7mm WSM or 7mm rem mag?

[brian923]

i sorry if this comes up alot, but i tried a search, and didnt find anything. though, this could be me. probably is. anyways, i was think of building one of the above mention, but i just cant seem to be able to pick. i would love to just build both, but i cant afford that.
thwe rifle will be used for paper shooting, as well as hunting. but, i live in great ol' illinois, so i wont hunt with it as much as shoot it for fun, i would just like to have the rifle if i ever do get to go hunting in another state.

i have herd that the 7mm rem mag is better with the hevy bullets. and it looks like the WSm takse the cake with the lite bullets. what would you say would have to be the bullet weight (length) to hunt mulies, and elk? maybe even black bear... i know these have benn taken with .308's, so would a 140, or 150 grn bullet work? which one is easyier on barrels? which is easier to find both in stores and handloading stuff.

thanks alot guys, all info is greatly appreiciated.

brian

[shooterpunk2]

I would personally take the 7 remington mag. ammo is cheaper and easier to find and like you said can push the heavier bullets faster. plus it's a tried and trued round and will be around forever. i feel some of the wsm's won't be around forever.

[James Jones]

The old Rem mag does have a slight advantage with the heavier bullets due to the added capacity but it has that damn belted case , its also alot more common to see in stores ammo wise.

The WSM does have a pretty good track record in long range target shooting with the heaver bullets like the 168 and 180gr Bergers both of wich will cleanly kill deer at 1000+yds. It has a great case desgine probably slightly better case and barrel life easier to reload with out that damn belted case. Ammo is not nearly as plentifull though.

If it were me I'd choose the 7mmWSM simply due to the reloaders point of view , you can load some 160gr Nosler Accu-Bonds to 2900-3000 fps and kill everything in North America pretty well , (would probably choose otherwise on a big Grizz though)
Load up the 180gr Bergers to 2900fps and it'll realy shine at the long ranges.
build on a Long action though so that you can seat those spear like bullet way out with no troubles impeading on the powder.

[gbp]

+1 on what James said

[blipelt]

never had a rem mag, but have reloaded for them for friends and shot several. I own one 7wsm for long range shooting and one light for mountain hunting is being built. Yes I like them that much. I shoot 162 amax. Like james said if you go with a wsm get a long action and a center feed clip. If you however aren't going to be reloading they can get expensive at about $35 a box here in ND.

Brent

[JeffVN]

I shoot the 7WSM, but not the 7WM.

If limited to a factory chamber and factory rifle, I'd go with the 7WM, as the added case capacity will allow you to get the most out of the heavy bullets 175 Sierra and 180 Berger, etc.

If you can have a custom chamber cut, then I would go with a long throated 7 WSM built on a long action to maximize available capacity in that chambering (base to ogive of 2.441" or so). With the long-throat option you will not give up much, if any velocity to the 7WM (unless 3,000 fps+ with the Berger 180 is not fast enough for you, in which case the 7WM is your ticket to hapiness), and you'll get there burning less powder.

JeffVN

[J E Custom]

Brian

They are both very close together in performance and most
people use bullets in the 140gr to 160gr range for these cartriges
so there's no real advantage to the 7mm rem mag over the 7WSM.

I have both and they benefit from longer barrels,So if I had to
recomend one or the other for your purpose it would have to be
7 WSM because in most cases when hunting barrel length can
become an issue and with the short action a 26" barrel is not two
ungainly.

You can get by with a 24" barrel on ether if you use the 140, 150 and
160gr bullets and the short action 7 WSM with a 24" tube makes a
neat package.

If you were going to shoot targets only then I would recomend a 7mm
Rem Mag with a 30" heavy taper barrel and 168gr+ bullets.

I biuld a lot of 7WSM,s on 24'' barrels and they shoot realy well under
all types of use.

Just my opinion
J E CUSTOM