Seven Deadly Millimeters!

Transcription

1 SPECIAL EDITION: 7mm Rifles and Cartridges! History & Legacy of the 7x57mm 7mm Magnums Fall 2012 Special Edition $ $5.99 U.S./Canada Display until 12/07/2011 Printed in USA Seven Deadly Millimeters!

2 Fall 2012 Volume 44 Special Edition ISSN Sportitinng Fi Firrear earm ms Jour urnnal 8 7x57mm Mauser Spotting Scope - 20 Dave Scovill 12 Contemporaries of the 7x57mm 28 Down Range Mike Venturino 14 John Haviland 7mm Remington Magnum Has the caliber reached its potential? Velocity with Manageable Recoil Ron Spomer John Haviland 54 The Legacy of the 7x57 A 7mm Like No Other The 7mm Comes Full Circle Classic Cartridges - 46 Seven Deadly Millimeters The Commercial Sevens Children of Controversy John Barsness Terry Wieland 36 Page mm Magnums 62 Loyal Followers from Hunters to Long-Range Competitors 7x57mm Mauser in Military Service A Classic Cartridge Used Throughout the World Brian Pearce Mike Venturino Page Page Background Photo: 2012 Vic Schendel

3 On the cover... A pair of 7x57s, including a Remington 700 with a x40 Leupold VX III and a Ruger M77 topped with a Swarovski 3-10x42. Rifle photos by G. Hudson. Background photos by Vic Schendel. Page Special Edition 70 Fall mm in Africa Sportitinng Fi Firrear earm ms Jour urnnal Cartridges That Make the Cut Publisher/President Don Polacek Publishing Consultant Mark Harris Ganyana Editor in Chief Dave Scovill Associate Editor Lee J. Hoots 80 Western Powder Gun Care Products Managing Editor Roberta Scovill Assisting Editor Al Miller Senior Art Director Gerald Hudson Production Director Becky Pinkley Contributing Editors Product Tests - John Haviland Ron Spomer Stan Trzoniec Brian Pearce Clair Rees Mike Venturino Gil Sengel Ken Waters Terry Wieland R.H. VanDenburg, Jr. 86 In This Corner... the 7x57 Advertising Advertising Director - Stefanie Ramsey [email protected] Walnut Hill - Advertising Representative - Tom Bowman [email protected] Terry Wieland Advertising Information: Circulation Page Circulation Manager Luree McCann [email protected] Subscription Information: Rifle (ISSN ) is published bimonthly with one annual special edition by Polacek Publishing Corporation, dba Wolfe Publishing Company (Don Polacek, President), 2180 Gulfstream, Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona (Also publisher of Handloader magazine.) Telephone (928) Periodical Postage paid at Prescott, Arizona, and additional mailing offices. Subscription prices: U.S. possessions single issue, $5.99; 7 issues, $19.97; 14 issues, $36. Foreign and Canada single issue, $5.99; 7 issues $26; 14 issues, $48. Please allow 8-10 weeks for first issue. Advertising rates furnished on request. All rights reserved. Change of address: Please give six weeks notice. Send both the old and new address, plus mailing label if possible, to Circulation Department, Rifle Magazine, 2180 Gulfstream, Suite A, Prescott, Arizona POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Rifle, 2180 Gulfstream, Suite A, Prescott, Arizona Canadian returns: PM # Pitney Bowes, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. Wolfe Publishing Co Gulfstream, Ste. A Prescott, AZ Tel: (928) Fax: (928) Polacek Publishing Corporation Publisher of Rifle is not responsible for mishaps of any nature that might occur from use of published loading data or from recommendations by any member of The Staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. All authors are contracted under work for hire. Publisher retains all copyrights upon payment for all manuscripts. Although all possible care is exercised, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for lost or mutilated manuscripts. 6 Background Photo: 2012 Vic Schendel

