Roskoe

I recently picked up a used 7 Rem Mag really reasonable, and decided to load up some hunting ammunition for my 13 year old son. Last year, he hunted with a 7MM-08 that was fitted with a 25" #4 Douglas barrel. We shot 150 gr. Swift Scirocco bullets at a little over 2700 fps. I decided to try a starting load of a certain powder with this same bullet in the 7MM Rem Mag, and low and behold it was going almost exactly the same velocity as full throttle ammunition in the 7MM-08. The guns are both Remington 700's, both weigh almost the same, and both have Simm's recoil pads.

Any opinions on which onekicks less? It takes more grains of powderto make the speed in the reduced load 7 Rem Mag, but the pressure is quite a bit lower than full throttle loads out of the 7MM-08.

pahntr760

My 7 mag doesn't even kick as hard as my 308! Thats because the 7 has a Hi-Viz recoil pad and the 308 is a 760 w/o one. The 7 mag will kick more, but not enough to worry about. The 7 mag with the pad kick little more then a 243! Best of luck!

BrutalAttack

If you can tell me how many grains of powder you're using in both loads I can calculate it for your almost exactly.

Roskoe

I'm using 46.2 grains of a medium burning spherical ball powder in the 7MM-08; and 59.0 grains of a fairly slow extrudedpowder in the 7 Rem Mag.

Doe Dumper

This is interesting..Id say the 7 mag but I have never shot anything but factory out of the Mag. Hard to make the 08 kick hard with anything.

BrutalAttack

Using the velocities for each respective caliber's 150 gr. load they came out with teh 7mm rem mag having substantially more...almost 8 more ft/lbs of free recoil.

Using an equal velocity (2800 fps) I got only 3 ft/lbs more recoil with the mag.


Just an FYI: the Federal 150 gr. 7mm mag load is clocked at 3110 and the 7mm-08 150 gr. load at 2800.

[email protected]

Roskoe, you need the Lee shooters program down loaded into you puter, then you can get this info for any gun you want for about $10.00. Asuming the guns weigh about 7.5 lbs each, the 7mm 08 should have a free recoil velocity of 11.2 fps and a free recoil energy of 14.6ft lb----- the 7mm mag should have a free recoil velocity of 12.2 fps and a free recoil energy of 17.3 ft lb. I hope this helps, Glenn I think the price may be a little misleading that I qouted above, the program cd cost ten bucks .

longrifle1000

You can also use this free calculator.

http://www.handloads.com/calc/recoil.asp

BrutalAttack

Which is what i used.

Roskoe

I'm aware of the various recoil calculator programs out there. Thanks to all for the input and research. I guess the central issue with this comparison is therelatively low pressures that the reduced load 7 Rem Mag handloads develop to make the same speed as the 7MM-08. While neither one has much of a pop, it seems like the downloaded 7 Mag has more of a gentle push than the 7-08. Kind of tough to quantify exactly, though. And I don't think the recoil programs take this pressure issue into account.

Anyway, I see folks around here regularly purchase rifles for youth hunters that have low recoil - like the .243, .260, 7MM-08 - and when they get old enough to handle more recoil, they trade them in for a 30/06, 7 Rem Mag or even .300 Win Mag to get more effective range (western hunting). What I am proposing here is that maybe we should just get them the 7 Rem Mag right away at age 12. Shorten the stock and let them shoot reduced loads for the first couple of years. Maybe increase the load 100 fps every year or so - until the young hunter is ready for the full throttle stuff. Add spacers to the stock as they grow.

Anyone in the market for a really nice used 7MM-08?