Annual Fall Magnum-itis Season

[illinoisburt]

It's that time of year again. Frost on the ground, crisp fresh mornings, and changing leaves have folks thinking of the upcoming deer hunts. And with this season fast approaching comes the lines of guys (and some gals) roaming the local sporting goods stores and gun shops, looking for that perfect solution to tackle their hunting chores. As always there is the search for the gun and ammo that will flatten a trophy buck like the Hammer of Thor. And so the Magnum-itis begins again.

Recently observed suspect cases:

Last month my wife accompanied my son and I to a nearby National Forest Service rifle range. A few shots range out down the line from us while still in the truck which prompted my spouse to exclaim some expletives. The truck was literally reverberating with the shots! Turned out to be a 300 RUM with a brake a young man was sighting in for the first time. 7 empties and some holes in a 50 yard target was declared good to go and promptly cased that bad boy! (The brass rat was quite excited to find the cases left behind on the bench.)

Last week at Academy, overheard the salesmen telling a customer looking at a rifle to skip the 243 and get the same gun in "at least" 270. Those small calibers are for varmints and such.

Another person browsing the stacks of hunting ammunition asked the difference between 308 offerings. He wanted to know which would be the "toughest for deer." The obvious response of course was always get the heaviest bullet available to since heavier works better. 180 is really the minimum but sometimes people step down to 165. Great advise from the counter as always!

Just today I encountered an afflicted individual who is desparate to replace the mousegun someone talked him into buying last year: a new model Winchester 70 30-06 with 3-12 Leopold scope and custom leather sling. It just doesn't shoot flat enough for those across-the-field shots that are so often found at the hunting club deer blinds (hint these are elevated permanent box blinds overlooking green fields where feeders are usually set up at known distances). There must be a better way to throw a bullet! I do feel for him, as deer in the south can be hard to kill & I really hope a 7- or 300-mag comes his way in time.

Anyway, be careful out there folks. If you haven't already, you may want to consider getting the vaccine just to be safe.

 

[Clark]

Two days ago I killed a whitetail doe at 30 yards with a 7mm Rem Mag launching 140 gr Accubond long range bullets at 3450 fps.

1965 Rem700 BDL
Convert to ADL with Brown Precision stock
Lilja barrel I chambered to 7mmRemMag
I drilled the receiver for pinned recoil lug
I painted the barrel with Alluma hyde II
Timney trigger
PTG bolt
My pillar design
My bolt handle design
Leupold VX-6HD 3-18x44mm--
zero stop set for 260 yard zero

 

[Demi-human]

I have just received a second dose of the shoulder injected vaccinations.
Last week end a friend brought out his three hundred Remington Ultra Magnum. I shot it thrice last time. This go round only once as it was just a "booster shot".

I know there is no cure, but hopefully I can avoid getting it this year.


There is no chance of retina detachment with a flu shot, but they're not as much fun to get.

 

[edwardware]

Turned out to be a 300 RUM with a brake a young man was sighting in for the first time. 7 empties and some holes in a 50 yard target was declared good to go and promptly cased that bad boy!

Even chances it'll be on Armslist or an LGS rack next year. . . with less than a box fired. "It's just not accurate enough. . . !"

 

[Gtscotty]

Two days ago I killed a whitetail doe at 30 yards with a 7mm Rem Mag launching 140 gr Accubond long range bullets at 3450 fps.

1965 Rem700 BDL
Convert to ADL with Brown Precision stock
Lilja barrel I chambered to 7mmRemMag
I drilled the receiver for pinned recoil lug
I painted the barrel with Alluma hyde II
Timney trigger
PTG bolt
My pillar design
My bolt handle design
Leupold VX-6HD 3-18x44mm--
zero stop set for 260 yard zero


View attachment 766566

40yds from the shooter, or 40yds from the end of that long dangly barrel?


Juuuust kidding, interesting build you have there. 7mm RM is a magnum in name, but not much different than a heavily loaded '06 when pulling the trigger.

