I have a stock Remington 700 adl in a 7mm rem mag that I converted to a bdl with B&C M40 stock, timney trigger, and vortex pst 6-24x50 sitting on top. I am wanting to rebarrel it after this hunting season, I have a pretty good load worked up for the 168 Bergers right now using 69 grains of h1000 getting right at 2900fps shooting 1/2 inch groups at 100 yards. I want to shoot the 168 and 180 Bergers 500-1500 yards at everything from coyotes to mule deer and maybe some elk one day. I can't decide if I should stick with the 7rm or go to something else like 7mm-300, 7stw, 7rum, 7lrm or anything else. I do like to shoot steel and practice so I don't want something that's going to burn a barrel up too too fast and I also want the gains in MV to out weight the cost to reload or the amount of powder used to get there . What do you guys think I should do? What barrel manufacturers would you stick with, length and contour would also help.
Thanks
Sorry I am just now getting back to you.
1,500 yards for deer and coyotes and hogs should be doable with a 7mm STW and 180-195 grain bullets, according to my ballistics calculator. I have not shot anything that far, so I can't give you any guarantees...But on paper it looks sufficient. With the 195's moving 3,000 fps MV, your max yardage (following the 1,300 fps rule) should land you right at a mile (1,760 yards). With the 180's moving the same, about 1,500 is where they top-out.
I don't think the 7mm RM would have quite enough energy needed to reach out that far, unless you were able to achieve 3,000 fps velocity (or higher)...
If you like the 7mmRM and plan on (realistically) doing most of your hunting and shooting 1,000 yards and in, the 7mmRM with the 180's will be fine. If you get the 180 Hybrids moving around 3,000 fps MV, then at 1,000 yards, you should still have around 1,753 fps Vel. and 1,229 Lbs. Ft. of Energy. Which should be more than enough to kill deer-sized game.
The 7mm-300 WinMag is a good option, and should be directly in between the 7mm RemMag and the 7mm STW, when it comes to performance.
IMO, the 7mm LRM is too proprietary. Brass is too hard to find, and Gunwerks claims it has it listed on their website, but every time I've been there, it was still nowhere to be found (maybe they've updated that, since then?).
The 7mmRUM is too much of a barrel burner and has too many negatives to outweigh the positives. This is simply my personal opinion...For what it's worth.
The .28 Nosler is also looking promising.
