7 mm mag or 300

Big7

The Oracle
Anything .243+ will kill any deer at 300yds. Accuracy is about repeatabilility: hitting the same spot everytime. I would focus on a rifle that is accurate; caliber would be a secondary concern.

Or Moose or Elk or just about anything else that won't eat you.

My go-to is the 7MM REM. MAG.

I've had a variety of center fire rifle calibers over the years. I have not found any caliber that covers all the gaps quite like the Big7.

There is a reason for the world-wide following since it was announced and Remington introduced it in 1962.

BAD TO THE BONE!
 

Buckstop

Senior Member
Anyhow, what’s your preference? OP, has a 30-06, a .300 win mag, will offer 30 more yards. 7mm rem mag will give you 20 yards above 30-06. Maybe if you don’t have a caliber in .280, this will cover that slot. However, to shoot 500 yards, you have to start looking at some serious optics, and a rangefinder.

Sound advise on a good scope and rangefinder. I would not hunt out there without them. On an open prairie, to the eye, 275 yards looks a whole lot like 350 and vice versa. Big difference on POI though.
 

Dub

Senior Member
Going on the hunt of a lifetime.....eliminate all the "what if's".

I've had a few 7mmRemMags and found factory loads that would group acceptably with each. It was always my favorite "long range" round for hunting around here.

That being said, I've had both 300 Win Mag and 300WSM rifles. The 300 Win Mag was a M700 Sendero that I wish I'd hung onto. It was a beast. It ate every factory load I tried and would spit 'em into tight groups. It was a heavy gun and ate up recoil with no problem. Not much fun to tote around, but once in the stand it was very steady and stable on the shooting rail.

The 300WSM was a rifle I wish I'd never fooled with. Took forever to find factory loads it'd shoot with acceptable accuracy. I wasted time and money on that gun. Never again.

My B-I-L and other's 300 Win Mag rifles I've shot all were very easy to find factor loads in 165gr or 180gr that would should tight groups. There is something about that cartridge that simply is inherently accurate.

For those special hunts I'd suggest a heavy barreled 300 Win mag with a 26" barrel and good scope......and plenty of practice with it at those ranges.

Just my two cents.
 

Darkhorse

Senior Member
If you don't flinch now then the .300 Winchester Magnum will teach you to. You can count on that.
I have both calibers. I bought the 7mag in 1983 and it was my main centerfire for 10 years or so. It took many deer and hogs mostly within 50 yards. My longest shot was a 5x5 bull elk at 385 long steps. I never considered recoil a problem with the 7mag.

I bought the .300 Win. Mag. in 1996, it is a Browning stainless stalker w/BOSS. The BOSS is also a muzzle break and makes recoil a non factor. I put a Leupold 3.5x10 scope on it. This scope has a range finder built in and I've used it several times when the animal gave me the chance. I took a 5x5 bull elk at over 400 yards in N. Colorado. I've also taken 2 buck deer at over 400 yards with this rifle.
I've shot the .300 over a thousand shots to help train my body and mind to ignore the recoil and blast.
Notice on the hunting shows all the custom long range rifles have muzzle breaks to reduce the recoil? There's good reasons for that. Recoil is real and affects different people different ways.

I would choose the .300 Winchester Magnum with 165 grain bullets.
 
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Mr Bya Lungshot

BANNED LUNATIC FRINGE
If you don't flinch now then the .300 Winchester Magnum will teach you to. You can count on that.
I have both calibers. I bought the 7mag in 1983 and it was my main centerfire for 10 years or so. It took many deer and hogs mostly within 50 yards. My longest shot was a 5x5 bull elk at 385 long steps. I never considered recoil a problem with the 7mag.

I bought the .300 Win. Mag. in 1996, it is a Browning stainless stalker w/BOSS. The BOSS is also a muzzle break and makes recoil a non factor. I put a Leupold 3.5x10 scope on it. This scope has a range finder built in and I've used it several times when the animal gave me the chance. I took a 5x5 bull elk at over 400 yards in N. Colorado. I've also taken 2 buck deer at over 400 yards with this rifle.
I've shot the .300 over a thousand shots to help train my body and mind to ignore the recoil and blast.
Notice on the hunting shows all the custom long range rifles have muzzle breaks to reduce the recoil? There's good reasons for that. Recoil is real and affects different people different ways.

I would choose the .300 Winchester Magnum with 165 grain bullets.

That’s all true. Didn’t I read a post of yours that said you suffered hearing loss completely in one ear and almost the other to the point you no longer can hear deer walking anymore?
 

Jester896

Senior Clown
funny how it works for different people...a 7mm RM has always felt harder to me that a .300 Win Mag...neither one of them is needed to kill deer inside 500 yards.

elevation is the easy adjustment...windage is the struggle
 

nmurph

Senior Member
[QUOTE="Jester896, post: 11572803, member: ]...neither one of them is needed to kill deer inside 500 yards.

elevation is the easy adjustment...windage is the struggle[/QUOTE]

^^^^this^^^^
 
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Darkhorse

Senior Member
That’s all true. Didn’t I read a post of yours that said you suffered hearing loss completely in one ear and almost the other to the point you no longer can hear deer walking anymore?
No. That wasn't me. I do have ringing in my ears but it comes mostly from work environment. I began using hear protection, both ear plugs and muffs at the same time, before any real damage was done.
I was hunting in thick woods down in a gully in Crawford co. and shot a deer with the .300 win. mag. The blast seemed to pierce my ears and I could hardly hear for several days due to the ringing but gradually it got back to normal. That's when I decided to save the magnums for western hunts or powerlines. Now I hunt with a .308 or flintlock and the magnums stay in the safe.
 

lonewolf247

Senior Member
practice to 500 and you should be fine...use the money you saved for practice rounds

OP, this is one of the points I was trying to make in a previous post. Buying a new rifle in either of the calibers mentioned in this post, will net you only an additional MPBR of ~30 yards at the most, after that you have to start compensating for trajectory.

