7mm STW Brotherhood - For those who shoot the 7mm Shooting Times Westerner

I figured out the problem. I have two guns. Different chambers. I fire formed in the first one and try to reload into the second one this did not work. I figured it out and now I will buy 2 dies and separate the brass. Thank you for your help

No need to buy a second die, Just buy a set of redding competition shell holders .
 
No need to buy a second die, Just buy a set of redding competition shell holders .

What will that do for me?? The shoulder is slightly changed and I really don't want to move the die setting each time. That's why I want another dies set. Already ordered it from midway.

Thanks for the input.
 
Got a question for you guys. Anyone out there using a detachable mag on your Rem. 700 STWs? Mine started as a 700 sps then I put a Bell and Carlson medalist stock on it. The internal box has been fine for hunting but I'm looking to try these precision rifle matches a and want to run mags. Anyone know the best route to convert?
 
Got a question for you guys. Anyone out there using a detachable mag on your Rem. 700 STWs? Mine started as a 700 sps then I put a Bell and Carlson medalist stock on it. The internal box has been fine for hunting but I'm looking to try these precision rifle matches a and want to run mags. Anyone know the best route to convert?
Probably Wyatt or Badger. It's going to take a good bit of stock modification to get any of these to work. H-S Precision also I think makes a DBM/Bottom metal assembly that would be worth a look.
 
I got my Sept 1989 issue of Shooting Times and there was Layne Simpsons article.

Nobody was making them BUT I had a Ruger #1 "S" Medium Sporter with the Alex Henry fore arm, sights, barrel band sling attachment AND a factory 26" barrel. If you have the original magazine Simpsons second STW was simply a rechambered #1 and he recommended it as the cheap easy way to try it.

It wasn't that cheap or easy. I had to buy the reamer for the smith because of course he didn't have one. At the time RCBS had the dies but they were Group "G" Custom dies and cost $158! I rounded up 100 8mm Rem Mag cases by the time the smith had the rifle ready in early November.

I didn't get to do much load work before hunting and used Simpsons published 140 grain Nosler load. It shot right at MOA and I went hunting. I killed a decent 4x4 mulie and 6x6 bull that November.

I don't use it all the time but any time I think the range is really going to be stretching things, I pack my STW.

I got a lot of flack from friends and family for a few years and all the crap about not needing anything that big. Then in 1991 my Cousin Wayne drew a late season tag in Owyhee County for mule deer. That late the snow is usually on the ground and you hunt by running the rim rocks of the buttes. Maybe the buck will be 100 feet away straight down below your feet and sometimes they are down below the chaparral in the high sage 300+ yards away. I talked Cousin Wayne into using my STW rather than his 270 Win. On the third day his buck got up at the bottom of the sage. BOOM!! I was watching. He lost the sight picture under recoil and didn't seeit hit or the deer go down and assumed he had missed. Heck I saw it go through him AND heard that 140 Nosler hit him. Wayne was in a panic. I "suggeted" we go look ad start trailing him. He just about fell over when we got down there. First he saw the blood spray out across the snow, then his buck. A 28" 4x4 with a 49" chest girth. He had me find him a #1 and had his built by the next season. Years later when we got our first laser range finder we checked from where the buck was to the rim, 358 yards.

Since then the smith has built 13 more on #1s for other family members. He uses the same reamer and they are all throated exactly he same so the ammo interchanges from rifle t rifle. At about rifle #5 I started doing some serious load work. We switched to 150s. We/I have used almost all the premium bullets and all the newer slower powders as they came out, Retumbo, H100, RL24 etc but we settled on IMR7828 and Noslers, right where we started. We did switch to IM7828SC when it came out. By the way the load we use is published in the original article and is safe in a #1 but it's about 4 grains over anything published in a current manual.

Some of the cousins or brothers have tried bolt guns but a 26"-28" barreled mag action bolt gun isn't all that handy or light. My brother bought a Model 70 when they came out. WE were worried about the magazine. That wasn't the problem the problem was it was throated even longer than my #1 and stuff that fit the magazine well was SAAMI but it wasn't anywhere near the lands and accuracy suffered. He sold it and the smith re chambered another Ruger #1 from 7mm Rem Mag.

