Opinions: Have .30-06, buy 7mm RemMag?

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ArmedBear

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I have a .30-06 hunting rifle that I like.

A similar one has just gone on clearance for pretty cheap at a local place, in 7mm Rem Mag.

I'm tempted, but wondering whether there's much point in having a 7mm Rem Mag and a .30-06.

Are they too similar? Or do they each offer something unique?

I think you can tell that I'm not looking for an excuse to buy this or any rifle. I actually want to sell off some guns I never use. I would like to have rifles that I do find some use for.

A flat shooter sounds appealing. Local hunting includes antelope, mule deer, whitetails, elk, black bear, as well as rare tags for bighorns, mountain goats and moose.

I've thought about a .270 Winchester or .257 Wby Mag, and a .338 Win Mag to round out my hunting rifle selection. But a 7mm RM might be a good choice, too.

Thoughts?
 
Are you pulling my leg? 17,000+ posts?

Not much differance, but who cares. What kind of rifle? Price?
If it is a deal get it!
 
there isn't anything 7mm mag brings to the table you can't do with your 30-06

in terms of ballistics the differences are so minute as to be meaningless inside any sane hunting ranges
 
I own a closet full of rifles I never use for anything.:)

Looking to pare down to the right things, I don't trust my "maybe it'll be good for something" thought process any more...

I know there are a lot of "buyers" here. I've been one. I'm turning into a "user" instead.:)
 
ArmedBear said:
"Sane" in the Mountain West can be pretty far, by necessity, especially for pronghorns. What do you call "sane"?:)
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400yds :what:

any farther than that and you owe it to get closer to the critter anyhow, or for that matter if you do engage in 500yd+ hunting you need something spunkier than 7mm remington mag
 
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400 is about as far as I want to shoot. I practice in the field, and past 400, even off sticks with my best handloads, it's just not realistic or ethical to shoot farther IMO.

I was just making sure that didn't mean 200, which is a long shot in many places.

What is your 30-06? Planning on selling it in order to get the 7mm?
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Weatherby Vanguard Sporter, and no.:)

I'm looking for something that offers a significantly different set of virtues, hence my interest in the .257 Weatherby Mag, which shoots much lighter bullets, but a lot flatter, for antelope and high desert mule deer, or a .338, for shooting much heavier bullets for elk, and maybe moose someday.
 
I am not a big fan of the 7mm Rem Mag. If you are going to go with less magazine capacity and more recoil, why not just get a 300 Win Mag.

I love various other 7mm cartridges, but never thought the 7mm rem Mag to be worth looking at, compared to others.
 
I'm looking for something that offers a significantly different set of virtues, hence my interest in the .257 Weatherby Mag, which shoots much lighter bullets, but a lot flatter.
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You may want to take a hard look at the 264win mag then. Basically a 7mm mag that shoots bullets with much higher BC's.

Or heck even the lowly 25-06, although in my opinion this one doesn't do much a properly loaded 30-06 won't. For that matter don't sell the EXCELLENT 260rem or it's grandfather 6.5x55 short either

Either way from the angle you're coming from it sounds to me like 6.5mm is the bullet diameter for you
 
FWIW, one thing I did to help me narrow down the calibers to make such decisions, was to eliminate the "odd number calibers", those being .25s and .27s. So .25-06 and my beloved .270 had to go. I decided the even calibers, representing metric whole or half millimeters of caliber, were plenty enough choices. So now they're either 5.5mm, 6mm, 6.5mm, 7mm, or 7.5mm (i.e. .22 cal, .24 cal, .26 cal, .28 cal, or .30 cal). So, I split the difference between a .270 and .30-06 and got a .280 remington.

Now, I have only have three main hunting rifles: My "PC" hunters are in 6mm (.243 win) and 7mm (.280 rem). My non-PC hunter is semi-auto in .260 rem.

