the Speer manual said got over 3000 fps. And by golly it killed deer, black bears and elk really well in the steep. timbered mountains around Missoula.

A few years later John got his first chronograph, and discovered his magic 7mm RM load was getting about 2700 fps, about like a hot 7x57 handload. Apparently there's something magic about the 7x57 as well....

And a decade a bunch of Montana guys traded in their "Sevens" to get new .300 WSM's!

If one can avoid the "Got to have its', there is far less regret down the Road.

Petzal writing about guns and/or hunting is like Bill Clinton writing about monogamy.
He wrote a review of a book about the Benoits once saying how the Benoits were the real deal because they never used gadgets like GPSs. If he had opened the book, he would have seen they had a chapter in the book on how they use GPS and which ones they liked best.
Another article Petzal wrote was about the ten best gunsmiths in the country. One on his "top Ten" was a fella that had butchered up several rifles of people I know and a couple of my own guns. One 35 Whelen the man rebarrelled would not shoot better than a 4inch group with handloads, factory loads, with me and others shooting it.
The same "top Ten" smith did a trigger job on two odel 70 Winchesters for a fellow I worked with, and when they came back, one of them could be made to discharge by tapping the butt of the rifle on the floor.

Writers need something to write about.

The problem with the 90% argument is the best trophy of your life will require the extra 10%.

That extra 10% is why the 300 Weatherby Magnum will be chosen by serious hunters for a long time.

The problem with the 90% argument is the best trophy of your life will require the extra 10%.

That extra 10% is why the 300 Weatherby Magnum will be chosen by serious hunters for a long time.