7mm Back Country?

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I'm sure that most of you like me got the federal release of the new redesigned cartridge. Apparently they are using some type of alloy for that is stronger than brass.
 
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The problem that I see is of course, needing the steel casing to put up with 80k psi. It has yet to be SAAMI-approved. And yeah, only they have the alloy for the casing, requiring you to buy factory ammo. The main claim to fame for this is lots of speed out of a 20 inch barrel.

Many have hunted elk and other animals, even at reasonable ranges, with a 7 RM. I have the 7 PRC, which pushes heavy for caliber but I like it for the ballistic coefficient. It performs well, I think, even if not always getting to 3k fps.

Others who already have a 7 RM have stated that they did not need a 7 PRC. And that is perfectly fine. I still have my .308 rifles, for goodness sake.

But I will not be getting 7 Back Country. I just don't need it. And for hunting at 400 yards (maybe?) on an elk to less than 300 yards on a whitetail, I don't need anymore. And in the dense woods where I hunt, many is the time where you can't get more than 70 yards, usually less than that.

So, any .308 will do and one of my colleagues hunts everything in Texas with a .30-06.

But I am sure there will be some people who feel the 7 BC fills a niche they have.
 
Damn tough crowd, personally I don’t have a use for it as I have a 7 PRC but the case technology is what I’m really interested in. Who wouldn’t love an extra 150 to 200 fps out of their existing rifles just by swapping cases?
 
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The marketing pictured below.

These numbers at least look less fake then the ones I initially saw from Federal. I’d at least like to see real chrono results…just for sake of seeing them. I personally have no need for another 7mm mag myself.

View attachment 8586343


It's like the mid-2000s again with Extreme Shock Ammunition LOL... The 6.8 Western tried the above already, while 7mm Rem Mag and .300 Win Mag shooters are like: "ARE WE A JOKE TO YOU???"

extreme-shock-ammunition.jpg
 
Cody Jinks' Lost Highway sure has many ghosts on the side of the road...

Just a glimpse into how many North American sporting or sporting/military cartridges have become obsolescent in the last 100 years. Some have gotten left behind for legitimate reasons, like advances in propellant and metallurgy. But others have simply lost industry support after a brief peak time of popularity, due to existing calibers that have proven over the long run to be just as good, and companies would rather dedicate tooling, maintenance, and support for cartridges that they know will survive for the long term over something that is dropping in popularity after just a couple of years.

Chuck Hawks:


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The list of obsolescent North American rifle cartridges includes the .224 Weatherby Magnum, .225 Winchester, .25-20 Winchester, .250 Savage, 7-30 Waters, .284 Winchester, .300 Savage, .307 Winchester, .30-40 Krag, .300 H&H Magnum, .308 Norma Magnum, .32-20 Winchester, .32 Winchester Special, .348 Winchester, .356 Winchester, .358 Winchester, .358 Norma Magnum, .375 Winchester and .38-40 Winchester. The recently introduced .300 Rem. SAUM is already teetering on the edge of obsolescence, but has not quite made the list, as Remington still chambers one of their rifle models for it; ditto the quite useful (but never popular) 6.5mm Rem. Magnum.

The .224 Weatherby Magnum with its trick belted case and the .225 Winchester with its unusual semi-rimmed case are both fine varmint cartridges that basically lost out to the more popular .22-250 Remington, which is very similar in performance. Perhaps varmint shooters and reloaders prefer the simplicity of the .22-250's rimless case. In any case, the great majority of shooters will not miss the .224 and .225.