The .280 rem can do 95% of what the 7mm remmag can do, and use a lot cheaper brass etc. to do it. The ranges at which the 7mm remmag will make an actual difference in trajectory are ranges which are beyond normal hunting ranges, and/or ranges at which hunting rifles chambered in 7mm remmag are not accurate enough to make a hit anyway. If I was gonna make a 7mm mag, I'd do it right and go STW or Dakota and put it in an expensive precision rig.
 
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I have one belted magnum, a 375 H&H. What a pain to properly resize the thing. I bought a Sinclair belted case gage, found that I had been setting the shoulder back too far, which would have resulted in early case head separations.

I believe belted magnums, and that includes the 7mm Rem Mag, are best left alone.

How about a nice 6.5 Swede?
 
wondering whether there's much point in having a 7mm Rem Mag and a .30-06.
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My opinion is, no. There's not much point to it IMO. Besides that, I'm no fan at all of the 7mm's. I'll take the .30-06, .243, .270, and maybe a .338 or .375 if I want a big bore, but I don't like the millimeter hunting cartridges for some reason. That's just me.
 
AB-

Used to have family arguments in hunt camp all the time as I was growing up.

"7mms shoots flatter, and usually has better SD numbers." Grandpa would say.

Dad would reply with "The '06 has been getting it done for decades, with less powder and recoil than the 7mm. No reason to change."

Know what? All the deer that were popped with an old '06 were just as dead, and usually had less damaged meat. Several elk downed by the '06 without trouble as well.

Another thing to consider-

Do you handload? If so, do you already have a gun that uses that caliber, or are they all 30 caliber at present?
 
I do handload. Got some nice loads worked up for that .30-06, too, including lead-free solids and conventional jacketed bullets. Been running around the local sagelands, popping balloons at 300+ yards with the thing, lately.

I haven't handloaded any 7mm at this point.

It does seem like, for it to be objectively worth getting into more hunting rifle calibers, they'd have to shoot a LOT flatter, or allow bullets a LOT heavier than .30-06 loads.
 
I'd stay '06 then. One less caliber to monkey with, and regardless of arguments about ballistics or SD numbers, out to 400 yards the 06 is BY FAR the more versitile of the two.(Owing to the wide range of slug weights/construction avalible in 308 caliber)
 
ArmedBear, you bring up a common problem with rifle/caliber selection. How many of us start with a plan to build up our collection of rifles and handguns? The first rifle that I bought specifically for hunting was a .300 WSM using the logic that it'd be good for just about anything. The second rifle I bought specifically for hunting was a 7mm-08 even though I really wanted a .30-06. There isn't much if any overlap between the 7mm-08 and .300 WSM, but there's a lot of overlap between the .30-06 and .300 WSM. I will buy a .30-06 eventually but only because I want one rather than need to fill a void in my collection.

If I were you, I'd pass on the 7mm Rem Mag even though a friend has one and likes it for deer and elk in Eastern Washington. Have you considered the 7mm-08? It's flat-shooting, has relatively light recoil and it has a reputation for accuracy well beyond 600 yards.


SlamFire1 said:
I believe belted magnums, and that includes the 7mm Rem Mag, are best left alone.
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I don't have any problems with my .300 Win Mag ... it's a keeper.

:)
 
I wanted something more than my lowly .257 Roberts once, so I kicked this back and forth. I like 7mm bullet selection, the BCs are better than 30 and they have some meat on 'em unlike 6.5mm. Seems like a decent compromise for big game. Now, 7mm Rem Mag is closer, ballistically, to the .300 Win Mag than the .30-06. Inside 300 yards, an elk won't know the difference, but the 7 holds a good bit more energy down range even if you don't respect the slightly better trajectory. I can push a 150 grain bullet to 3200 fps. 160 grain partitions are pretty danged accurate in my gun at over 3000 fps and can put down the heaviest of game.

