Anyone own a 7mm 300 Win Mag?

From the same rifle on average we get 3100+ from a 180 H VLD and 2950 to 3000 from a 195. In side the effective limits of a 7mm for hunting its about a wash, in my opinion.

Jeff

I lack both the scientific expertise of a Bryan Litz-type feller as well as lacking the field, on-game at-range experience of a feller like Broz to substantiate my opinion.

However, my complete lack of a reasonable, substantive rationale does not impede my hubris!

In my obviously humble opinion, i believe anything more than 180grs in a 7mm/.284 bullet is just too much weight - regardless of whether there is enough powder to push it fast.

I think 180grs in 7mm is the threshold of diminishing returns in terms of weight as well the necessary velocity to push something that long to effective velocities.

It seems to me that bullets which approximate pencil length just is not optimal for shoulder fired rifles - regardless of caliber.
 
I lack both the scientific expertise of a Bryan Litz-type feller as well as lacking the field, on-game at-range experience of a feller like Broz to substantiate my opinion.

However, my complete lack of a reasonable, substantive rationale does not impede my hubris!

In my obviously humble opinion, i believe anything more than 180grs in a 7mm/.284 bullet is just too much weight - regardless of whether there is enough powder to push it fast.

I think 180grs in 7mm is the threshold of diminishing returns in terms of weight as well the necessary velocity to push something that long to effective velocities.

It seems to me that bullets which approximate pencil length just is not optimal for shoulder fired rifles - regardless of caliber.

Could be 195 is too much. Kinda like the 90 gr 224 projectiles. The 80 gr SMK revolutionized High Power competition making the M-14 obsolete. Then Sierra came out with the 90 which never could beat the 80. Maybe a 185-190?
 
Distance is the deciding factor then. Run the numbers I gave you in the prior post, in a ballistic calculator and see where the higher BC of the 195 becomes an advantage. Or just do like I do now and shoot a 300 win mag with 215 Bergers.:)

Jeff

I don't have anything too run them on. I guess I need to get quickload & quickdesign, but they are right proud of that software. I have used the Nikon spot on app before but they don't have the 195 in their database yet.
I'm accumulating parts slowly to build a 7 mm toy with. So far I have a Savage long action with integral Weaver bases, stripped from a 7 RM sporter. The factory blind mag box is only 3.450" but I'm going too toss that. Planning on a MDT HS3 chassis with Accuracy International type mags. The outside dimension of these mags is 3.710", not sure about interior dimensions, probably about 3.6XX" The Remington 700 is longer, but I like the Savage. Most people dislike the looks of the Savage. Cheap looking & that barrel nut. If I was building a classic looking walnut stocked hunting rifle I'd agree, but that's what my model 70 featherweight is for.:D. This is going to be an industrial looking tool. That barrel nut makes it a lot easier for gun nuts to change their own barrels & order barrels pre-chambered.

I bought a scope last night @ Cabelas for this. I thought I got a screaming good deal, but now after getting it home & looking it over I'm not so sure. Through a combination of on sale, military discount, accumulated Cabelas bucks, it being a discontinued model, the last one they had, the display, I got a around 600$ Burris 30 mm MTAC 4-14X tactical scope for 250$. It's a mil-mil scope which I'm familiar with & trained on, but actually prefer MOA. Anyway after getting it home & reading the manual the retical is not pure mils. The horizontal crosshair is pretty much normal mil dots & hash marks as is the upper half of the vertical. But the lower half of the vertical crosshair is calibrated with hash marks for Hornady Varmint express 22-250 55 gr VMAX @ 3680 fps factory ammo to 700 yds. Naturally nothing on the box or the scope itself mentioned this. It's only mentioned on the last page of the manual. I find that a very odd choice for a tactical scope? I can only guess that Burris might have had a contract with some city's PD that uses this for duty ammo? Urban police snipers seldom shoot over 100 yds & they worry a lot about overpenatration & collertal damage. Maybe this scope is a contract overrun?
 
Wow, page 89. This has to be the longest thread ever.

Firstly, I need to apologize for not dropping by sooner. I see also me email must have bounced one private message. My sincere apologies to Clucknmoan for missing your questions.