The .25-20, .32-20, and .38-40 are all black powder cartridges that made the transition to smokeless powder over 100 years ago and are now nearing the end of their days. All three have also been adapted for use in revolvers. The .25-20 and .38-40 are nearly gone. The .32-20 is an especially accurate and useful cartridge that deserves to be resurrected on its merit. Other cartridges like the .38-55 and .44-40 have been given a reprieve by the popularity of the sport of cowboy action shooting, but the useful .32-20 has largely been ignored. A few new rifles were chambered for the .32-20 in the late 1980's and early 1990's, which may serve to somewhat extend this fine little cartridge's life.
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The genuinely useful .250 Savage and .300 Savage are once popular cartridges that became obsolescent when Savage Arms fell on hard times and discontinued the excellent Model 99 rifle. These cartridges were designed for the Model 99 and, although adapted to other rifles and actions, they were eventually replaced for such use by the .257 Roberts, .243 Winchester, and .308 Winchester. The .250 and .300 Savage are effective cartridges, and more pleasant to shoot than the newer cartridges that have replaced them. But the later cartridges offer somewhat superior ballistics, and in the end that apparently decided the issue. Unless Savage brings back the Model 99, the .250 and .300 Savage are probably going to become obsolete.
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It’s interesting. Watching the knife Steel market is very similar. A market that seems saturated so many steels, many seemingly overlapping.

BUT recently a knife maker metallurgist developed a new steel called Magnacut that found an unfilled niche in the edge retention to toughness scale. I own a custom blade made with it, and it has really surprised me cutting up animals. The knife community seems to really love too.

So I guess once in a while lightning strikes. In the case of of the 7 mm Backcountry, the inability to reload is the deal breaker for us.

But if you think of the vast majority of hunters who don’t reload, that’s a huge market. And those folks love to show up to Elk camp with something to brag about. A new fangled rifle with a new wiz bang cartridge and boom. That’s their bragging staple for the evening campfire.

Face it we are a VERY small percentage of shooters much less hunters. For the guy who buys boxed ammo, this may well turn out to be gold for federal.
 

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It’s interesting. Watching the knife Steel market is very similar. A market that seems saturated so many steels, many seemingly overlapping.

BUT recently a knife maker metallurgist developed a new steel called Magnacut that found an unfilled niche in the edge retention to toughness scale. I own a custom blade made with it, and it has really surprised me cutting up animals. The knife community seems to really love too.

So I guess once in a while lightning strikes. In the case of of the 7 mm Backcountry, the inability to reload is the deal breaker for us.

But if you think of the vast majority of hunters who don’t reload, that’s a huge market. And those folks love to show up to Elk camp with something to brag about. A new fangled rifle with a new wiz bang cartridge and boom. That’s their bragging staple for the evening campfire.

Face it we are a VERY small percentage of shooters much less hunters. For the guy who buys boxed ammo, this may well turn out to be gold for federal.


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So I guess once in a while lightning strikes. In the case of of the 7 mm Backcountry, the inability to reload is the deal breaker for us.
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THAT there's the big reason for me to go 'meh' almost instantly. I got one rule when it comes to any platform I rely on for the long run: If it can't be reloaded, then it's casing better be made out of nitrated paper that burns up in the barrel along with the powder, and I got plenty that does that. The exception is .22 LR...
 
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It’s interesting. Watching the knife Steel market is very similar. A market that seems saturated so many steels, many seemingly overlapping.

BUT recently a knife maker metallurgist developed a new steel called Magnacut that found an unfilled niche in the edge retention to toughness scale. I own a custom blade made with it, and it has really surprised me cutting up animals. The knife community seems to really love too.

So I guess once in a while lightning strikes. In the case of of the 7 mm Backcountry, the inability to reload is the deal breaker for us.

But if you think of the vast majority of hunters who don’t reload, that’s a huge market. And those folks love to show up to Elk camp with something to brag about. A new fangled rifle with a new wiz bang cartridge and boom. That’s their bragging staple for the evening campfire.

Face it we are a VERY small percentage of shooters much less hunters. For the guy who buys boxed ammo, this may well turn out to be gold for federal.
A steel case that requires a dozen plus passes to resize? Oh, fun…
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So I guess once in a while lightning strikes. In the case of of the 7 mm Backcountry, the inability to reload is the deal breaker for us.
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THAT there's the big reason for me to go 'meh' almost instantly. I got one rule when it comes to any platform I rely on for the long run: If it can't be reloaded, then it's casing better be made out of nitrated paper that burns up in the barrel along with the powder, and I got plenty that does that. The exception is .22 LR...

