{"id":1111,"date":"2019-10-30T13:22:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T17:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/?p=1111"},"modified":"2020-02-02T23:23:59","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T04:23:59","slug":"remingtons-big-seven-by-craig-boddington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/remingtons-big-seven-by-craig-boddington\/","title":{"rendered":"REMINGTON\u2019S BIG SEVEN By Craig Boddington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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I\u2019m on the record as stating (more than once!) that the 7mm Remington Magnum<\/a> isn\u2019t one of my favorites. It\u2019s a popular cartridge so this always brings howls from its many fans. More importantly, at least to me, is that it\u2019s not good journalism\u2014or business\u2014to contradict myself. Since I\u2019ve been writing about this stuff for 40-odd years I think it\u2019s possible (and allowable) for my opinions to change over time. But this opinion has not changed: The 7mm Remington Magnum is not among my all-time favorite cartridges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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7 mag line-up: Left to right: 7mm Remington Short Action Ultra Mag, .280 Remington, 7mm Remington Magnum, 7mm Weatherby Magnum, 7mm Shooting Times Westerner, 7mm Remington Ultra Mag. The 7mm Remington Magnum is hardly the only \u201cfast 7mm,\u201d and certainly not the speediest\u2014but it is by far the most popular and most available, a world-standard hunting cartridge. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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My reasons are simple: There are lots of excellent cartridges, and it\u2019s impossible to love them all equally. I love the .270 Winchester<\/a> because it shoots just as flat as the 7mm Remington Magnum\u2026but burns less powder, has less recoil, does fine in a 22-inch barrel, and can be built into a lighter rifle. If I feel I might need (or just want!) more power I\u2019ve generally stepped up to a fast .30-caliber, which can offer more bullet weight and frontal area with similar velocity\u2026albeit with more recoil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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7mm 50th<\/sup>: This 2012 Remington M700 BDL was the 50th<\/sup> Anniversary edition of both the M700 and the 7mm Remington Magnum. This rifle produced half-inch groups, straight out of the box with factory ammunition. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is possible other folks feel much the same. For some years the 7mm Remington Magnum was the world\u2019s most popular cartridge to bear the \u201cmagnum\u201d suffix. This is no longer true; the .300 Winchester Magnum<\/a> has surpassed it in overall popularity. I don\u2019t have the data to support a hypothesis that the .270 is currently more<\/em> popular than the 7mm Remington Magnum, but it wouldn\u2019t surprise me. The .270 seems to keep rolling along, and it is fact that Remington\u2019s Big Seven is not as popular as it was 20 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1984 Dall sheep Alaska: In 1984 I took my first Dall sheep with a beautifully restocked left-hand M700 in 7mm Remington Magnum. At the time this was one of my only rifles; I used it a lot with perfect results.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That said, the Big Seven is\na powerful, versatile, and effective hunting cartridge, and I have a lot of\nexperience using it. Over the years I\u2019ve used it in a lot of test rifles, some\nI hunted with and some not. However, for two periods I used it a great deal\nbecause that was the chambering of two favorite rifles. In the early 80s,\nliving in LA and working at Petersen Publishing, I had multiple burglaries and\nlost almost all my firearms. A fellow lefty in the LA SCI chapter suffered a\nsevere injury to his left eye, had to switch to right-handed shooting, and sold\nsome rifles. Being a bit short of rifles at the moment I bought two: A pre-\u201964\nModel 70 .375 converted to left-hand bolt, a rifle I used for years and should\nhave kept; and a left-hand Remington 700 in 7mm Remington Magnum in gorgeous\nwood with a left-hand cheekpiece and rollover comb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2000 Bishop mtn nyala: My old friend Joe Bishop used a battered Sako in 7mm Remington Magnum for all his mountain hunting, including for this mountain nyala in the high country of Ethiopia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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I used that rifle a lot,\nbut a few years later I had a chance at a gorgeous David Miller rifle I\ncouldn\u2019t resist, also on a left-hand M700 rifle. Just by chance it happened to\nbe chambered to 7mm Remington Magnum. Honest, that wouldn\u2019t have been my\nchoice, but the rifle wasn\u2019t made for me and the price was right. For\ndeer-sized game and African plains game it was my \u201cgo to\u201d rifle for years. The\ncartridge performed flawlessly\u2026as it has since introduced in 1962.