4 CLASSIC CARTRIDGES The 7mm cartridge family is second in numbers only to.30 calibers in America. Yet only two of those dozen or so cartridges shooting.28-caliber bullets remain popular with American hunters. One is a magnum and the other is ballistically identical to the 7mm cartridge that started it all. The old man of the clan has been called the Spanish Mauser, 7mm Mauser, 7x57,.275 Rigby or simply the 7mm. It s legendary as the military cartridge that bloodied America s nose during the Spanish-American War of A short list of 7mm American sporting rifles from decades ago includes the Remington Model 30 bolt action and Winchester Models 54 and 70. Many custom rifle firms also made 7mm rifles. Thumbing through an old May 1947 American Rifleman revealed quite a few advertisements of small gunsmith shops that would chamber the 7mm in 14 THE 7MM COMES FULL CIRCLE by John Haviland Springfield and Mauser rifles and alter the bolt and safety on Mauser actions in 7mm to allow lowmounted scopes. In more recent times, Remington chambered the cartridge in its standard Model 700 from 1989 to Today s hiking hunters prefer to carry a light rifle. The 7mm- 08 is perfect for that chambered in a Remington Model Seven, which Thomas Haviland used to kill his elk and in the Classic in In the late 1980s, Winchester chambered the cartridge in its pushfeed Model 70 Featherweight. I bought one, but somehow the rifle ended up in my brother s hands. He does call occasionally to tell about the mule deer he shoots with the rifle. Ruger used to chamber its Model 77 in 7mm and still chambers the cartridge in its No. 1 International. Everyone I ve met who hunted with a 7mm loved the cartridge. A friend from my high school days hunted with a Mauser Model 95 7mm. He carried it in the mountains every season of the year. Jack O Connor wrote nearly as many glowing words about the 7mm as his favorite.270 Winchester. For those who want to hunt all North American game... the little 7x57 with the right bullets is one of the best bets I know, O Connor wrote in his book The Hunting Rifle. A Ruger Model 77 7x57mm I shot quite a lot turned in a bit over 2,500 fps with 175- and 160-grain bullets, 2,600 fps with 150s, 2,800

5 fps with 140s and just shy of 3,000 fps with 120s. Those velocities are rather mediocre these days, especially in a rifle using the same size action as the.270 and and have led to a decline in popularity of the 7mm Mauser. It may well be on its last legs after 120 years. Other 7mm cartridges have come and gone over those years. The.280 Ross came along in 1906 and was supposedly the first high-velocity cartridge to crack the 3,000-fps barrier with a 145-grain load billed at 3,050 fps and 180-grain bullets at 2,800 fps. All I can report is Kynoch.280 Rimless Nitro-Express cartridges loaded with 160-grain bullets had a muzzle velocity of 2,662 fps from the 26-inch barrel of a straight-pull bolt Ross Model 1910 rifle. The Ross rifle and cartridge, though, won a number of target matches that included the 1912 and 1913 Bisley Matches and the Individual Palma Trophy at Camp Perry in The 7mm Remington Magnum (1), 7mm-08 Remington (2) and 7mm Mauser (3) are the favorites of 7mm hunting cartridges. The.280 Ross (4),.280 Remington (5), 7mm Winchester Short Magnum (6), 7mm Remington Short Action Ultra Mag (7) and 7mm Remington Ultra Mag (8) haven t found as much favor among hunters. The English responded to the Ross with the.275 H&H Magnum and Jeffery.280 Rimless. No American factory rifles were ever chambered in these two cartridges, and they are deader than the British Empire. An American cartridge with 7mm in its name didn t come along until the 7mm Weatherby Magnum in Ruger Grandmaster Trigger Guard Complete CNC'd Aluminum Trigger Guard. Self-contained with all the internal parts Wired EDM'd. Drops right in your Ruger Reduces your trigger pull to around lbs. Fully adjustable from lbs to 3 lbs. Removable side plate to aid gunsmith adjustment of internal parts. New redesigned (patent pending) push forward and pull back Garand-style safety. New redesigned extended magazine release for easy magazine changes. Includes an extended auto-bolt release and uses standard Ruger factory and aftermarket magazines. Optional CST Last Shot Hold Open System for an additional $ Available in black hardcoat anodized or silver anodized. Grandmasters L.L.C.,D.B.A. Power Custom Hwy J Gravois Mills, MO Ph# Fax# @powercustom.com Website: is a registered trademark of Sturm Ruger & Company Reg # Power Custom is a registered Trademark of Grandmasters L.L.C. Serial # , Reg. # Grandmaster is a registered Trademark of Grandmasters L.L.C. Serial # , Reg. # $