Now, if I'd already had a 30-06, I wouldn't have bothered. The difference ain't worth having both. If I got another gun than a .30-06 that was already in my possession, I'd probably go up to .338. I don't need a .338, I'm just sayin'. :D

So, anyway, I'm thinkin' the big 7 can give you another 100 yards across that canyon, just going on my exterior ballistics print outs. It's way out there that the extra BC pays off and, it IS starting out faster, too.

And spare me the "be a hunter and get closer" comments. I'm an avid handgun and BP hunter and will be bow hunting this year. I know about getting closer. I'm just comparing two rifle calibers here and the 7mm Rem Mag is the winner, no question, if you just simply compare the ballistics. That's really all you have to do. And, the 7 mag's recoil is about the same, too boot!

Like I said, though, if I'd already had a .30-06, I wouldn't have bothered with the big 7. I certainly wouldn't sell a good gun for the caliber difference.
 
If its a good deal and you want it, buy it! It'll fill the same role as the 30-06 though. You might really think about whether you want another caliber more though, especially if, like most of us, your gun fund is not unlimited.
 
If I were in your position, I'd pass on the 7 mag. It won't do anything your .30-06 can do and can actually do less. .30-06 has a wider range of bullets (110gr-220gr) that can be loaded for everything from critter control to moose.How about something in 6.5X55 or .280? I had a Weatherby Vanguard in 7mm Mag. It shot very well and I had no problem with it. It just sat in the safe and I didn't shoot it much so I traded it. Nothing wrong with it, I just like my .30-06 and my .308 better.

P.S. You can flame me if you want about the 7 mag doing less than the .30-06. I just ment that the .30-06 can be loaded with heavier bullets.
 
Some learning curves are gradual some are steep, and some are expensive. :eek:

The largest magnum I had was the .340 Weatherby followed by the .338 Win, the .300 Win, last to the 7mm. All shoot flat, all deliver good energy, the first two are more expensive to feed. No regrets in having them, no regrets in selling them, no regrets in shooting them. And they all shot pretty good.

They all did what they were supposed to do.

Just like your '06.

I have a 7mm (2), they are what I call "retired" and "semi retired". I have the same thoughts on occasion of paring down to one or three rifles.

If I could just quit thinking about 375 H&H's every now and then I'd be alright. :rolleyes:
 
I have a 7mm (2), they are what I call "retired" and "semi retired". I have the same thoughts on occasion of paring down to one or three rifles.
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Yeah, i have 3 rifles and hardly ever use the big 7, but then, I don't live in Idaho. I don't really need it down here. I have my .257 Roberts and a .308 Winchester, both nice short action rifles that shoot 3/4 MOA with their best loads. I got to thinkin' that the .308 and the 7 mag have some overlap, and in fact, I might rather carry that little model 7 in the mountains 'cause it's so danged handy and light. Yeah, the 7 is a better long range big critter gitter, but I haven't even shot the thing in 10 years. :rolleyes: It's just a little much down here and I haven't hunted the mountains or the west Texas desert in a while.

I was thinkin' since it's a Savage and easy to do, I might swap the barrel out for a .338 Win Mag and get something I can smack a BIG critter with, but then, I'll have to be able to afford a big critter hunt, maybe Nilgai, and I can't right now. So, screw it, the big 7 shoots great, LOL! In fact, it'll kill any Nilgai I'll ever wanna kill with a Nosler partition 160. That's a critter that begs for a belted magnum, too. 7 is a might small for those things, but will work. .338 is preferred.

I think I'm going to set the 7 up for night hunting hogs, though. It's not the power I want so much as the superb scope that I wanna keep on that rifle, an older Weatherby Supreme, very bright scope, 44mm objective. In full moonlight, I don't need no stinkin' spotlight. Almost like having night vision. :D I mean, I ain't usin' the thing for anything else, might as well.
 
Not enough difference to put up with a longer heavier gun and more recoil in my opinion. If you want something different look at the 280.
 
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