 

[Slamfire]

As this advert says, you don't need to worry about shot placement, just point your magnum and pull the trigger. The cartridge will do the rest. Heck, the animal will probably die just due to the sonic crack of the bullet in the air.


Don't worry about Marksmanship, it's a Weatherby!

 

[Tirod]

I've seen deer hit with an 8mm Remington Magnum and it was a shot thru the hams. Dropped it on the spot. There is some truth to magnums doing that.

I think that the end result of the search for power will stop when the game simply disappears in a blue shimmering haze.

 

[Orcon]

Reminds me of a guy I work with that seems to think the size of his chamber is tied directly to his manhood and shooting ability; fundamentals and technique be damned. At this point he's up to a 338 EDGE and is eyeballing the Allen mags because it's not shooting as well as he thought it would. Wants to get his 12 year old daughter 7mm or 300 win for deer and elk.

 

[Scooter22]

It's a shotgun zone right around me. I love the new shooters showing up with a new 12ga slug gun with a large scope and 3 or 3 1/2" mag slugs off the bench trying to sight in. Bloody "knuckle" noses, half moon club from the scopes, and pulverized shoulders. Guaranteed flinch after the 2nd shot. But what would I know using a old open sight 2 3/4" in slug gun. I guess you need all that power for those under 100yds shots.

 

[hdwhit]

illinoisburt wrote:
As always there is the search for the gun and ammo that will flatten a trophy buck like the Hammer of Thor.

There are many people who think that a more powerful round is an adequate substitute for good marksmanship and proper shot placement.

 

[taliv]

i just got my 300 norma built on Tuesday. it's been probably 5 years since i even owned a 308win. everything i've got is 260 and smaller. (300BO subsonic doesn't count lol)

 

[hdwhit]

Wants to get his 12 year old daughter 7mm or 300 win for deer and elk.

Of course there may be a method to that madness. He may want the rifle to be so punishing that she is scared away from actually going hunting and thus leaves it to the men.

But then, my perspective may be influenced by the fact that I know (but do not join) a group that goes deer hunting every year. At the deer camp they kill more cases of beer than they do deer and at some point some women seem to make their way out there that aren't attached to any of these married men.

 

[Kingcreek]

Folks without experience will buy that magnum theory. People that have actually shot game with "average" hunting calibers know that a lot of game can be killed with boring and predictable results using reasonable bullets and good shot placement.
I know a Montana rancher that has shot truckloads of elk with a .243, said he shot his first truckload before anybody told him his gun wasn't big enough.

 

[Moparnut]

It isn't a real gun if it doesn't say Magnum. Lol. Had a friend who used a 243 from the time he was about 12. One year the guys at his deer camp were making fun of him. Next year he buys a 300wm. Barely got it sighted in and missed a deer 3 times that year. His dad had bought the 243 when he was young and I advised him to keep it instead of trading for the 300wm. Needless to say he went back to the 243 and realized he was flinching so bad he could barely sight it in. He said he will never go to another caliber again.

I however would love to own a 7 mag and a 257 wby mag. Not sure why, just would like to own them.

 

[edwardware]

Reminds me of a guy I work with. . . is eyeballing the Allen mags.

I just looked up Allen Magnums. . . WOW!

To quote Allen's site:

Cons: Cases are somewhat involved to form, barrel life is relatively short and suitable reloading powders are somewhat limited.

Yeah, I'll bet!

 

[someguy2800]

Yesterday I stood in line for an hour at Cabelas waiting to pick up a Savage I ordered from them. The guy in line in front of me had brought in a rifle and scope on it he had bought from them and wanted to know whats wrong with it. He said he had tried to shoot some rabbits in the yard and can't hit any of them. The sales guy asked if he had sighted it in and the guy stared back dumbfounded by this new terminology. Then the salesman politely explained to him what the scope turrets were, how to take them off, and how and why you need to adjust them. Then he offered to bore sight it for him. I'm certain the guy went home with his bore sighted gun as many people do and never bothered to actually try shooting it at something or adjust it.