6 1944. As a cartridge of a relatively small company, the Weatherby magnum has been hampered by a lack of widespread distribution. From 1991 to 1995 Remington did chamber its Model 700 and load am - munition for the 7mm Weatherby. Today, though, the cartridge is available only in Weatherby rifles. That s unfortunate, as the cartridge delivers impressive ballistics. The Model 700 7mm Weatherby I ve shot with 175-grain bullets clocked 2,927 fps with Weatherby factory loads and 2,991 fps from Remington loads. The 7x61 Sharpe & Hart came along in 1953 and was similar to the Weatherby in case size and lack of distribution. The only 7x61 I ever saw was chambered in a Schultz & Larsen rifle. A fellow I knew considered buying the rifle but passed on the deal because he could not find any ammunition imported from Norma of Sweden. These cartridges did a fine job of keeping 7mm cartridges obscure into the 1950s. The 7mm s only began to gain some traction in 1957, when the first commercial 7mm cartridge was introduced by a major American firearms company. We ll avert our eyes to the fact that this cartridge, the.280 Remington, was nearly identical to the German 7x64 Brenneke from The.280 was Remington s contestant against the.270 Winchester but in autoloading and pumpaction rifles. It was said these rifles required a cartridge loaded to relatively low pressure, and that s why the.280 s pressure was set lower than the.270 Winchester. But that can t be, because the Remington 760 pump was chambered in.270 in 1953 and the Model 740 Woodsmaster autoloader was chambered in.244/6mm Remington, which have the same maximum average pressure as the.270. Twenty-some years later, Remington offered higher-pressure loads and changed the cartridge s name to 7mm Remington Express, but the die had been cast, and the.280 has languished ever since. GARY L. STILES -Gunmaker- - Specializing in Classic Bolt Action Rifles -CompleteRifles-PricesUponRequest - Quarter Ribs, Checkered Bolt Handles -SafetyconversionsforMausers&Springfields 76 CherryRunRoad,HomerCity,PA15748 Phone: (724) or [email protected] PRESLIK S GUNSTOCKS - California Claro & English - - Imported French, Bastogne - - Turkish Circassian & Maple - James Preslik Keith Ln. Chico, CA (530) TROPHY CARIBOU From Canada s Arctic Trophy Quality Game Great Location Fully Guided Quality Hunts Robinson Custom Guns,LLC Finest Quality Custom Rifles at Affordable Prices! Call Toll Free: (877) Ridge Rd., Waynesburg, PA $ RIFLEMAN S REST Custom, handmade shooting rest. Tel: Online: riflemansrest.net For centuries man has hunted the vast treeless habitat of the Central Canadian Barren Ground Caribou. You can now be a part of this ancient rite on the uninhabited frontier. We speak your language, take care of you, and know what you want! Arctic grizzly, muskox, wolf, wolverine, fishing and world-class caribou hunts. Booking for 2013 and 2014 hunts. Complete list of references available. Write: Barry Taylor, ARCTIC SAFARIS Box 1294 W, Yellowknife, N.W.T., Canada X1A 2N9 TEL (867) FAX (867) [email protected]

