7mm LRM

I'm the guy jgal72 referenced earlier that rebarrelled back to 7mm RM. After years of turning necks, weight sorting, checking for runout, then spending way more money than I would have liked to in the process, I was still being perplexed at how a sub 1/2 moa rifle would randomly throw shots over 1 moa out of a group out during bench work and randomly blow primers with no apparent cause or reason.
I lost all confidence in using that rifle to shoot at anything with a pulse. I strive my hardest to only take a shot with a near certain probability of a kill within my skill set. That rifle just started to bother me with it's randomness and wondering if it is going to throw a shot in a hunting situation. I saved the barrel, but I don't know if I would put it back on another gun without punching it out to a 7RUM or 28 Nosler first. On Paper, the cartridge is awesome. Recoil is similar to a standard 7mm RM and gains about 100 fps with a comparable powder charge, but I could never figure out what plagued the darned thing. I'll lose 100fps for reliability any day.
 
I'm the guy jgal72 referenced earlier that rebarrelled back to 7mm RM. After years of turning necks, weight sorting, checking for runout, then spending way more money than I would have liked to in the process, I was still being perplexed at how a sub 1/2 moa rifle would randomly throw shots over 1 moa out of a group out during bench work and randomly blow primers with no apparent cause or reason.
I lost all confidence in using that rifle to shoot at anything with a pulse. I strive my hardest to only take a shot with a near certain probability of a kill within my skill set. That rifle just started to bother me with it's randomness and wondering if it is going to throw a shot in a hunting situation. I saved the barrel, but I don't know if I would put it back on another gun without punching it out to a 7RUM or 28 Nosler first. On Paper, the cartridge is awesome. Recoil is similar to a standard 7mm RM and gains about 100 fps with a comparable powder charge, but I could never figure out what plagued the darned thing. I'll lose 100fps for reliability any day.

My experience and thoughts EXACTLY. Did you notice Gunwerks does not even offer their new RevX gun line in their own 7 LRM caliber?
https://www.gunwerks.com/revx
 
I did notice that it's not chambered. I wish I knew what the issue truly is so this wouldn't sound like unsubstantiated bashing, but it is my personal experience.

I was disappointed with my time with the 7lrm chambering. The velocities I achieved were not close to what I was told to expect when agreeing to the build in the first place, that seems to be a common statement from several 7lrm owners. Add the undetermined flyers and pressure issues to the mix and that makes for a dog that won't hunt.

Although, It did seem like every time I talked to someone relating to tech support with my issues, I received different information every time. I asked if I needed to weight sort brass and I was told no. I weight sorted and got over ten grains of weight variation in my inital batch of 200 pieces. The last batch I received, after the weight sorting, was definitely better on the scale, but still blew a primer and had flier issues with that batch as well. It could have been the ELD-X bullets (Which I was told were shooting lights out) but that is a completely different story of expectations vs. reality. Once, I was told I don't need to neck turn brass, the next time, I do. I asked "Is there an issue going on with this chambering?" the answer I received was a firm "NO." Then, not too long down the road from asking about any issues they posted information on here about finding the source of their thick necks.

That last issue, in my opinion, is a safety issue. I really don't care if you know the cause yet or not, If I am shooting brass in my rifle that is out of spec. Please, let me know to stop shooting it before someone could get injured. I receive no direct line of contact about the problem, just read about it on a message board instead.

All that being said, the quality of the build was excellent and customer service was good. I own a G7 rangefinder and can't imagine hunting without it. Gunwerks makes good products, no question. My build and experience, certainly wasn't one of them though.
 
I have one built on a rem 700 action that I sent them. It is way more accurate then the two coopers I own and most of my customs.
 
If anyone is interested, I have some loaded ammo, brass and widden dies for the 7lrm. My rifle became a much larger animal.
 
For another option, maybe take a look at have it chambered in 7mm Blaser Mag. It has a tick more case capacity than the 7 Rem mag, Norma brass that is available and pretty easy to get, Redding dies and they are easily available too.

I had Defensive Edge Rifles build me one last fall. Used a LA Rem 700, Hart #4 finished at 26 inches and topped it off with a NF 5.5-22x50. Shawn gave it his +P throat design. Currently shooting RL26, 180 Bergers, and using 215M's. That load produces right at 3050fps out of a 26in. tube, shoots in the .3's relatively easy and using one of their brakes, recoil is VERY minimal.

IMO, the larger cases like the 28 Nosler and 7 RUM need a 28in tube to really start to shine. If you want to stay in the 26 inch range something like the 7mm Blaser mag will run right with them but with considerably less powder.

I went this same route with a 7mm blaser magnum and couldn't be happier. Fits easily in a standard long action, excellent brass and the performance level I was looking for. I use whidden dies. Here is the thread with load data. https://www.longrangehunting.com/threads/7mm-blaser-mag-reloading-data.199590/
 
Warning! This thread is more than 5 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Recent Posts

Top