What SA mag case would be best to run in a short action rifle. I'm looking to run the hornady 180s or the barnes 171s. Been looking at the saum, wsm, or maybe even the rcm case but cant seem to find an definite answer an which will run the bullets I'm looking at using on my short action.
Gunsmithing 7mm short mags in a ARC Nucleus SA
- Thread starter 6.5creedmoor
- Start date
7 saum in my nucleus.
If your wanting to be close to the lands at mag length with 180’s a reamer with shorter freebore is needed.
With hunting bullets I’d imagine regular reamer is good.
7 Sherman short is another excellent option to look into and it will definitely handle 180’s at mag length.
If your wanting to be close to the lands at mag length with 180’s a reamer with shorter freebore is needed.
With hunting bullets I’d imagine regular reamer is good.
7 Sherman short is another excellent option to look into and it will definitely handle 180’s at mag length.
Ya I keep seeing people saying good things about the SS cartridge just cant justify paying over a hundred dollars for 50 cases
WSM if you don't require mag feeding as it has more capacity. If you need it to feed out of a magazine and you want to keep the bullet shank out of the neck/shoulder junciton then look at the Sherman Short. Then again if you're willing to play with wildcats then you can go whatever direction you want.
You're also not real specific about the intended purpose of your rifle. Lightweight? Heavy? Match rifle? Hunting rifle? ELR plinker? The field's pretty open there.
Back in the O'Bummer era component shortage I took what brass was available and had some reamers ground. At the time oddball brass, reamers and barrels were cheaper than some component combinations so I improvised with a 7mm WSSM:
Seems to match the 7mm SAW from WTO performance (185RDF/183SMKs at ~2800fps), but there's virtually no mag length restrictions. To be honest I haven't tried the 195 Bergers or the 197 SMKs as I think for those to shine you should have more case capacity and a tighter twist than what I have.
You're also not real specific about the intended purpose of your rifle. Lightweight? Heavy? Match rifle? Hunting rifle? ELR plinker? The field's pretty open there.
Back in the O'Bummer era component shortage I took what brass was available and had some reamers ground. At the time oddball brass, reamers and barrels were cheaper than some component combinations so I improvised with a 7mm WSSM:
Seems to match the 7mm SAW from WTO performance (185RDF/183SMKs at ~2800fps), but there's virtually no mag length restrictions. To be honest I haven't tried the 195 Bergers or the 197 SMKs as I think for those to shine you should have more case capacity and a tighter twist than what I have.
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I'm mostly looking to use it for 1k + plinking and hunting and maybe even for some field course type team matches. It will be mag fed out of aics mags. I have been thinking about giving the wssm wildcat rounds a try but haven't made a decision yet if I want to have a custom reamer built yet. I've even been thinking about giving the 6.5wssm with 147s a try but really cant find much info on the wssm cases.
I saw a video on YouTube of a guy making 6.5 sherman short mag out of 7saum cases using a shortened saum sizing die is that possible to do with the 7ss or does it have a different shoulder angle from the 6.5ss
Same shoulder angle.
I’m pretty sure the base of the shoulder is blown out a bit on the Sherman short brass(for less case taper)compared to the saum and also I’m pretty sure the SS uses the WSM shoulder angle as well.
I can tell you 7 saum hammers at 1000+ and makes mile shots a good bit more consistent than my trusty ole 260.
I’m pretty sure the base of the shoulder is blown out a bit on the Sherman short brass(for less case taper)compared to the saum and also I’m pretty sure the SS uses the WSM shoulder angle as well.
I can tell you 7 saum hammers at 1000+ and makes mile shots a good bit more consistent than my trusty ole 260.
WSM if you don't require mag feeding as it has more capacity. If you need it to feed out of a magazine and you want to keep the bullet shank out of the neck/shoulder junciton then look at the Sherman Short. Then again if you're willing to play with wildcats then you can go whatever direction you want.
You're also not real specific about the intended purpose of your rifle. Lightweight? Heavy? Match rifle? Hunting rifle? ELR plinker? The field's pretty open there.
Back in the O'Bummer era component shortage I took what brass was available and had some reamers ground. At the time oddball brass, reamers and barrels were cheaper than some component combinations so I improvised with a 7mm WSSM:
Seems to match the 7mm SAW from WTO performance (185RDF/183SMKs at ~2800fps), but there's virtually no mag length restrictions. To be honest I haven't tried the 195 Bergers or the 197 SMKs as I think for those to shine you should have more case capacity and a tighter twist than what I have.
those 7WSSM round look awesome And 2800 with 180’s is nothing to sneeze at.
6.5 WSSM is similar to 6.5-284 in performance. Depending on reamer spec it likely has a little less capactity than the 6.5-284 case. There's no Lapua WSSM brass so there's the overhead of prepping, fire-forming and then weight-sorting. I didn't mind the overhead as I've shot about 2000 rounds on my first 100 cases. On my first set of 50 I started getting split necks after nearly 30 reloads. You get some mileage out of the Winchestser brass, but it's not a very consistent product, or it wasn't at the time; I haven't bought any since 2014. New production may be better or worse.
I also have a 7mm WSM and I ran 180s at 3000fps for a while. My barrel's got about 1300 rounds through it and the first few inches are pretty rough but it's still holding about .3 MOA. I don't have a reliable source for 7mm WSM brass (that's not $3 a case) so that barrel's been removed in favor of the WSSM flavor. The long pointy bullets have a pretty long jump to the lands at mag length too and you lose quite a bit of case capacity. The one caveat was the 180SMK. Those guys are pretty stubby but their BC is pretty low in comparison to to today's offerings. They sure shot great though.
One drawback of the short action magnum cartridge is sourcing AI-pattern 10-round magazines. I've got 2 mags from Alpha Industries and they've worked great for me and I had zero customer service issues with the Alpha guy, but it sounds like I was lucky.
I also have a 7mm WSM and I ran 180s at 3000fps for a while. My barrel's got about 1300 rounds through it and the first few inches are pretty rough but it's still holding about .3 MOA. I don't have a reliable source for 7mm WSM brass (that's not $3 a case) so that barrel's been removed in favor of the WSSM flavor. The long pointy bullets have a pretty long jump to the lands at mag length too and you lose quite a bit of case capacity. The one caveat was the 180SMK. Those guys are pretty stubby but their BC is pretty low in comparison to to today's offerings. They sure shot great though.
One drawback of the short action magnum cartridge is sourcing AI-pattern 10-round magazines. I've got 2 mags from Alpha Industries and they've worked great for me and I had zero customer service issues with the Alpha guy, but it sounds like I was lucky.
What is your barrel length on the 7wssm? Was possibly looking at doing that or maybe even a shortened 7mm x 300rcm
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