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Using a new left-hand M700 X Custom, these are all five-shot groups fired with 168-grain Barnes LRX and 162-grain Hornady ELD-X. Both loads averaged under one inch for five-shot groups. I believe this \u201cmedium\u201d weight range gives the 7mm Remington Magnum its greatest versatility for both hunting and long-range target shooting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The fact that it might\nnot have been my first choice has nothing to do with its utility\u2014and it has\nbeen the first choice of many experienced hunters. Legendary sheep hunter Bert\nKlineburger (1926-2017) was a 7mm guy; he used his 7mm Remington Magnum to open\nmuch of the Asian sheep hunting available today. My old friend Joe Bishop, who\nleft us early this year, was another staunch 7mm fan. He had a marvelous collection\nof fine guns\u2014but he did his mountain hunting with a much-battered Sako in 7mm\nRemington Magnum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the SAAM shooting ranges at FTW Ranch in Texas the M700 X Custom in 7mm Remington Magnum, dialing a Swarovski scope, marched out 1000 yards with little difficulty. Much shooting at SAAM was done with a suppressor, a very pleasant experience.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Like most of the \u201cbelted\nmagnums,\u201d it\u2019s based on a .375 H&H case, shortened and necked down to 7mm.\nIn 1962 it was immediately seen as more versatile than Winchester\u2019s .264, with\nthe ability to use heavier bullets. Although it shoots very flat, it is not\nridiculously fast. Light 140-grain loads average about 3200 fps; 160-grain\nbullets run about 2950 fps; and the 175-grain heavyweight is standard at 2860.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In Tanzania in 2010 I used a Dakota M10 single shot in 7mm Remington Magnum. Here, Jaco Oosthuizen and I are set up waiting for a sitatunga to step into the clear. He was nearly 300 yards out in the swamp; we waited more than an hour before getting a shot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If I were hunting elk, I might step up to 175-grain bullets, but in truth I\u2019ve almost never used 7mm bullets over 165 grains\u2026and I\u2019ve done little elk hunting with this or any other 7mm! When I was shooting the 7mm Remington Magnum a lot I generally used 160-grain Nosler Partitions, Hornady 162-grain<\/a>, and 165-grain Sierra, trying to compromise between velocity\/trajectory and the high Sectional Density (SD) of these medium-weight bullets. To my thinking this is a very good bullet range for a fast 7mm. Bullets of 140 to 150 grains are fast and work just fine\u2026but .270 bullets of the same weight are only slightly slower and have higher SD. In the 7mm Remington Magnum, medium-weight bullets are superior in weight, velocity, and SD than anything you can fling out of a .270\u2026and have higher SD than 180-grain .30-caliber bullets\u2026with less recoil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although rarely for elk and never for moose or big bears, I used these medium 7mm bullets to take a lot of deer, some sheep and goats, caribou, a wide assortment of African antelopes, and the occasional black bear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This Dakota M10 single shot in 7mm Remington Magnum was as accurate as pretty. This is a good East African sitatunga, taken in Tanzania in 2010.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I predict neither the\ndemise nor a huge resurgence for the 7mm Remington Magnum. Modern shooters are\ndiscovering that unpleasant recoil isn\u2019t necessary for reasonable performance,\nwitness the runaway success of the 6.5mm Creedmoor and the slow, steady\nincrease of the 7mm-08\u2019s popularity (which also uses. 284-inch bullets).