Thanks Mud, I was of the same mind set. That's why I kept building and testing 7mm's. Even lead a few good friends to this having them build 7mm's. Ask BignGreen. I had him all set, we have reamers ready, and I was going to change my 300 win over to a 7mm for the 195's. I felt this was the perfect deal for me in a mid sized magnum. But when we went to the field this year with both rifles, and started shooting elk, (at times 3 a night) we soon saw once again that, the 300 win with a 215 just kills better and faster. I then went back to my shop and cut open some 195's and 215's to try to make sense of this. The only difference I found other than the obvious .024" dia. and the 20 grains of weight was the 215 has a .400" deep void in the tip and the 195 has about .300" deep void. I compared impact velocities and wound channels. I believe both the 215 and 195 do better with impact velocities under 2500 fps to limit some expansion. I called a few trusted well informed people in the field for their input. They told me the same thing, the 30 cal kills better and quicker than the 7mm and the 338 will better them both. This came from some huge 7mm fans. The same fact I have witnessed over and over, more one shot kills with the 215. Especially if the placement is off a little. In fact, we now have 31 consecutive one shot kills on the 300 win with a 215. The 7mm never made it to 5 before we needed a finishing shot, and one took 3 as it was still alive when we got there. One yearling calf elk took two. Again, these were not perfectly placed shots, but this is the pattern. I have seen the same placement with a 215 from a 300 win result in quicker dispatch and no finishing shots. Not just once, but numerous times. I have a unique situation here. I escort hunter into the ranch for depredation elk hunts. We are at over 40 kills just this season and will have many more. The only one lost so far was a 7 STW with a 175 LRA bullet. I found it a week or so later. It ran off and we could not find it that night. I have made the decision that it is very hard to beat a 30 cal 215 for my needs in a midsized magnum. I invested many many hours and lots of $$ trying to improve or make a 7mm match the terminal performance. But I could not. Thus the reason I will be shooting the old 300 win from here on till I come up with a plan to beat it for my needs, if there even is one?
Please believe me when I say I wanted to make a 7mm work and had great hopes for one. But I have to be truthful to myself and believe what is in front of me over and over. I am not knocking anything. Just sharing true field results with many documented kills.
That's all I have to offer for an explanation. We all have the choice to take it or leave it. I have simply beat myself to the end, and have to believe what I see.
I will not debate it, I , like many, derived to my opinion from experiences. I hope some find my results useful and maybe some will benefit from it.
Good luck to all.
Jeff
