7mm-06

[Paulbunyan]

Hello all i have a question for the older gentlemen. i inherited a 7mm06 from my father-in-law and am fire forming brass for it and the brass is a little tight and am wondering if and to what i should trim the brass to?
Thank you
Paul

 

[bluetopper]

7mm-08 you mean? Never heard of a 7mm-06, but I'm not saying there is no such thing. Could it be a 280 Remington?

 

[bluetopper]

Oh ok....did a search. Before the 280 was standardized and recognized, when it was a wildcat cartridge, it was called a 7mm-06.

 

[herrwalther]

It is more important to trim rifle brass compared to pistol brass. So yes to that question, trim the brass.

As far as the brass is a little tight, in what regard? Are you talking about the mouth tension for loading a new bullet? Tight to eject from the chamber?

 

[Reloadron]

Hello all i have a question for the older gentlemen. i inherited a 7mm06 from my father-in-law and am fire forming brass for it and the brass is a little tight and am wondering if and to what i should trim the brass to?
Thank you
Paul

Hi Paul and welcome to THR.

A cartridge I have read about but never actually owned or experimented with. A 30-06 is necked down to 7mm so the 7mm-06 is the spawn of the 30-06.

7mm-06 - necked down to accept a 7mm bullet - Originated during experimentation with the ballistic possibilities of popular 7mm bullets in plentiful .30-06 brass cases. The commercial .280 Remington (or 7mm Express Remington) is very similar, but uses the slightly longer 65 mm .30-03 case with the shoulder headspace extended slightly more than one millimeter (.05 inch) to prevent chambering in .270 Winchester rifles.

I would trim to 2.485 case length but with the 7mm-06 sometimes it isn't that easy depending on exactly how the chamber was cut. A lot of guys who shot this would have their chamber cut and then using the same reamer have their dies cut for their chamber. Once you run some brass through the rifle it should fire form and only require neck sizing thereafter. You could also make a chamber casting to see what you have. From what I recall all 7mm-06 chambers are not always the same. This is common with wildcat cartridges.

I would take one of your sized cases and paint it with a magic marker, then try and cycle the case through the rifle. This should show a rub where the problem lies. Could be the sized down neck needing turned or the shoulder bumped back further among other dimensions. Try that and see what you get.

Ron

 

[sage5907]

Like Reloadron says, the length of the straight portion of your case is probably 1.948. The full length die that you are using is probably 1.999. So your die is not setting the shoulder back by .051. The easiest option is for you to form cases for your 7 MM/06 from 270 Winchester cases by just running them through the full length sizing die that you have. The expander ball would open the neck for the larger 7 MM bullet and then I would trim them to a length of 2.530 and try them in the chamber to see if they go in easily. The trimmed cases could be as long as 2.530 or as short as 2.484 depending on your individual chamber. I would first trim them to 2.530 and then see if they went into the chamber easily because that is the trim length for 280 Remington cases.

You may not be able to form your cases from 30-06 cases with your current full length sizing die because they could still have a 30 caliber ring that is .051 long at the back of the neck. If you're trying to form cases now from 30-06 cases you could be bumping up against that portion of the 30 caliber neck that is not being reduced to 7 MM diameter.

The second option would be for you to call RCBS customer service and have them make you a full length sizing die that is for a 7mm-06. The third option would be to have a gunsmith lengthen your chamber with a 280 Remington reamer so it would shoot commercial ammo like the 280 Remington and 7 MM Express. It shouldn't be very expensive. Most gunsmiths charge about $60 per hour and that would be about an hours work.

 

[Patocazador]

"The third option would be to have a gunsmith lengthen your chamber with a 280 Remington reamer so it would shoot commercial ammo like the 280 Remington and 7 MM Express."

The above is the best option. It's changed to a .280 and your troubles are over.

 

[Offfhand]

No problem, the 7mm/06 IS a standard commercial caliber. In order to re-energize the rather dismal initial success of the .280 Rem, the folks at Remington tried giving it a newer and sexier name, and re-marketed it as 7mm/06. This effort failed for several reasons, mostly because of confusion at retail level. The upshot was that Remington withdrew the M-700 rifles marked 7mm 06 and sold them on the European market. I once had A M-700 BDL Rem in 7mm-06 and sold it to a collector. Another effort to revamp the .280 as renaming it 7mm Express, which led to more problems at dealer level because it was confused with 7mm Rem Mag. After which the .280 returned, and has been ever since. All three are otherwise identical and fire safely in standard .280 caliber rifles. If the rifle owned by the OP is a standard Remington M-700, and marked, 7mm '06, he's good to go with standard .280 Ammo. See attached photo of Remington ammo boxes with different generations of names.

 

[sage5907]

Offhand, you may have a good point. I just looked at an old Speer manual from 1966 and it lists the 280 Remington (Also 7mm/06-7mmX64mm). I had no clue that Remington was making the 280 Remington as far back as 1966. This book lists the overall case length at 2.534 so the trim length would be 2.524. Maybe Paulbunyan will tell us if he has a Remington rifle.

 

[Offfhand]

.280 Remington caliber was introduced in 1957, 7mm Express and 7mm-06 Rem. came quite a bit later.

 

[CraigC]

.280 Remington caliber was introduced in 1957, 7mm Express and 7mm-06 Rem. came quite a bit later.

The 7mm Express IS the .280 and the only thing similar to a "7mm-06" in name is a 7mm08.

 

[Captcurt]

You said Old Gentleman.

If I am not mistaken, one of the first 7mm wildcats that got a lot of publicity was the 7mm Mashburn. It was one of Warren Page's favorite. Pretty much a basic 280. This was early 50's I believe.

 

[SwaneeSR]

Boy. I would love to see a picture of a rifle in 7mm-06.

I thought I was kind of old, but being born in the 60's is not old enough.

Cool rifle to inherit. Welcome aboard the High Road.

 

[Reloadron]

If I am not mistaken, one of the first 7mm wildcats that got a lot of publicity was the 7mm Mashburn. It was one of Warren Page's favorite. Pretty much a basic 280. This was early 50's I believe.

.285 OKH, 7mm-06 Washburn and 7mm-06 cal all be lumped together because they are all practically identical, except for the headspace specification, all are very similar to the 280 Remington (7mm Remington Express).The 285 OKH (O'Neil - Keith - Hopkins) was really an interesting flavor because it originally used a duplex powder charge...

Cartridges of the World 13th Edition page 207. There is more to it but I won't copy the entire paragraph. I figure as long as I have all sorts of reference books I may as well read them once in awhile.

Ron

 

[Offfhand]

Quoted from above post:
"The 7mm Express IS the .280 and the only thing similar to a "7mm-06" in name is a 7mm08.
__________________
Then how do you explain this? See photo

 

[Bearhands]

I am suprised no one has mentioned the 7X64 Brenneke.

 

[sage5907]

I had Mashburn do some work for me back in the early 1970's and I was at his shop on May Avenue in Oklahoma City several times. He was into cartridges with 30 and 40 degree shoulders much like Ackley. The Mashburn version had a belted magnum case and was a lot like the 7 MM Remington Magnum but it had a longer case with more powder capacity. The Mashburn version had a 30 degree shoulder and a case length of 2.570. The Remington version has a 25 degree shoulder with a case length of 2.500.