Regarding the 195 grain. We now have a number of shooters in New Caledonia who have taken to the 7mm Practical for competition work. These rifles came back to NZ for rebarreling at True-Flite recently. One had 4000 rounds through it. The throat had grown by a good quarter inch but it still shot well to 800 yards.

The Practical was proving effective 1600 m / 1800 yards but some wished to push things further. The big question then became, "what if we switch to 8 twist and adopt the 195gr bullet for 2000m shoots. The goal being to avoid transonic speeds.

I have never been a huge fan of 8 twist in the fastest sevens. A lot can go wrong and can limit a shooter to just one or two pills. If the barrel does not like that one (or two) pills, the rig may be a bust, a lot of money gone down the tube, quite literally. So we talked about risks and also talked about the 175gr ELD-X as a back up bullet should the rifles like another flavor. The guys then went ahead with their builds. Chambers were cut so that the COAL suited the typical M700 mag length, another was cut with longer freebore specifically suited the 195gr- quite a commitment.

The net result is that all are going well with the 8 twist and the 195 grain bullet weight and are working well out long. Velocities are good, over 3000fps with the 3.780 OAL rifle. The rifles are being used to 1600m. We are still waiting for 2k reports.

Clucknmoan asked- what about the number of grooves and the many arguments?

In my experience, less is more. The very best results I have seen are with the True-Flite 4 groove canted. This is the least finicky bore design I have come across for the 7mm magnums. The transitions from load to load tend to be smoother rather than for example, 78gr producing .3" while 78.2 and 78.5gr produced dramatically larger groups. In other words, less load sensitivity. These bores are simply easier to work with and less fussy as to which bullet is used.

As for myself. I am rapidly becoming a fan of the 175gr ELD-X with its wide hollow point which helps ensure expansion at lower impact velocities. However, I won't be shifting to 8 twist any time soon.

The 7mm-300 / Practical just never fails to please. Recently, I have spent a good deal of time back behind the .338 Edge, grain for grain identical to the Lapua, testing new bullet designs. I have also been spending time behind the .300 Win Mag testing various bullets including the environmentally friendly DRT bullet as I have blogged on youtube. But I have to say, I do miss the Practical when it is left at home. It simply performs so well in the field.

Again, my apologies for missing the many pages and questions on this thread. From the little bits that I have seen, I do notice that some have jumped a long way down the technical rabbit hole. Try to remember to have fun with this. I named my version the "practical" for these very reasons. Load it and go. And by go, I mean go out and have some fun. Bed your rifle, set the trigger light and crisp, mount some decent optics. Follow basic reloading steps and check concentricity of ammo using any one of the many available concentricity gauges. If you don't know what to do about dies, simply neck down a few .300 cases in a Hornady 7mm Mag neck die, then send the cases and bullets to Lee. They will soon make inexpensive neck and seating dies to suit your needs. Once you are all set to go, the rest comes down to you and your shooting technique. Practice is the key thereafter.

I am sure you guys have been in good hands with Jeff (Broz).

All the best, Nathan Foster.

 
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[ame]https://youtu.be/kCvbJkrpOhE[/ame]

Out for some fun with the 7mm-300win last year.


On a side note I bought some 212eldx to try in another rig as they are cheaper than the bergers but the weights and bearing surface were not as consistent as the bergers.

Has anyone tried measuring the 7mm 175 eld x?
 
I got 200 of the 175g ELDX for my 7-300 directly from Hornady.

I had bought 3000 of the 162g Hornady BTHP for my comp gun and gone thru about 1900 of those and got into a separate lot #. I hadn't measured a Hornady or Berger bullet in 5-6 years because it was a waste of time. They were always spot on.

So imagine my dismay to find that, PERHAPS, the reason for the larger groups I was seeing and difficulty attaining uniform seating depth, was the fact that the last lot of 162g had base to ogive differences of 20-30 thousandths. NOT acceptable to me NOR to Hornady upon contacting them.

They promptly sent me 1100 of the new ELD-M in 162g to replace the defective 162g BTHP.... and.............since I sniveled a little about the local unavailability of the 175 ELDX for my 7-300, they kindly included them as well, no questions asked, nor any rebuff of any sort! GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE!

