DaleJ
Active Member
Curious! Why is a "long range hunter" stomping around and hunting brushy areas.
What is the most accurate barrel lngth,twist,weight,and load for the 7mm rem mag?
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DaleJ
Active Member
Depends on twist and bullet shank length. Go 33 inches. If velocity doesn't satisfy shorten barrel.
MudRunner2005
Well-Known Member
Some people use rifles for more than 1 purpose. Some people have to hike to their hunting location. This location might be through a forrest or wooded/brushy area...
Eagle eyes 17
Well-Known Member
View attachment 125895
My best results so far are with the Hornady 139gr Interbond factory ammunition at 100yd from an out of the box 7mm Rem.Mag. Mossberg Patriot Rifle. I like to keep my groups at least 3" high at 100 - 200yds.
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MTGEEZER
Well-Known Member
IMHO, when considering long barrels, you should consider barrel harmonics and barrel contour/construction, and, will you be adding a brake or suppressor? I have one old 7 Remmy with a thin sporter 24 inch barrel that will group good at 100 to 200 yards and then gets really bad beyond that, especially when shooting bullets of more than 140 grains. Just my thoughts based on the toys I have to play with.
7mm Rem Mag is an excellent cartridge and is relatively easy to load an extremely accurate load for.
To summarize:
There are several good barrel makers out there. Cut rifle vs button rifled doesn't matter. At this point in time a 1:8 or 1:7.5 twist will maximize the cartridges potential.
My current load is a 168gr Berger VLD hunter at 3.368 COAL, 69gr Retumbo w/ Fed 215 primers at 3024fps out of a 22" Benchmark barrel (straight taper from 1.25" down to 0.75" starting 3" forward of the tenon"
My personal experience is below.
I rebarrelled a 300 RUM to 7RM ~4 years ago before the ELDX/M existed, and I hadn't heard about the 180gr Berger Hybrids (Not sure but they may have been introduced while my rifle was being rebarrelled). At that time the Berger 168gr VLD pretty much the best thing going so I went with a 1:9 twist in a 27" Benchmark button rifled barrel. My initial load was 69.5gr H1000 at 3003fps, which was pretty consistent/accurate. Fast forward 4 years I got a couple form 1s approved and wanted to put a silencer on it. But a 27" barrel with a 6-8" can on it was wayyyyyyy too long for me to be practical and I didn't want to take the can on and off all the time. So after doing some reading (mainly based on the Army's experience and decision to run a 22" barreled 300 win mag in there XM2010) I decided to cut 5" off my barrel and thread it for my form 1'ed can. I decided to also change powders because with Retumbo people were getting ~100 more fps with similar charge weights. I was somewhat reluctant and apprehensive about doing this because I thought I'd neuter the cartridge's potential...but I was wrong. After cutting the barrel off and changing powders I'm actually running 21fps FASTER and I've never shot a more accurate and consistent rifle. Honestly, that thing might shoot in the .1s-.2s. I'm not sure. I haven't shot a group to measure at 100, but at 500...well you can judge for yourself. That's a 3 shot group. See the pic above.
If I were to build another (or when it's time to rebarrel this one) I'll go with a 22" 1:7.5 twist so I can shoot the 180gr ELD-M w/ a BC of 0.81...might even consider going to a 1:7 or 1:6.5 based upon what the guys shooting ELR are doing. Not sure if the bullet can handle that many rpms but its Sg would be such that it would probably be extremely stable through the transonic zone and therefore take a round that would already be supersonic to nearly a mile and extend it to 2000 yards or so. I'd be happy with that for life. I only know of a couple places I can shoot to a mile, none to 2000.
To summarize:
There are several good barrel makers out there. Cut rifle vs button rifled doesn't matter. At this point in time a 1:8 or 1:7.5 twist will maximize the cartridges potential.
My current load is a 168gr Berger VLD hunter at 3.368 COAL, 69gr Retumbo w/ Fed 215 primers at 3024fps out of a 22" Benchmark barrel (straight taper from 1.25" down to 0.75" starting 3" forward of the tenon"
My personal experience is below.