I mean it says right on the site that the cases are reloadable.

IMG_7118.jpeg
 
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So I guess once in a while lightning strikes. In the case of of the 7 mm Backcountry, the inability to reload is the deal breaker for us.
----------


THAT there's the big reason for me to go 'meh' almost instantly. I got one rule when it comes to any platform I rely on for the long run: If it can't be reloaded, then it's casing better be made out of nitrated paper that burns up in the barrel along with the powder, and I got plenty that does that. The exception is .22 LR...
90% of my point, was that it is not targeting reloaders. That we are small fraction of the hunting market. This despite our self deception of how important we are. That’s just ego.

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I hope the 'tools and specifications' are not proprietary to that one platform only. That WILL be a turnoff to those who reload a wide variety of stuff on a single common setup.

My guess is the specs are related to load data, standard brass case pressure signs are most likely non existent with that case so if you are making shit up as you go you could easily go way over pressure.
 
I mean it says right on the site that the cases are reloadable.

View attachment 8586448

I know that RCBS is working on reloading dies for the 7 BC, and I’m eager to try them. But from what I’ve heard from RCBS, the dies are having trouble resizing the cases. In order to get them back to their original factory size they need to be run through the die multiple times — more than a dozen cycles, in fact.
Yep, have fun with that.
 
It’ll slay more 90lbs dressed white tails from inside handgun range than it will long range rams or bulls in the mountains.
Most all the cedar-chopper I knew and hunted with growing up here in the hill-country hunted with a 700 BDL Rem. in 7mag., usually with a Leopold scope. They also hunted Colo. muleys and elk.

Sooty, whiskered, wood-stove smelling, cigarette smoking hillbillys that were the real life version of the hillbillys in Deliverence, carried some beautiful rifles.
 
I think Seekins' newest action was made with this type of cartridge in mind. He specifically discussed the steel for the higher pressures and use of shorter barrel achieving same ballistics. Indicating that this may be an industry trend. Never mentioned the 7bc.
Can't wait to see what the barrel life is.
 
Just wondering out loud here...

Are we going to start to see a shift to hybrid cases and/or "better" alloys?

In my experience, higher performance usually comes at the cost of shorter service life... Like barrels. 80k psi is going to have an effect on barrel life... That's just the way it is. Yes, barrels are a consumable like tires. But is the extra bit of juice going to be worth the squeeze?

I guess that is going to be up to each individual shooter.

For the guy who saved 10 years and waited for the stars to align for his once-in-a-lifetime elk hunt out west... The ounces saved in weight with the yards gained in effective range... It might be worth it.

But will that market support a new cartridge and platform? I have my doubts.

Time will tell I suppose.

Mike
 
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Seems to me there is a "new" chambering and/or cartridge every couple months in the last what? 10 years? At least it's not named something retarded like the 7 Fat Faggot. 🤷🏿‍♂🤷🏿‍♀️ I'm sure the greatest, bestest, smoothiest, low recoiled queer mountain rifle cartridge ever......😘
 
Just wondering out loud here...

Are we going to start to see a shift to hybrid cases and/or "better" alloys?

In my experience, higher performance usually comes at the cost of shorter service life... Like barrels. 80k psi is going to have an effect on barrel life... That's just the way it is. Yes, barrels are a consumable like tires. But is the extra bit of juice going to be worth the squeeze?

I guess that is going to be up to each individual shooter.

For the guy who saved 10 years and waited for the stars to align for his once-in-a-lifetime elk hunt out west... The ounces saved in weight with the yards gained in effective range... It might be worth it.

But will that market support a new cartridge and platform? I have my doubts.

Time will tell I suppose.

Mike

On the flip side how much of a difference does the extra 15k psi make vs an extra 10 to 15 grains of powder?

For example if a .308, 30-06, 300 Win Mag barrel can go 5k, 3k and 1.5k respectively will the extra pressure and 200 fps have the same barrel life as the next larger cartridge or would it be worse?
 
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