7mm on elk

[gary brezinski]

sir,
can and how does a 7mm on the 300 weatherby or the rem ultra stack up to 1000 yd shooting of these animals?would the prem bullets do a good job or would the bench rest bullets be better?say 28 to 30 inch barrel is i would be say be best.the pem bullets i could use would be nosler partion or barns x.how much energy do you realy need for this caliber?
gary b.

[PrimeTime]

Gary-
If you use the 180 grain Berger VLD which has a BC of .7 and you launch it from a 30 inch tube at 3,000fps (should be achievable from the Ultra) you have almost 1300 pounds of energy at 1,000 yards. I don't know what the formulas are for calculating needed energy for clean kills on elk but, I can guaruntee you they'll go down if you hit them in the right spot with that much energy.
Hope this helps.
Sam

[Len Backus]

Or...use Lost River Ballistic's more solidly constructed 160 grain bullet with its .715 BC.

As of 2 days ago I finally have a properly twisted and chambered barrel that shoots them into 1/2 moa vertical group size at 500 and 700 yards. Won't be able to try them at 900 yards until after my deer season which starts tomorrow.

Anyway, 7mm Ultra at 3,450 fps from a 30 inch Hart stainless, 7 twist barrel. At an elevation of 8,000 feet and a range of 1,000 yards energy is still 2,140 ft/lbs. That's about the same as a 30/06 at 2 or 3 hundred yards. I think that will work quite well. The reduced drift from wind should be awesome. Computes to only 29 inches for 10 mph sidewind at 1,000 yards. My very small amount of experience tells me wind drift is the limiting factor for long range first-shot kills.

[Brent]

I was disapointed to find no loading data in the new Barnes #3 manual for the 7MM RUM, although it does have the 300, 338, 375 RUM data.

I would be tempted to use a premium bullet to between 500 and 800yds depending on muzzle vel. after that terminal velocity decreases and so would the expansion diameter, so a 1500yd shot would need less energy to penitrate because dia. is closer to 7MM than to a probable 12MM 300yd shot.

Just my theory.

Len, that's a very impressive setup you've got there, SMOKIN! I'm trying not to be envious once again. You are becoming my hero!