As for scopes it seems most wear some variation on a 3x9 Leupold (3.5-10 etc) predicated on age and Model.

I did buy 2 factory #1s when Ruger finally brought them out in 2004. The problem was they brought it out in stainless/laminate the KB model and it was only made for the one year before being discontinued. I sold one to Cousin Dan and kept the other NIB.

The part that is funny was I talked to the Ruger people including Bill Sr.at the SHOT Show in Vegas, in 1993 and encouraged them to bring out the 7mm STW instead of losing the sale to used rifles in 7mm Mag. They didn't seem very interested. When the did finally bring it out the new had worn off and it was a slow seller. Of course one of the 500 made demands a premium price, NOW.

Out of all the rifles I own I find myself hunting with the same 5 or 6 95% of the time. One of those is the original #1 "S" I had made in 1989.

Each year I go out and shoot 5 through it. Then I shoot another 3-5 hunting. The rifle and the original barrel will outlive me.

RWT
 
Welcome and well written. That is the same article that gave me the bug. I still have my first STW as well, a 700 Stainless/engraved from the custom shop. It still shoots amazingly well with the original factory barrel as well.

I like shooting it so much though I doubt it'll outlive me but I'll have fun with the rebarreled version for sure and it will.
 
Anybody having any luck getting brass? New brass even in 8 mag seems rare right now. I can't see myself buying the nosler custom stuff. That must be plated with unobtanium and forged in the heart of a dying star!
 
Anybody having any luck getting brass? New brass even in 8 mag seems rare right now. I can't see myself buying the nosler custom stuff. That must be plated with unobtanium and forged in the heart of a dying star!
I settled up on enough 7stw brass before the panic that I don't need to worry... But the best way right now is forming h@h brass to 7stw or paying up for nosler.
 
What will that do for me?? The shoulder is slightly changed and I really don't want to move the die setting each time. That's why I want another dies set. Already ordered it from midway.

Thanks for the input.
They are in .002 increments and don't let the shell go in the die 2,4,6,8,10 thousands at a time. Same as backing your die off. You can also use them with other mag guns.
 
second post and i love the site but love the brotherhood better, but Sorry to change subject. I am building another 7mm stw due to the one we had built in 92 is pretty much smoked. I have the reciever on its way to have another barrel built. So a quickie here. I an looking at a remington varmint 007 contour and at 28" with no muzzy break at this time and will be for hunting more than anything but for some steel too. I will be running retumbo with 180 gr berger vld with a 1-9 twist. Now im thinking of maybe going 30" that if i do want a muzzy on it. From what i see some smiths will cut a 1" to 1.5" and add a break and some dont cut and just thread and screw a muzzy on. What do you all think. Is 30" too much for my thinking? I have not even looked into breaks as it not really priority now. But maybe in future. Thanks fellas a and keep the brotherhood rollin.
 
second post and i love the site but love the brotherhood better, but Sorry to change subject. I am building another 7mm stw due to the one we had built in 92 is pretty much smoked. I have the reciever on its way to have another barrel built. So a quickie here. I an looking at a remington varmint 007 contour and at 28" with no muzzy break at this time and will be for hunting more than anything but for some steel too. I will be running retumbo with 180 gr berger vld with a 1-9 twist. Now im thinking of maybe going 30" that if i do want a muzzy on it. From what i see some smiths will cut a 1" to 1.5" and add a break and some dont cut and just thread and screw a muzzy on. What do you all think. Is 30" too much for my thinking? I have not even looked into breaks as it not really priority now. But maybe in future. Thanks fellas a and keep the brotherhood rollin.
The only down side to the 30" barrel is if you are trying to carry the rifle in heavy cover.

Do yourself a favor and get them to leave it full diameter at the breech end an extra inch or so and that way if you shoot it out you can just cut it off and set it back a time or two.

Add a Snowy Mountain Rifles Muzzle brake and you'll be in love with the whole thing.
 

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