I rebarrelled a 300 RUM to 7RM ~4 years ago before the ELDX/M existed, and I hadn't heard about the 180gr Berger Hybrids (Not sure but they may have been introduced while my rifle was being rebarrelled). At that time the Berger 168gr VLD pretty much the best thing going so I went with a 1:9 twist in a 27" Benchmark button rifled barrel. My initial load was 69.5gr H1000 at 3003fps, which was pretty consistent/accurate. Fast forward 4 years I got a couple form 1s approved and wanted to put a silencer on it. But a 27" barrel with a 6-8" can on it was wayyyyyyy too long for me to be practical and I didn't want to take the can on and off all the time. So after doing some reading (mainly based on the Army's experience and decision to run a 22" barreled 300 win mag in there XM2010) I decided to cut 5" off my barrel and thread it for my form 1'ed can. I decided to also change powders because with Retumbo people were getting ~100 more fps with similar charge weights. I was somewhat reluctant and apprehensive about doing this because I thought I'd neuter the cartridge's potential...but I was wrong. After cutting the barrel off and changing powders I'm actually running 21fps FASTER and I've never shot a more accurate and consistent rifle. Honestly, that thing might shoot in the .1s-.2s. I'm not sure. I haven't shot a group to measure at 100, but at 500...well you can judge for yourself. That's a 3 shot group. See the pic above.
If I were to build another (or when it's time to rebarrel this one) I'll go with a 22" 1:7.5 twist so I can shoot the 180gr ELD-M w/ a BC of 0.81...might even consider going to a 1:7 or 1:6.5 based upon what the guys shooting ELR are doing. Not sure if the bullet can handle that many rpms but its Sg would be such that it would probably be extremely stable through the transonic zone and therefore take a round that would already be supersonic to nearly a mile and extend it to 2000 yards or so. I'd be happy with that for life. I only know of a couple places I can shoot to a mile, none to 2000.
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BallisticsGuy
Well-Known Member
Might as well have asked What's the best thing at being the best thing?
OP here's a nickel of free advice: Right now you're making the biggest mistake of your life. You're doing what I call "racing paper for fun and profit" and you will never accomplish either. Usually this stems from a highly superficial understanding of the topic in the first place. I'm not being a jerk, I'm trying to give you good advice.
Decide what it is you want to do and ask us how to do that. Stop thinking in terms of the most FPS or the smallest group size or anything like that. That's nothing but code for looking for a way to replace skill with equipment. If you stop trying to replace skill with equipment you'll find that you get everything you want and more. If you keep racing paper you'll end up with a horrible gun that doesn't do what you need when you need, costs more than it's worth and you will hate every minute of getting from here to there, particularly since you'll probably never get there with that strategy.
Part of the problem is that you, OP, don't seem to know some crucial details, like exactly how flexible a 7 Rem Mag is. 7RM does simply amazing work with everything from 100 grain varmint bullets to 195 grain big game bullets. It loves powders that are relatively fast (for a magnum) like IMR4895 (a powder commonly associated with mid-weight bullets in much littler non-magnum stuff like .308win and .223rem) with light bullets and it loves the slowest of the slow powders like US869 (common in stuff like .50BMG and ultra-overbore cases like .30-378 Weatherby) with the heaviest available 7mm bullets. It'll kill anything from dik-dik to dinosaurs like a sledgehammer, has great penetration capacity, moderate recoil and is easy as pie to load for as belted magnums go. 7RM is a chambering, not a whole rifle. There's a lot of parts in a good rifle. The most important of those is the dude carrying it.
corsair4360
Well-Known Member
I hunt elk in the Unita mountains of eastern Utah. Shots range from 20 yards to 500 yards depending upon where you are and where the elk are all within 5 miles. Some are wide open meadows, others are in lodgepole pine thickets. I shoot a 338 Win Mag in the Unitas, have a 1917 sporterized 30-06 and a 270 WSM as backup.
Waytoofar
Member
Proof carbon fiber, 26", 1:8.4 twist, Berger 175 Elite, and H1000 shoots a .22" at 200 yards for me.
Rem 700 action blueprinted and bedded.
Rem 700 action blueprinted and bedded.
entoptics
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2018
- Messages
- 846
You're confused. What you describe is obviously the 6.5 Creedmoor...
PApa Black
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- May 23, 2012
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BallisticsGuy
Well-Known Member
To hear some people tell it the 6.5CM is destined to replace the main gun on the M1 tank platform.
Eagle eyes 17
Well-Known Member
I would recommend the Remington 700 M40 Long Range Rifle - 7mm Remington Magnum with a 26" heavy contour barrel and a 1:9.25 twist. Weight is 9.25 lbs out of the box.
A good load for this 7mm Rem. Mag. is :
162gr. ELD Match
68gr. - H1000
3,000fps. - 0.652 B.C.
A good load for this 7mm Rem. Mag. is :
162gr. ELD Match
68gr. - H1000
3,000fps. - 0.652 B.C.
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Love the creedmore comment about it replacing the main gun on an M1 tank a few posts back... Aren't most of the creedmore's being renamed to the "needmore." Yes. I just swatted the hornets with the needmore for some afternoon fun.
In all honesty, I'm building a 7mm RM and like the info people have posted because I need to pick out a barrel.
In all honesty, I'm building a 7mm RM and like the info people have posted because I need to pick out a barrel.