Guessing at holdovers, is not really a reliable strategy, nor is it responsible way to hunt, or ethical to the animal.

So that being said, if 30 yard gains on the MPBR will satisfy your needs, you could buy the new rifle, and set your max distance at 350 or so and that’s about it. Otherwise, you have to get in the game of ranging the animal, and compensating with reticals or turrets, whichever way you choose to go.

So, with that said, your 30-06 has enough energy to kill deer at 500 yards, once you overcome the trajectory challenge.

So, it’s all back to the preference thing, do you prefer 30-06, 7mm rem mag, or .300 win mag?

General statement, it’s a lot easier at the range, shooting from a bench rest, to shoot 500 yards, than to hunt deer from a deer stand at those ranges. At the range you are shooting at a known distance, you can compensate precisely, and shoot accurately, and comfortably, from a bench rest.

On a deer stand, you have to figure out the distance, and guessing is not a good strategy, you have to calculate, and precisely click a turret for the given distance, and making yourself comfortable and stable, to shoot with accuracy from a deer stand to 500 yards, to kill a deer. All this provided, that the deer will remain still, and give you ample time, to range him, make adjustments, and take a stable shot.

I’m not saying this is impossible, for a select few people, to do consistently, but I don’t think it is something that the majority of hunters can do routinely, because of some obstacle, or lack of preparation.

OP, you could buy a good rangefinder, and a good long range hunting scope, and give this just about as good of a go,with your 30-06, as you can do with a magnum caliber. Use the extra money on premium hunting ammo, practice ammo, rangefinder, and riflescope.

Also, it’s always a great feeling, and a good reason to buy a new rifle!?
 
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tom ga hunter

Senior Member
I have hunted out west & to me doping the wind is much harder than the range. It is normal to be in 20 MPH winds and there is no way to learn to shoot in these conditions in Ga. I have 270,280,30'06 7RemMag and 300WM custom rifles. If I had to cut back to 1 it be the 7RemMag. The 300WM makes me flinch. I wound not hunt with a rifle with a muzzle brake.
 
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GunnSmokeer

Senior Member
I was in the market for a longer-range, flatter-shooting big game caliber a few years ago.

I researched the .30/06, the .300 win mag, and the 7mm Rem Mag. I wanted a classic caliber that was as common as white bread,
with every retail store stocking several different loads for it.

I decided that either a 7 mm mag or 300 WinMag would be equally good—a toss up.
I would buy whichever rifle I could find a better value on 1st.
Whichever came up on sale first. The 7 mm Remington Mag rifle came up with a good sale, a real bargain, so I bought it.

After having it for two years and testing it out to a few hundred yards and shooting some reactive targets (milk jug filled with water, 5 gallon buckets full of mud from the edge of the creek) I decided that it really wasn’t significantly more powerful than my 308.

I sold it. Now if the bug for having a “more powerful rifle” than a .308 ever bites me again, I’m going to go with something that’s .30 caliber and can shoot 180 to 220 grain bullets.
So that would probably be a 300 Win Mag.
 

Jester896

Senior Clown
or run 190s in a 28 Nosler...that will give you the highly sought after 7mm and it scoots along pretty fast...around 3100 I think...about the same as a 7mmRUM
 

MCBUCK

Senior Member
I am far and away not as gun tech savvy as some of the posters here. But I have a fair amount of common sense; I would say to listen to lonewolf for sure. All of that aside, I have a question so bear with me and read this through carefully;

The old saying of " beware the man with one gun, for he probably knows how to use it" This is a large statement here. You have a good quality 30-06 that you say you are good to 300 yards with, so why would you want to mess with what is working? You have a rifle that serves you well out to 300 yards ( which is a long poke) so why don't you stretch your ability to 350/375 and dance with the girl you brought to the dance? Practice with the gun you know and trust already. I have a T3 lite in 30-06 and I too am comfortable to 300-325 with but if I thought I would be tested at 350-375 then I would practice at that distance, test ammo, optics, etc. I hunt a soybean field that has ranges out to 450+ and 450 is a long way...farther than most people think. The last deer I killed was on that field at 279. The last animal I killed on that field was a coyote at 198 , All ranged with a laser rangefinder.
Just bubble gum for the brain...unless you just want a new gun. :cool:
 

glynr329

Senior Member
Both are great but I favor the 7mag. You can't go wrong with either. The best shooting gun and accurate that I have ever shot was 7 mm ultra mag.
Model 700 Sendero SF II
 

Lead Poison

Senior Member
My vote is the 7mm Remington Mag. I've owned several. All were good shooters and they had much less kick than the 300 Win Mags I "use" to own.
 

specialk

Senior Member
1 vote 7mm...spend as much money on optics as possible, don't skimp....
 

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