7WSM vs 7mm Rem Mag

[imohunting]

I am putting together a rifle for long range shooting and am hung up on a few things. I want to go with a predator action, but am not very familiar with them. I am going to run 180 grn bergers and what to get the most out of them, so will I be better to run a 7WSM in a long action so I can stretch out the bullet? Or is that predator long action long enough that there wouldn't be any issues with the 7 Rem Mag? Thanks for the help

 

[lloydsmale]

considering most of the long actions with the exception of rugers will take the 7stw which is considerably longer it leaves lots of room for seating out bullets in the 7 rem mag.

 

[J E Custom]

If you are going to use 180 grain bullets I feel that the 7 Rem Mag would be a better choice.

The 7 WSM is very close ballistically to the 7 Mag with the lighter bullets, But for the heavy
weights the 7 Mag comes out on top.

Brass and loaded ammo is a lot easier to find for the 7 Mag and a long action works well with
no feeding problems.

The advantage of the 7 WSM comes when you use a short action (Short and Light).

J E CUSTOM

 

[sj-pratt]

The Stiller Actions come with the extended magazine boxes and I haven't had a lot of feeding issues with 7MM WSM. I have built a dozen 7MM wsm last year and with 180 bergers they get 2950-3000 without pressure signs and thats where Bergers seem to shoot well. The 7mm Mags
have worked better for me with the 160 Accubonds and I have video of one shot kills at 900 yards with that load, so either one is a viable choice.
Good luck with your build.

Steve

 

[imohunting]

Awesome, thanks for the info guys!

 

[MachV]

Real world vrs what the books say. My shooting partner shoots a Tika 7mag and a shaw barreled Savage. After a lot of load work he has settled on a 160GK for the 7Mag and uses the 180grain Berger load I had worked up for the shaw before selling him the 7WSM. We put them through the crony the other day and had some interesting results...
The Savage with its bull barreled 7WSM outshoots the 7 Mag but not by much,they both group great!
The 7mag sends the 160GKs out at 2750 and the 7WSM sends the 180 grain Bergers out at 3005fps. Now we know the Tika has a slow barrel on it as all loads are short of what thet should be but the cheap Shaw 7WSM is doing great!!
Sometimes life is what it is.........

 

[mgdhunter]

I'm surprised you say that the 160 Grain GK only shoots at 2750. I shoot the same bullet at 3050 in my 7mm Rem Mag. Great bullet and great accuracy.

 

[MachV]

Might just be that barrel on the Tika as it shoots a lot of different loads OK but the groups seam to tighten up as he lowers the powder. I have yet to see one of the loads get past 2900 let alone the 3000 I get with the Ruger with a lot of different combo's. Now granted he is kinda new to reloading and does not chase velosity but???
Like I said real world results can put one above the other even though the books say otherwise.....Just depends on what the barrel wants and how far the operator wants to push it!

 

[imohunting]

Have you guys tried the 168 grn bergers in the 7wsm? What kind of velocities are they getting and do they shoot as good as the 180's?

 

[MachV]

Have not tryed the 168s...Put 61 grains of H4831sc in a Winchester case with a WLR primer and set the Hunting VLD .025 off the lands and hit paydirt on the first try with the 7WSM!! The crony read 299?-3004 on five shots that went into literly one hole.......Should have kept that barrel but my 7mag is shooting the 180s with 67 grains of Retumbo into just about one hole @ 2945-3003. It should settle down when I get the neck tension figured out.

 

[sendero72]

One of the rifle builders on this forum has a special reamer for the 180 gr and gets 3000-3050 fps out of his 7 mags. Just have to do a search. Wish I could remember his name. Sorry!

 

[captacademy]

That will be Travis from RBros. His 7 mag's have those speeds with 180 VLD's.

 

[DPO]

7wsm 168 bergers out of my 24" with 70gr retumbo im getting 2940fps

 

[snojnke]

OK I'm confused I shoot the 7mm Dakota with 73.5 gr of H-1000 and am only getting 3050 on the chrono out of 27.5" brux barrel. This must be a pretty mild load considering the case capacity of the Dakota.