7mm stw?
 

ive heard alot about these stw's anyone know nething about em? i heard that theyre a great long range cartridge? that true? lookin into em? whatd you guys think?

A buddy of mine had one, a Weatherby I believe. Awesome cartridge but I believe he shot his barrel out pretty quickly with it. That is one hot load.

I read somewhere that the 7mm RUM was the death of the 7mm STW, its a 8mmRem Mag necked down to 7mm, the stw that is...

I think I'd take a 300 RUM over any of those....more popular, plenty flat, with that much powder I think you might as well be shooting a 30 caliber or more...

A friend has one and says how the barrel life is extremely short and that he needs a new barrel for his. I've never shot it but he says it's starting to get shot out.

Barrel life is just something you have to deal with when it comes to these big magnums. But, a lot of guys don't shoot enough to even worry about it. And if you load your cartridges on the light side for regular shooting, you've easily increased your bbl life.

When it comes down to it, performance is performance. The STW is one flat shooting mofo, and it takes advantage of the 7mm bullets that are, for caliber, more aerodynamic than the 30s and still tough for big game.

I got one. I can get it up to 3300fps with 160gr bullet. No slouch. Better barrel life than a RUM, which I have owned a few of too. Its still a barrel burner however. I have about 500 rounds thru mine. Plan to at least get 1000 more.

Laynes original loads were off the chart. Some of them scare me some. He was getting 3500fps with 160gr pills.

Great cartridge IMO. The next 7mm will be an STW. Like others have said barrel and performance wise more effecient then the RUM.

If you do a little research on powders there are several ball powders that are known to significantly extend barrel life compared to stick powders. This has been verified by extensive military testing to extend the service life of its weapons.

I believe US869 is one but I cannot remember the source. Perhaps Ridge could chime if he is aware of which powders they are.

It's a great cartridge. I had mine pushing 3500fps with a 140 grain Triple Shock. I have since switched to 160 gr. Accubonds pushed with 76grains of IMR 7828. Floats right around 3250fps with a factory barrel.

You won't find a factory gun chambered in it nowadays though. I'll stand corrected if I'm wrong. You'll have to go used or have one built.......just make sure you get at least a 26" barrel.

A long time ago "BIG GREEN" introduced the 8mm Remington Magnum, supposed to be a real big game stopper.. looked good, shot great, had everything about right and they made poorly constructed bullets that failed for the most part on true big game.. that big beautiful case found it's home with handloaders.. it's been necked up and down for many generations ever since.. the 7mmSTW and the 357 STA were among the most popular and still are today in certain circles.. I myself love the standard ole' 8mm Rem Mag, loaded with great nosler partitions it will handle anything on the North Amercian continent with ease.. amazing velocities can be achieved with all that powder being burnt and with speed comes energy.. I know most of us never shoot a true big game rifle all that much and it takes years to shoot 100's of shots, let alone 1000's.. I wonder how long it takes to burn out a barrel on the 7STW..I wonder if the throat area will take a 1000 shots..how's case life?? All the wildcats based on the great ole' 8mm RM have their place, too bad the original never caught on and that was "BIG GREEN's" fault also..