I used to go to the local sportsmans club weekend before deer season to help people sight in there rifles. Its absolutely incredible how many people close there eyes as they fire or pull the trigger using there shoulder muscles rather than there finger. There was alot of people cranking wildly on scope turrets trying to find paper till I would intervene and help. Probably 1/3 of people were happy to put a shot on the paper at 100 yards and they were lucky to do so. I shot quite a few 1" to 1-1/2" moa groups with other peoples rifles that they were fed up with. I will never forget spotting for a guy with a slug gun who made scope adjustments of about 3 full revolutions of his turrets at a time. On the 5th shot he finally hit his 24" cardboard at 50 yards about 12" from his bullseye. I thought okay now we can stop cranking on the scope like a lunatic, nope he said "thats good!", put it in the case and drove off to go shoot some legs off deer.

I used to bring my 25-06 with me when I would do this for something to shoot in the downtime. I remember a guy coming with his kids to sight in there guns and I offered to help or sight there shots and they said no thanks so I went back to plinking. A little bit later the guy and kids came over and asked curiously what I was shooting at since there were no targets that he could see out at the 150 yard berm I was shooting at. I told him that I was laying down empty shotgun shells on the top of the target rail and was shooting them off. "No way!" he exclaimed. He didn't believe me so we walked out there and showed him all the shotgun husks with holes in the bottom of them laying around. Him and his kids watched me shoot more of them off until my barrel was too hot to touch. His kids were picking them up and took them home for souvenirs.

 

[someguy2800]

I just looked up Allen Magnums. . . WOW!

To quote Allen's site:



Yeah, I'll bet!

Just order a new barrel with each box of bullets!

 

[MCMXI]

Here we go again with the anti-magnum rhetoric. While I agree that a magnum cartridge isn't a good choice for many and certainly not a good choice for a new shooter, what's wrong with using a magnum rifle if you shoot it well? My point is that magnum rifles in the right hands can be very effective hunting tools. My go-to hunting rifle is chambered in .375 H&H and I shoot it well enough out to 400 yards at least. We have a very short general rifle season up here in MT and you never know what situation you might be facing. As deer and elk are pressured over the weeks they can be hard to find, particularly on public land, so chances can be slim to none for shots inside 400 yards and maybe you don't get a chance at the perfect broadside shot. I'll continue to use the heaviest (250gr), fastest (2,800 fps), toughest bullet (Barnes TTSX) I shoot well since I like stacking the odds in my favor. Once I can no longer shoot the .375 H&H well I'll revisit my cartridge choice for hunting and might fall back to the .300 Win Mag or 300 WSM .. but until then I'll stick with what I know and what works.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-h-mag-and-mule-deer-update-460-yards.814060/

 

[Orcon]

Here we go again with the anti-magnum rhetoric. While I agree that a magnum cartridge isn't a good choice for many and certainly not a good choice for a new shooter, what's wrong with using a magnum rifle if you shoot it well? My point is that magnum rifles in the right hands can be very effective hunting tools. My go-to hunting rifle is chambered in .375 H&H and I shoot it well enough out to 400 yards at least. We have a very short general rifle season up here in MT and you never know what situation you might be facing. As deer and elk are pressured over the weeks they can be hard to find, particularly on public land, so chances can be slim to none for shots inside 400 yards and maybe you don't get a chance at the perfect broadside shot. I'll continue to use the heaviest (250gr), fastest (2,800 fps), toughest bullet (Barnes TTSX) I shoot well since I like stacking the odds in my favor. Once I can no longer shoot the .375 H&H well I'll revisit my cartridge choice for hunting and might fall back to the .300 Win Mag or 300 WSM .. but until then I'll stick with what I know and what works.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-h-mag-and-mule-deer-update-460-yards.814060/

I don't take any umbrage at magnums themselves, I have a few and I like them very much. My ire stems from people who use powder capacity and bore size as a stand-in for capability and self-esteem.

