The other day I was bored and comparing ballistics on winchester.com I came across the 7mm STW, and good grief, that is one flat shooting large caliber. Why didn't this round take it? It's almost as powerful as the 338 and a lot flatter.
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I have one, I can't say its almost as powerful as a 338 as it shoots up to 175gr bullets, and a 338 handles 225gr well. But I like mine. Little bit of a barrel burner. I am getting close to 3200fps with 160gr accubond with RL25.
The 7mmRUM, however kicks it to the curb. I say it didn't take cause it was hard on barrels, you already had the 7mmrem mag out there which was filling the niche it needed, and rem mag is much better caliber, you can really get some good performance with a 7mmRemMag.
Just going off of the Winchester charts, the 7mm STW was around 3500 foot pounds of energy. The 338 was in the3800 or 3900 foot pounds of energy. The 338 was -50 inches at 500 yards, when pinpointed at 200 yards. The 7mm STW was only -34.4 inches. These figures are going off of my head though, most gun websitesare blocked from my office, so I can't check them until night. And just for the record, I was on lunch break earlier.
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The .338 Win Mag is a better killer than any 7mm in existence
Not true, the 7mm Allen Magnum is pretty awesome.
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Big's whole post is spot on as always, but this is the meat of it. The STW is impressive in my eyes because it is/was one of the flattest shooting/fastest bullets around. The 7RUM does trump it...but until that 7RUM came around....the STW held the crown for flat shooting.
I think that there are better choices for long range hunting, if thats your thing, such as a 30-378 or a 338-378 or the 338 Lapua. But, if you want to take elk, mulies, antelope or sheep and not have to hold over much if any at 400-500 yards...the 7 STW is your baby still.
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The STW will also fit in a 7 Rem Mag action, right? So it would most likely be a pretty easy re-chamber.
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I love Christmas lights. They remind me of the people who voted for Obama. They all hang together; half of them don't work, and the ones that do, aren't that bright.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do
not understand, no explanation is possible.
A golf course is a willful and deliberate misuse of a perfectly good rifle range.
I had mine built when it was still a wildcat in 1996, the following year it was legitimized, it was rated at 3430 fps with a 140 gr bullet by remington, the year the 7 RUM came out rem downgraded it to 3325, this is all BS, my STW fires a 140 BT at 3550 fps with 86 gr of H1000, a 160 nosler accubond at 3340 fps loaded with 94 gr of WC872.
As far as factory cartridges go it is king, I've taken deer to 627 yds it is an awesome round.
RR
I own two 7mmstw rifles and a 7mmultramag.The ultramag adds about 75fps over the stw with 140gr bullets,but I much prefer the 7mmstw.My 140gr handloads produce 3500fps and 3800ftlbs of energy at the muzzle.I have takem deer,pronghorn,bighorn,elk and moose with 140gr bullets out of the 7mmstw.I still use use the 7mmstw exclusively for all of my pronghorn,deer and sheep hunting.
Thoughts on the 7mm STW