7 In 1963 Winchester also tried packing.270 ballistics in its Model 100 autoloader and Model 88 lever action in the form of the compact.284 Winchester. It didn t work. About all that s seen of the.284 these days is Winchester Ammunition s single load with 150-grain Power-Point bullets. The 7mm Remington Magnum erased what interest remained in CASE COLORING SIGNAL MOUNTAIN GUN WORKS PRECISION RIFLE SMITH John Witt, Gunsmith Box Big Clearing Rd. Roundup, MT CALL: the.280. In fact, the 7 Mag, as it is affectionately known, has been so popular ever since it was introduced in 1962 that it remains the dominate 7mm and magnum cartridge. Remington makes 13 variations of its Model 700 in 7 Mag. Winchester builds five styles of its Model 70 and Ruger four of its M77 Hawkeye. Over the years I ve met herds of hunters carrying 7mm magnums after elk, deer and antelope. With handloads the 7 Mag with a 24-inch barrel easily reaches 3,150 fps with 150-grain bullets, 3,000 fps with 160s and 2,900 fps with 175s. Double Rifles Built Per Customer Needs Boxlocks chambered in.22 Hornet through.450 N.E. Standard field grade or Deluxe. Rifles For Sale: Deluxe boxlock in.450 N.E., pristine throughout. P64 M70 FWT,.270 Win., custom stocked in Bastogne, superb. GH Doubleguns Box 406, 3671 N Road - David City, Nebraska Cell: [email protected] Pro-Bed 2000 The Ultimate Stock Bedding Epoxy G U N S M I T H I N G Toll Free: Tel: Fax: Do you love handloading your own ammo? Do you hate trimming cases? Introducing the W.F.T. (World s Finest Trimmer) Works with any bottleneck cartridge up to.338. References off the shoulder. Individuallymachinedtoyourcartridge or within a case family. Designedforusewithany3/8 handdrill. Extremelyfast-upto500casesperhour. Lesshandfatigue-idealforarthritichands. Precisiondesign-repeatableto+/ Simple length adjustment. Selfcleaning.Sealedbearingconstruction. 30-day, 100% money-back guarantee. Bigboremodelcomingsoon-upto.50BMG. Blanks for reaming to your custom chamber. Josef R. is a licensed African P.H. He purchased a standard field grade.450 N.E. in Jan Josef writes, Thanks Gordon, the rifle has been to Africa about seven times now. It has taken elephant, buffalo and some backup on clients animals. I ve gotten somewhere around 100 rounds through it. Featuring: Stockwork Accurizing Custom Rifles $69.95 LittleCrowGunworks,LLC th Ave. NE, Suite C Spicer, MN Custom Rifle Builders Specializing in long-range rifles, precision barreling, muzzle brakes and metal work. Telephone: (320) [email protected] With the same length barrel the 7mm Winchester Short Magnum exceeds those speeds a touch, and the 7mm Remington Short Action Ultra Mag nearly reaches them from a 22-inch barrel. Yet in their 10-year existence, these cartridges have floundered to the point Remington and Winchester have curtailed their short 7s. Hunters must feel the original 7mm magnum still thumps game hard enough, because the larger 7mm Shooting Times Westerner has wandered off to wherever neglected cartridges reside, and the even larger 7mm Remington Ultra Mag is on the same trail. Hunters may have concluded they ve suffered enough heavy recoil while at the same time deciding they d rather shoot a light rifle. When they choose a 7mm, it s most likely a 7mm-08 Remington. The 7-08 s continually growing popularity must be because of the compact and lightweight rifle it s chambered in. It s certainly not because of some wonderful improvement in ballistics. When the 7mm-08 Remington came on the market in 1980, it was chambered in the heavy Model 700 BDL Varmint, intended for silhouette target shooting, and the economical Remington Model 788. Nobody rushed out to buy one. Remington finally chambered the cartridge in its little Model Seven in 1983, and hunters started to appreciate the great combination. Browning, Kimber, Ruger and Winchester also eventually chambered compact rifles in Remington currently chambers 16 different models of rifles in 7mm-08. With handloads the 7mm-08 Remington burns from slightly less to the same amount of powder as the 7mm Mauser, but because of the 7mm-08 s smaller case capacity, it develops higher pressure and gains about 100 fps of velocity over the old Mauser. So what goes around comes around, and after 120 years hunters have come full circle in their choice of 7mm cartridges, back to the ballistics of the 7mm Mauser. R

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10 Ron Spomer Las Vegas is just one of many proofs that the number seven is prominent in world cultures. It is a prime number and the number of days in the four phases of the lunar cycle, which defines the number of days in a week. The ancients recognized seven planets, seven deadly sins and Seven Wonders of the World. Buddha followed seven steps to heaven. Seven is mentioned in the Bible 383 times, and Islam has its Seventh Heaven. There are seven colors in a rainbow, seven notes on the musical scale and musicians who harmonize about Travel the world and the seven seas. Seven is so ingrained in culture as a lucky number that one can t imagine a Lucky 9 Casino, Yule Brenner starring in The Magnificent Eight or Marilyn Monroe lighting up the screen in The Six Year Itch. So it s no surprise that shooters, and U.S. shooters increasingly, love 7mm cartridges although we Americans didn t much appreciate our first encounter with them, because we were on the receiving end. The Spaniards delivered that painful lesson in the efficacy of a fast.284-inch bullet on the island of Cuba in the summer of 1898 during the Spanish-American War. Vastly outnumbered, the Spanish nevertheless extracted a heavy toll of American fighting men while defending a high ridge known as San Juan Heights and Kettle Hill. The all-black 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers figured prominently in this battle, because Seven Deadly Millimeters 20