 

[Demi-human]

what's wrong with using a magnum rifle if you shoot it well?

Absolutely nothing. Ain't America great!

 

[Steve S.]

I went thru my magnum stage about thirty years ago; if I bought it, it had to be a magnum caliber. Then I aged, became a sissy and now only own the common calibers. They aren’t magnums but they do a great job; I shoot them better and I don’t feel beat up after a bench session. Old age makes you a simpler man whether you like it or not; I have learned to appreciate simple. Good shooting.

 

[22250Rem]

It's a shotgun zone right around me. I love the new shooters showing up with a new 12ga slug gun with a large scope and 3 or 3 1/2" mag slugs off the bench trying to sight in. Bloody "knuckle" noses, half moon club from the scopes, and pulverized shoulders. Guaranteed flinch after the 2nd shot. But what would I know using a old open sight 2 3/4" in slug gun. I guess you need all that power for those under 100yds shots.

Back in the latter 1980's I developed a case of "Magnumitis" with 12 ga. slug guns for deer. I felt as though 3" magnum deer slugs were the way to go. After harvesting a few deer with them over a few years I began to notice that the deer didn't die any differently or any faster than when I was using standard 12 ga. 2 & 3/4" slugs. Then I remembered that the 2 & 3/4"ers were actually a bit more accurate out of my gun and began to wonder why I was still using 3" slugs. Went back to 2 & 3/4" and stayed with them ever since. This was all back in the days of smoothbore slug guns and Foster style slugs. Nowadays my dedicated slug gun ( a Rem. 870 Special Purpose) wears a fully rifled barrel but I still run 2 & 3/4" Winchester / BRI sabot slugs because they work so well and the deer still can't seem to tell the difference. Along with a 2.5x Leupold in the optics dept. which is all that anybody needs at any shotgun distance. ( Especially us older guys).

 

[Captcurt]

I however would love to own a 7 mag and a 257 wby mag. Not sure why, just would like to own them.

I absolutely love the 257. There will be another in my safe soon.

 

[Captcurt]

I have just received a second dose of the shoulder injected vaccinations.
Last week end a friend brought out his three hundred Remington Ultra Magnum. I shot it thrice last time. This go round only once as it was just a "booster shot".

.

I worked up a load for a kid that I worked with. He had an old gunsmith load some rounds for his 300 RUM and he was whining about the kick. I looked at the recipe and it wasn't even a starting load of IMR- 4831SC. I didn't pick the bullet. I would have pick something that had a little more integrity, but I loaded up 165 Nosler BT with 100gr of Retumbo. It shot pretty good but a dozen shots in a session was all that I wanted from the bench. I told him that if he thought that it kicked before he was in for a surprise. Had him completely spooked. Two weeks later he came in and confessed that 4 shots was all that he wanted. Shot it one season and traded it for a 25-06.

 

[Llama Bob]

There's a certain irony that my smallest hunting guns are "magnums" and my biggest ones nominally aren't. The battery now (and probably for the foreseeable future) contains a .264WM, a 7mm RM, a .375 H&H, a .45-90, and as soon as Turnbull gets finished with it a .50-110. All have reasonable recoil. The .264WM and 7mm have recoil inline with a .30-06. The bigger guns push hard, but are tolerable - not injurious or painful.

I will say that far and away my least favorite common calibers are .300WM and .338WM. Lots of sharp, fast, nasty recoil and I can't figure out what I'd shoot with them. If I'm trying to hunt game up to elk/moose at range, the .264 and 7mm have better BCs and more reach than I will ever consider it ethical to use. If I'm trying to stop dangerous game or predator calling bear or something, I'll take the 1886s for the bore diameter, power, and fast followups. If I actually had a .338WM I literally can't think of an animal or hunting situation on earth I would pick it up for.

Lots of hunters out there that can't shoot, no matter what caliber they're in. But that .300 MegaMag ain't helping.