Range Report: Remington 700's in 7mm Rem Mag and 7mm08 Rem.

shotgunshooter3

After far too long away from the rifle range, I was finally able to head out for a few hours with the goal of testing a few elk loads for groups and velocity in my 7mm Rem Mag and my 7mm08 Remington. By a few, I mean one in each rifle with the hope they'd work, and one backup in the 7mm Rem Mag just in case.

First up was the 7mm Rem Mag:





- 70's vintage Remington 700 ADL in 7mm Rem Mag
- Redfield Tracker 3-9
- Factory Loaded Federal Premium 160gr Partitions
- 3091 avg velocity, 7.1 SD

At 100 yards the load yielded just over a MOA group, and I suspect it would have done better with a more competent shooter. Just as importantly, it pushed an average velocity of 3091 FPS and should be plenty suitable for elk well beyond my self imposed limit of 400yds. Elk load found! Though I had brought another load to try, my shoulder was getting sore and I had an other gun to try out so I decided agains it.

Nest up was my trusty 7mm08 (backup gun for this hunt):





- Remington 700 "Classic" in 7mm08 Remington
- Leupold VX-3i 3.5-10x40
- Factory loaded Federal Premium 140gr Trophy Bonded Tip
- 2835 average velocity, 10 SD

My first group with this one was frustrating, and yielded about 2 MOA. Knowing the gun could do better, and really hoping to use the factory Trophy Bonded load on my elk hunt, I decided to give it another go. Fortunately the second group, with the shooter paying a lot more attention, was much more favorable. Additionally, the 7mm08 is very pleasant to shoot compared to the stouter 7mm Rem Mag. I'll be taking this rifle and load on my elk hunt, and if it works out the way I'd like to I'll be using this one to fill my mule deer buck tag.

Overall I'm very pleased with both firearms and both loads, and looking forward to trying them out on game animals. I typically don't do the autopsy reports that some members are so thorough about here, but if time and conditions allow I'll try and report back.

As another note, although it's not surprising, a side-by-side comparison of the VX-3i to the vintage Redfield showed the VX-3i to be leaps and bounds ahead in every category. Technology marches on. I now have a Leupold VX-3i 3.5-10x40 CDS and Leupold "Back Country" one piece rings on the way to top off the 7mm Rem Mag for this hunt and for future use.

I'm getting excited for this hunt, and the time is drawing near! Next range trip will be dedicated to zeroing both guns, and confirming drops out to 400 or 500 yards. Following that most of my practice will be positional shooting out to 400 on steel.

knitepoet

Looking good Matt

GunNut

A good day at the range beats just about everything else!  Glad you are getting your guns and loads all sorted out for this hunt.

Big Al1

Good prep work before a hunt is important!! Hope you see brown hair in your cross hairs!!
The rifles will do their part if you do!!

Good shootin'!!

earlyagain

Good luck on the hunt!

Make sure a dollar bill slides between the barrel and fore arm. Maybe some paste wax in the bedding/barrel channel. Degrease the triggers if they need it.

Diver43

Looks like you have two winner.  Looking forward to your hunt report

CHIRO1989

Good deal on the short range session to find the loads, keep practicing though, if you can find a sand pit to shoot at some high and low angles, I found that helpful, I still missed my first shots at an elk though. You are shooting minute of elk there, don't obsess too much.

BigDanS

good work!

Six-Gun

You should have no trouble with either gun. Got that drop confirmation done and you're all set.

Ernie Bishop

Glad you were able to get out and have a successful day at the range.  Looking forward to tags being filled.

shotgunshooter3

I still haven't been able to hit the range, but I did get a Leupold VX-3i 3.5-10x40 CDS in Leupold Back Country rings installed. I'm toying with the idea of bedding and floating the 7mm RM since I have to re-zero anyway. 

GunNut

shotgunshooter3 said:

I still haven't been able to hit the range, but I did get a Leupold VX-3i 3.5-10x40 CDS in Leupold Back Country rings installed. I'm toying with the idea of bedding and floating the 7mm RM since I have to re-zero anyway. 

That is one good looking rig! 

snake284

Two great cartridges. I like Partitions too. I have an elk load for my .270 Win. if I ever get an opportunity to use it. 150 Grain Partition over 58 grains of H-4831 for 2850 FPS. A lot of people on another forum use this load for elk and other big game. For my 300 WBY Mag. I'll use a 200 grain Partition at 3,000 FPS with RL-25. Not sure of the charge weight right now but I've seen the load on several sights and people that use it praise it.

For my 7x57 I'm not sure yet. I haven't thought that far ahead, but I think I like a 150 Partition in it too. For my .280 Rem AND my 7 Mag. I think I like the 160 Partition as well. A lot of people want heavier bullets in those two, but I think for the ranges I shoot, using heavier bullets than that would reach a point of diminishing returns as velocity would fall too far below my liking. I like some hydraulic shock along with bullet mass and velocity is the father of that.

snake284

GunNut said:

shotgunshooter3 said:

I still haven't been able to hit the range, but I did get a Leupold VX-3i 3.5-10x40 CDS in Leupold Back Country rings installed. I'm toying with the idea of bedding and floating the 7mm RM since I have to re-zero anyway. 

That is one good looking rig! 

Remington 700s are easy as pie to bed. Even if you want to pillar bed one it'no big trick. Just use a good mold release. On my hunting rifles Pam is plenty good. On a more precision rig you can get a good mold release from Brownell's. Or some use shoe or even furniture wax. However, I've had great luck with Pam and it's ridiculously simple to use. I even used the Buttuer Flavored one once. Did a great job although my rifle smelled funny for years.