New barrel for a Remington 700 : suggestions?

[meles meles]

Thinking ahead, oomans, what might make a good , alternative calibre when the time comes to re-barrel our Remington 700 ? It's currently in 7mm Rem Mag and has served us well in that form but following our acquisition of a .338 Lapua Magnum it's now no longer our primary long ranger artillery piece. It's in an AICS stock and obviously has a magnum bolt face. We can either have it re-barrelled in 7mm Rem Mag again and carry on using it as our 600 to 1,000 mard gun, or go for something different. Wh

at would you suggest, and why ?

[Ronin]

Any of the magnum bolt face cartridges would suit your rifle.

 

Perhaps consider 7/300 WSM (if you like reloading and forming brass) or go straight 7WSM or 300 WSM for more efficent approach to the long belted magnums

 

Though 7mm Rem Mag is still a favourite with me, I believe more accuracy may be obtained from the WSM case - if the rifle is for target and not killing

[meles meles]

Yes, the rifle will be for perforating paper and clanging steel. We like the 7mm Rem Mag cartridge, but are now just wondering what other options might be worth considering for the future.

[Ronin]

Then I’d suggest 7/300 wsm (270 or 300 wsm brass necked appropriately to take the 7mm case do ine utilised the longer neck of the 270/300 wsm brass 

This is something that’s been used extensively in F class and BR shooting so proven accuracy (as is 300 WSM)

 

You could also look at 7mm a blaser magnum (not to be mistaken with the rimmed case) 

Possibly 6.5 or 300 PRC whixh I think a bit of s passing fad 

[meles meles]

The 300 WSM sounds worthy of further investigation ! An alternative thought might also be to get a standard bolt and look at going in the other direction towards a smaller calibre and leaving the heavy lifting to our 338 Lapua. We don't have a .223 rifle, and we've also heard good things about the .224 Valkyrie, both from Baldie's posts here and also from others who have seen him shoot with it. That could fill a niche...

[Ronin]

Cheaper to replace the action with another than source a replacement bolt for a Remington anyway and unless you find a long action Rem with 223 bolt face which will be a factory one off the conversion of magnum face to 223 would involve brazing a bushing in and re machining the pocket for standard extractor 

 

Again cost prohibitive when you factor in the value of the donor action 

[Catch-22]

5 hours ago, meles meles said:

The 300 WSM sounds worthy of further investigation ! An alternative thought might also be to get a standard bolt and look at going in the other direction towards a smaller calibre and leaving the heavy lifting to our 338 Lapua. We don't have a .223 rifle, and we've also heard good things about the .224 Valkyrie, both from Baldie's posts here and also from others who have seen him shoot with it. That could fill a niche...

.224 Valk isn’t a .223 bolt face, requires a a slightly larger bolt face (6.8SPC or 6.5 Grendel). Not common in bolt action rifles.

Personally id explore a .22-250 but with fast twist and long throat to handle the 90gn + bullets. You can use good Lapua brass and a common .308w bolt face that way.

[Big Al]

7mm RSAUM would be a good swap for the 7RM.

Potent, accurate, good brass supply and loads of load development data as it a common FClass round.

If you want to go .224 and like a bit of fun then 22 Dasher is a highly accurate and very competent choice in combination with a fast twist barrel and 75-90gr bullets.

Of course your options are endless and people could debate them for weeks here but most would be better suited to a Remington short action and/or a different bolt face.

[baldie]

Another vote for the 7Rsaum. I've built several, and its a very accurate round indeed, and one of them, like 6.5 x47, 6mmBr etc etc, that you could load with dog sh1t, and it will shoot.

Works on your magnum bolt face, and out of a .300 win mag, magazine.

The Valkyrie is a 6.8 SPC bolt face, and available in a bighorn action. I've just finished one, and if its fine today, hopefully get some pics.

[meles meles]

So, plenty of food for thought, much of which can be boiled down to:

Safe option:      Remain with the 7mm Rem Mag. It's a known quantity, already have good loads worked out and the reloading kit for it. 

Mainstream Calibre: .300 WSM. A proven cartridge, components easily available, dies available at a fair price. Similar or slightly better in performance to the 7mm Rem Mag. 

Something different: 7mm RSAUM. An unknown quantity to us, but recommended by Big Al and Baldie which has to be worth something in itself. Uses known bullets, initial studies put it on a par, at least, with 7mm Rem Mag, possibly better in terms of accuracy. Not sure if it will feed in a long action but that can be looked into. Brass availability might be an issue at times.

The 7mm RSAUM is looking worthy of further investigation....

 

 

[srvet]

I have had a 7RM for years and love it dearly. My son has just bought a 300 WSM  with the intention to use it as a hill stalking rifle and I must say I am quite impressed so far. With minimal work up we have a load for the 130g TTSX that hovers at the 3600fps mark with no pressure signs whatsoever and 0.5-0.6 MOA accuracy. If I were looking to change I personally would seriously consider a WSM. 

[Ronin]

The SAUM was being used by a few when I was serious F Class competitor a few years ago, its advantage over the WSM was it had less propensity to suffer from elevation (Verticals) than the larger cased WSM and hold a less pronounced "waterline" than the WSM at 1000 yds (1/4 MOA vertical spread or less is what you want at 1000)

Similar in characteristics to the Improved 284 Winchester (284 Shehane, 284 KMR etc etc) - but little or no VO gain over this cartridge - both capable of 2850-2950 with 180 Bergers Hybrid which were the benchmark 

The WSM allows one to gain higher VO and advantages in the wind are subtely improved over the SAUM (and Improved 284) - so long as the user is capable.

The WSM suffers from Carbon ring build up which shouldnt be overlooked in a competition gun - im not sure about the SAUM - which appears on paper to be slightly more efficient than the WSm to a point.

The WSM is easy to load for - dont know about SAUM

 

At the end of the day, they are all excellent cartridges for the end application - long range target or killing effectively

 

Hopefully back to F Class in 2021 with a non magnum (for now)

[No i deer]

The saum gets my vote..

Mine is shooting great