11 they absorbed much of the U.S. casualties; however, Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders claimed most of the press and glory. The speed and accuracy with which the Spanish 7x57mm Mausers inflicted pain and death impressed not only the soldiers but also their commanders. This set in motion research that led to development of the Model 1903 Springfield bolt-action rifle and the Cartridge.30 M2 Ball, our beloved.30-06, which is essentially a 7x57mm Mauser stretched and necked to.308. Without the development of this cartridge, there is a good chance the 7mm, rather than the.30, bore size would be the most popular in the U.S. However, the times they are a changing. In the past 50 years and especially the past 30, the rise of the 7mm s has been threatening the.30- caliber throne. No fewer than 16 7mm cartridges are now being manufactured by Nosler, Winchester, Remington, Federal, Norma and Hornady. Hunters have been learning that anything a.30 can do, a 7mm can do with less recoil. Although considerable myth and mystery surround the 7mm bullet, there is nothing unusual or magical about it. It is no more accurate, efficient, flatter shooting, wind resistant nor deadly upon contact than an Ron s Rifles Inc. Strata Stainless.280 Ackley Improved shoots Barnes TTSX bullets sub-moa and has been used on game as small as coyotes and as large as Alaskan moose. Has the caliber reached its potential?

12 7 Deadly Millimeters equivalent.308 or 6.5mm bullet. Shape any bullet long and tapered and you increase its ballistic coefficient (BC). Shoot any two different caliber bullets with the same BC at the same muzzle velocity and they fly identical flight paths. The only significant difference is kinetic energy. Heavier bullets always carry more. Whether that makes any difference to a deer, elk, moose or buffalo is doubtful. Either a 160-grain.284 or a 180-grain.308 through the vital organs should be fatal. The appreciable difference, then, stands at the other end of the energy equation the shooter. Should he find the additional recoil of the.30 caliber sufficient to engender flinching, his anticipation of it could lead to putting the 180-grain projectile in a place other than the vitals. Advantage 7mm. This, it could be argued, is a small difference, but on average a.308 cartridge matching the equivalent BC/velocity of a 7mm (say, a.300 Winchester Magnum and a 7mm Remington Magnum) will generate roughly 20 percent more free recoil energy in identical weight rifles. Is that enough difference to compromise your accuracy? Each individual must answer that for himself, but the rise of the 22 bores in recent decades suggests a gradual realization that.300 super magnums may not be the final answer. Like most smallbores, the 7mm owes its existence to smokeless powder. Prior to discovery of the increased energy inherent in this chemical mix, projectile velocity was limited by the inefficiencies of black powder. Black-powder calibers were large because bullet mass was necessary to off set rather low speed. Double pro - ectile mass and you double energy. Double velocity and you quadruple energy. Once shooters recognized this, they began reducing bullet diameter and increasing velocity. Thirteen of the 16 7mm s currently loaded in factory ammunition are (left to right): 7x57mm Mauser, 7mm Remington Bench Rest, 7mm-08 Remington,.284 Winchester, 7x64 Brenneke,.280 Remington,.280 Ackley Improved, 7mm Remington Short Action Ultra Mag, 7mm Winchester Short Magnum, 7mm Weatherby Magnum, 7mm Remington Magnum, 7mm STW and 7mm Remington Ultra Mag. The first 7mm to travel down a rifle barrel journeyed through Paul Mauser s experimental 7x57. It is simply the 8x57mm Mauser necked down. Reportedly Paul and his brother Wilhelm experimented with 6mm, 6.5mm and 7mm bullets. They wanted to flatten trajectories while retaining terminal performance without excessive recoil. A 175-grain bullet atop the 7x57mm case at 2,300 fps was the chosen solution, and the Spanish military was the first to grab it. Germany was already too heavily invested in 8x57mm Mausers to make the switch. As a hunting round, the 7mm Mauser came to international prom inence at the hands of a Scotsman who, in the early years of the twentieth century, employed it to terminate some 1,100 elephants. He turned the trick by combining intimate knowledge of proboscidian cranial anatomy with precision shooting. The rather bluntnosed 175-grain military bullets in the German ammunition he used penetrated in a straight line and more than deeply enough to reach the brain. Less advertised was Bell s success with the same ammu - nition on lions, buffalo and most other African big game. Despite this proven versatility and the ballistic efficiency of the 7x57, neither that cartridge nor any other 7mm s made a splash in the U.S. until midway through the twentieth century. Initially we were too enamored of the slick, quick lever actions and later the more powerful and efficient to experiment with any weird foreign cartridges measured in millimeters. Not that we didn t have options. The first American firm to release a.284 was Stevens with its long, straight-walled Stevens, a late-blooming, single-shot, black-powder round unleashed in 1900 and dead 18 years later. The Canadian-born