\nHowever, also witness the gradual ascendancy of the .300 Winchester Magnum and\nother fast .30s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On a recent caribou hunt John Boseman took the best bull in camp with a long shot from his 7mm Remington Magnum. Remington\u2019s \u201cBig Seven\u201d isn\u2019t as popular as it once was, but it\u2019s still a popular and extremely effective hunting cartridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the deal: You can take your pick and name your poison. The 7mm Remington Magnum is only slightly more powerful than the .270 Winchester and .280 Remington<\/a> (both great cartridges). However, it is significantly<\/em> more powerful, more capable, and more versatile than the mild 6.5mms and 7mms. It is less powerful, less capable, and less versatile than the fast .30s\u2026but it also kicks a lot less. What you<\/em> need depends largely on what and where you hunt and performance you\u2019re most confident in, but the current interest in long-range shooting continues to increase development in more aerodynamic bullets\u2026and the 7mm Remington Magnum has benefited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This Remington M700 X Custom is the first 7mm Remington Magnum rifle I\u2019ve owned in more than a decade. Recoil is considerably milder than the fast .30-calibers, and with modern aerodynamic bullets just about as effective.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps oddly, I haven\u2019t\nowned a 7mm Remington Magnum for years. However, regardless of how I feel about\nit, as a gunwriter and as a hunter who often uses \u201ccamp rifles,\u201d it\u2019s an unavoidable\ncartridge, a world standard\u2014and it performs. In 2010, in Tanzania, I used a\ngorgeous Dakota M10 single shot in 7mm Remington Magnum. It was an awesome\nrifle, as accurate as it was pretty. I wanted to buy it, but somebody else\nspoke first. In 2012, celebrating the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of the\nRemington M700 and<\/em> the Big Seven, I had in for test a simple and very\n\u201cretro\u201d M700 BDL in 7mm Remington Magnum. That rifle was astonishingly\naccurate, producing half-inch groups right out of the box. I should<\/em> have\nbought it, but it was a right-hand action, so I sent it back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So far this is the best five-shot group I\u2019ve gotten from the M700 X Custom, about four-tenths of an inch with Hornady\u2019s 162-grain ELD-X Precision Hunter load.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Right now, I have a new\nversion of the M700 from the Custom Shop, left-hand action with Shilen barrel\nand McMillan stock. I haven\u2019t hunted with it yet, but I used it at the FTW\nRanch in Texas, home of the SAAM training courses, and I\u2019ve spent a lot of time\nwith on my range. Using Swarovski Z8i scope with their Ballistic Flex Turret it\nwent straight to 700 yards with no hiccups, and then on to 1000 yards with\nlittle difficulty. So far, my best accuracy has been with 168-grain Barnes LRX\nand Hornady 162-grain ELD-X. The Barnes LRX has a high Ballistic Coefficient\n(BC) of .550, velocity over 2900, and consistent five-shot-group average under\nan inch. The 162-grain ELD-X has an off-the-charts BC of .630 and Hornady\u2019s\nPrecision Hunter load averaged 3030 fps. This load also holds a five-shot-group\naverage under an inch. As hunting bullets, the properties of these two bullets\nare different\u2026but there isn\u2019t much you couldn\u2019t do with either of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For years this gorgeous left-hand David Miller rifle in 7mm Remington Magnum was my \u201cgo to\u201d rifle for medium-sized game. This is my best-ever pronghorn, taken in west Texas with a tough shot from a sitting position at about 250 yards.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As has been the case\nsince 1962, the 7mm Remington Magnum is plenty powerful for the entire\ndeer-sheep-goat class of game at all sensible ranges; and fully adequate for\nelk and the full run of African plains game, perhaps excepting only eland. With\nmodern bullets, it\u2019s even better than ever. After years of doing most of my\nlong-range shooting with fast .30s and bullets from 180 to 200-grains, I found the\nBig Seven much more pleasant to shoot. I don\u2019t think the cartridge will ever be\namong my all-time favorites, but it\u2019s a fine hunting cartridge. It\u2019s been a\nwhile since I\u2019ve gone through a 7mm Remington Magnum phase, but this rifle could\nsend me into another one!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m on the record as stating (more than once!) that the 7mm Remington Magnum isn\u2019t one of my favorites. It\u2019s a popular cartridge so this always brings howls from its many fans. More importantly, at least to me, is that it\u2019s not good journalism\u2014or business\u2014to contradict myself. Since I\u2019ve been writing about this stuff for … Continue reading “REMINGTON\u2019S BIG SEVEN By Craig Boddington”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[7,101,21,24,47,15,3,35,72],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1111"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1194,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions\/1194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wholesalehunter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}