I tell you all this because (1) I told the rep that I would give Hornady customer service a shout out and (2) To let you know that I did, INDEED, measure all 200 of the 175 ELDX's. There were may 6-8 (can't remember the exact number as it's been a little while now) that were .0005 difference..... Good enough for the girls I go with.

I have had great success w/ the 180g VLD from Berger. As I mentioned, I got tired of measuring bullets out of a yellow box AND the red box bullets.
They were all the same.

I might also mention that for many years back in the 1980's my wife and I shot IHMSA matches and many thousands of Hornady 154g bullets without a glitch.
The Amaxes and BTHP I used in comps beginning in 2009 had all measured spot on.

Don't have a definitive narrative on the 175g ELDX out of the 7-300 yet. I was getting great accuracy w/ the 180bergers at 3060fps and hope to push the 175 at that or faster to take advantage of the great BC.

Good luck on whatever you decide to do w/ yours.


https://youtu.be/kCvbJkrpOhE

Out for some fun with the 7mm-300win last year.


On a side note I bought some 212eldx to try in another rig as they are cheaper than the bergers but the weights and bearing surface were not as consistent as the bergers.

Has anyone tried measuring the 7mm 175 eld x?
 
That is exactly the info I was looking for thanks. I stocked up on thousands of various bergers in the different calibers I shoot but was thinking about the 175's just to have a bit of fun developing a load again.

Thanks for the response.
 
I suspect 1 in 8" might be overkill for the 195s. 8.5" should be good to go. 9" might do. Speed is also a factor in achieving enough rpms to stabilise. Since I'm going with a Savage action instead of a Remington, I'm thinking about intially chambering in 7mm Weatherby. I'm too tight to pay Weatherby's price for brass though. I'll make them from Win 300 Win mag brass. When the throat goes south, I'll extend the neck on the brass up into the burnt out throat & Weatherby freebore by making a reamer with 7 mm Weatherby specs but a longer neck. I love the concept of you're 7 mm practical, but the Accuracy International mags I'm going to be using are 3.715" on the outside. I think inside length is going to be around 3.600"-3.675" & I'm going to have to mill the action out a bit just to accommodate them. I like a long neck more than getting a couple of grains more powder. My theory is a long neck will extend barrel life & help accuracy by holding the long 195 straighter as it bridges the freebore. I've shot many 1,000 yds competitions with the 30-338 shooting against 300 Win mag. I always felt the longer neck gave me more barrel life & a bit more accuracy.
 
It seems to me that 7 mm Weatherby is a good velocity increase over 7 mm Remington magnum. 7 mm-300 (practical incl) is a slight bump up from the Weatherby. After that there just isn't much if anything to be gained by trying to stuff more powder behind a 7 mm bullet. The 7 mm-300 also has a tremendous advantage over the other big 7s, affordable, available brass.
 
It seems to me that 7 mm Weatherby is a good velocity increase over 7 mm Remington magnum. 7 mm-300 (practical incl) is a slight bump up from the Weatherby. After that there just isn't much if anything to be gained by trying to stuff more powder behind a 7 mm bullet. The 7 mm-300 also has a tremendous advantage over the other big 7s, affordable, available brass.

It's not as big of an increase as supporters and reloading manuals like to admit. As a matter of fact, it's within 25-30 fps of my 26" 7mm RemMag (3,115 MV w/ 168 VLD).

The only steps up that makes any real difference from the 7mm RemMag, is the 7-300 Win Mag. Then up to the .28 Nosler/7mm STW/7-300 Weatherby.

Modern components have brought the "antiquated" 7mm RemMag up to where it is one of the more efficient and dominant 7mm chamberings available today. Quality brass is available everywhere, and is significantly cheaper than Weatherby brass.
 
Yea, I won't pay for Weatherby brass, looks to me like you could use 7RM brass, but you'd have a short neck until you reload it a few times or you could make it from 300 Win brass, but you'll have a lot of trimming, reaming & or neck turning. The main advantage of 7 mm Weatherby over 7 mm RM is a longer neck.
 

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