13 Deadly Millimeters.280 Ross of 1906 won some converts here. It performed about like the.280 Remington, which wouldn t come along until Noting the efficiency of the 7x57 Mauser itself, Remington chambered it in its rolling block rifle clear back in the late 1890s, but few hunters bit. Thereafter it was tried in the Remington-Lee bolt action followed by the Model 30 bolt. Winchester joined the competition with its Models 54 and then 70. Even though Jack O Connor wrote about it and his wife shot it in a Model 70, most shooters yawned and bought a or.270. Speaking of the.270 Winchester, it probably gets as much blame as the for postponing the ultimate ascendance of the 7mm s here. With its.277-inch bullet, this flat-shooting, mild-recoiling round performs so much like a midpower 7mm it might as well be adopted into the family. Remington tried to beat or match it with its.280 Remington but foolishly chambered it for the Model 740 autoloader. The.280 Remington was practically DOA. The company tried advanced life support by increasing power and renaming it the 7mm Express a few years later, but that just confused folks, so Remington abandoned the Express and went back to calling it the.280 Remington. Only handloaders could realize its full potential. At least Remington proved capable of learning from its mistakes. Its introduction of the 7mm Remington Magnum was as right as its botched release of the.280 Remington was wrong. Either the en - gineers or press team, or both, must have been paying attention to the 7mm Weatherby Magnum of 1944 and the 7x61 Sharpe & Hart of Both yielded the kind of performance modern hunters desired, but neither were widely available. Weatherby s was a proprietary cartridge chambered only in Weatherby rifles or expensive customs. Ammunition was similarly Remington s 7mm BR (left) was designed for handgun silhouette performance. With 32 grains of H-335 it will nudge a 140-grain spitzer 2,460 fps, making it a decent choice for deer out to 250 yards. The 7mm Remington Ultra Mag (right) will push a long, high BC, 175-grain bullet 3,150 fps. scarce. Factory loads and rifles were available for the 7x61 Sharpe & Hart but primarily from European firms. What the 7mm clan needed was a hot.284 round in a moderately priced, easily accessible American rifle, and Remington provided it. Not only was the 7mm Remington Magnum a racy, belted magnum in line with Weatherby s 7mm and Winchester s new.264 Mild recoil and efficient powder charges from short-action 7mm s like the 7mm-08 Remington make it a fine target cartridge. This 100-yard group was printed by a super-light Kimber 84M Montana.

14 magnum, but also the new Model 700 rifle in which it was chambered was widely available, highly affordable, shootable, dependable and accurate. A star was born. Within short order the 7mm Remington Magnum eclipsed the.264 Winchester Magnum. Winchester was forced to counterpunch with its.300 Winchester Magnum in 1963, and a heck of a counterpunch it was. However, the 7mm Remington Magnum was here to stay. It remains the world s best sell - ing 7mm and has probably been pressed into service to terminate most species of game animals on the planet, but that hasn t stopped anyone from creating other 7mm s. In 1968 Winchester, taking a cue, perhaps, from its chief competitor, attempted to mimic.270 Winchester performance with a 7mm, this time in a handy short action called the.284 Winchester. Squat, fat and sharp-shouldered, it was ahead of its time but throttled beneath its potential, because it was geared to function in not just a new auto - loader, the Model 100, but a new lever-action Model 88, consigning it to the same fate as Remington s.280. Sigh. Today, while the.284 clings to life, it is better known by its offspring, the Norma. Fortunately old dogs can learn new tricks. In 1981 Remington redeemed itself with the 7mm-08 Remington, an old, proven wild - cat that reproduced 7mm Mauser performance in an easy loading, true short-action case. This time it stuffed the modified.308 Winchester case with enough powder to maximize velocity potential and chambered it for bolt-action rifles. As a consequence the little 7mm-08, since christened the ultimate, all-around whitetail round by many hunters, has eclipsed the venerable 7x57mm and enjoyed steadily increasing popularity, even though it yields nearly identical performance. The success of the magnum 7mm s, coupled with our need for speed and a long reach, inspired cartridge developers to advance the.284 bore during the 1990s and 2000s. Dakota modified the then obscure, fat.404 Jeffery case to create the 7mm Dakota, exceeding 7mm Remington Magnum and Weatherby Magnum performances. The Dakota was echoed by the 7mm Winchester Short Magnum and 7mm Remington Short Action Ultra Mag around Layne Simpson s necked down 8mm Remington Magnum of 1989 became the factory 7mm STW around 1996, matching the ballistics of the Dakota but in a longer, true magnum-length action. The Lazzeroni 7.21 Firebird added 300 fps to the Dakota s top end and beat everything by pushing a specially lubricated, 168-grain VLD bullet to an advertised 3,400 fps, but it is a proprietary cartridge and few rifles besides Lazzeroni s have been chambered for it. Remington jumped back into the 7mm race in 2000 with its 7mm Remington Ultra Mag, currently the fastest nonproprietary factory round in this caliber

