Thread: Short barrel magnum calibres?

Originally Posted by Nick.m

Interesting, bit of food for thought and plenty of time to think .
Sounds like the general consensus is SAUM or 300wsm for shorter barreled magnums.

Anyone know why has the 7mm WSM has never taken off in NZ? Seems like the WSM cases are more economic then then the likes of the Rem Mag in a shorter barrel so i would have thought the 7mm WSM would also be a good candidate for a chop aswell.


Chainsaw, You know what its like you always want an all round rifle for everything from 5m-600m, Sika, Rusa and Reds mainly. Bullet speeds not really an issue, id be happy as long as it was pushing 2800+ because that gets me out to 500 odd.

Stagstalker, thats exactly the problem i have, to cut my rem mag to less then 21 inches and im into the fluting which i dont want to do and ideally id like to cut the rifle a little bit shorter then 21. Maybe18 or 19 would be ideal for my style of hunting.

The issue with 7mmWSM and why it never got much of a following is that the 7mmWSM case has very short neck. I understand this was done to prevent an accidental mix up with 270WSM cases.
The answer to get around the short neck is to get a 7mm/300WSM custom chamber made and neck down 300WSM brass.
But then you're into a bit of mission that most folks just cant be bothered with. The 7mmWSM or 7/300 certainly has impressive capabilities but its largely overlooked, or surpassed by new big 7's like Blaser Mag or N28 etc.
And with new powders like RL26 that @GWH has mentioned you can get WSM or RM performance out of a wee SAUM.
And in fact the 284 will get you damn close to RM with the right powders. Certainly get you the >2800 fps you're after.

For your hunting and ranges a 284 or SAUM sounds like the best match. If its 5 - 600 yards max then the 284 would be my pick, you can put together a very light weight rig and the 284 with suppressor is a real pussy to shoot.
If you want to go 30cal you can go 300 SAUM or build a 30-284 (there's a thread on here about this). Pretty much mimics the ballistic performance of the mighty old 30-06 but in a short bbl.