15 7 Deadly Millimeters At the other end of the performance scale are a pile of rare, unheralded, out-of-production and proprietary 7mm s. The 7mm Whisper, for instance, was designed by J.D. Jones in the early 1990s on a.221 Fireball case. Amazingly, with but 18 grains of powder it can spit a 140-grain bullet 2,000 fps. For a time Remington was loading its specialty 7mm Bench Rest, a super-short round designed for handgun silhouette competition. Lever-action shooters were almost nificant interest, the ballistic advantages of the smaller caliber necessarily sacrificed to the flatnosed bullets needed in tubu - lar magazines. Nowadays, the 7-30 Right, water buffalo may be asking a bit much of a 7mm bullet, but as the evidence piles up, who can argue? This bull fell to two shots from a 7mm WSM. Below, the.284s usually aren t too much gun for smaller game like this ancient bull steenbuck. Spomer borrowed a 7mm-08 Jarrett rifle and a 150-grain Swift Scirocco for this one. Current Factory 7mm s 7-30 Waters 7x57mm Mauser 7x57R 7mm-08 Remington.284 Winchester.280 Remington 7x64 Brenneke 7x65R.280 Remington Ackley Improved 7mm SAUM 7mm WSM 7mm Remington Magnum 7mm Weatherby Magnum 7mm Blaser Magnum 7mm STW 7mm RUM Almost Four Dozen 7mm s Wildcat 7mm s 7mm TCU 7mm STE 7mm-06 7mm JRS 7mm Gibbs Out of Production 7x61 Sharpe & Hart 7mm BR Remington Proprietary 7mm Whisper 7mm JDJ 7mm-30 JDJ 7mm JDJ No JDJ 7.21 Tomahawk 7mm Dakota 7mm Canadian Magnum 7.21 Lazzeroni Firehawk 7.21 Lazzeroni Firebird.275 Belted Mag H&H.275 Flanged Mag H&H 7mm Rigby Magnum Flanged.280 Flanged (Lancaster).280 Ross.280 Jeffery 7x33mm Sako 7x66mm Vom Hofe Super Express 7x73mm Vom Hofe Belted 7x75R Vom Hofe Super Express 7x72R left off the 7mm bandwagon, but Ken Waters.284 modification of the Winchester was brought to market by Winchester as, appropriately, the 7-30 Waters in the Model 94 Angle Eject rifle in the mid-1980s. While it sparked for a few years, it failed to ignite sig Waters survives as a single-shot pistol cartridge. How much longer the 7mm fashion will continue remains to be seen. It would appear that today, in 2012, there are few performance measures unmet by cartridges in this caliber, which handles bullets from 100 to 180 grains constructed for everything from targets and varmints to the largest bulls and bears. The 7mm s have the ballistic efficiency and mild recoil for precise and long-range target shooting; the balance and reasonable recoil for quick, accurate handling by small or re - coil-sensitive shooters; and the long reach and magnum power for the biggest North American game and African plains game. Shooters and hunters would seem to have every reason and oppor - tunity to select the perfect 7mm for their needs. R