Bought a 7mm RUM a two years back for out west hunting. I am not a reloader, and at current 140 cor-lokt is the on factory loading available. I'm thinking about having the gun re-barreled to 300 RUM. Can this be done with the current receiver, and if yes, what are we talking about in cost? Open to any suggestions. My thought is if I can re-barrel in the 300 RUM, I would have many options for ammo. Also, I brough the rifle to a local gun store,a nd they would only offer $385.00 for it. I have the Model 700 LSS. The gun was fired less then 40 times. After hearing the offering, thats what got me thinking about hey, I already have the model 700 action, why not re-barrel. Again, open to any suggestions. I would be using the gun for out west Mullie/Elk hunting....

R1

My first suggestion would be to turn into a Reloader. This gives you a lot more options regardless of caliber. Personally I would stick to the 7MM UM. You really can't improve much on that. My next Idea would be to trade it for a 300 Win Mag. That will give you many options without reloading and in the field, all you loose is a little recoil. The rebarrel should work if you really want to go that route. If you dont reload the 300 UM then the gain over the 300 Win Mag is slim, REAL slim.

Take the $385, and get yourself another rifle - the RUM's aren't doing too well.
For mule deer/elk hunting, look to a rifle chambered to 7mmRem.Mag., 280Rem.,
30-06, or even the 338Win.Mag.

I agree to trade it in. I think a lot of people bought these long range "Western big game hunting guns" for nothing. Some may never even get that chance to hunt (not saying you won't, but a lot of people seem to have bought them) out west. The result is people finding out that there is no advantage in game stopping performance than over any of the standard length magnums. I agree to trade that off for something between a .280 Remington on up to a 35 Whelen (which may be fairly difficult to obtain ammo for actually). This would include the 7mmRM, .308 Win, .30-06, 300WM, 338WM, I am sure there are a couple more out there, but there are few that would rival the 5 middle ones I have listed for all around big game hunting out west. (I would look into what options are available for the .280 and 35 Whelen before selecting those two).

The ultramags are not worth owning unless you reload.Factory loads are very mild and selection is very limited.They are also a poor choice unless you have a 500 yard range available and are willing to spend the time and money practising in order to develop and maintain the shooting skills necessary to utilize the advantage that the ultramags provide at ranges approaching 400 yards and farther.They provide no real advantage over the conventional magnums at 300 yards or less.That being said ,I do own a 7mmultramag and two 300 ultramags and am very happy with their performance.

Sure it can be rebarreled. Don't even have to change the bolt face or anything. I am not going to be so bold or arrogant to tell you what you should be getting. You know why? Cause I am not you. But if you get it rebarreled, you can put a barrel of your choice on and make a great tack driver.

I am curious Stubble, if you don't reload, what heavy bullet high velicity gun would you own? I mean they all are a little cold arn't they?

Is it not entertaining to watch folks post that having a RUM or whatever, is not worth more than their 300 Win Mag? Yet they chose the win mag because it was a bit faster than the 06! It goes on and on.

Yes you can rebarrel. Top notch job will run about 750 or so. But you can find cheapy jobs in the area of 200 or so if I understand right. The barrels won't be any better than factory jobs though. So its all up to you. BTW for a 750 dollar job you should expect something like the 300 RUM to shoot into groups of 2 inches or less at 500 yards with reloads.

Depending on what you are after game wise the 7RUM that you have may be just fine. An occasional elk here and there and you are still good to go. Might have to pass on a marginal shot that a bigger gun could take but you have distance with the round and for a flat deer gun there is nothing wrong with it at all.

As James mentions, might be a great time to start into reloading.

Jeff

Wow, that would beat the benchrest champion with a 300RUM now with 10 shots?

I got my 300RUM rebarreled with a Krieger Remington varmit contour for $450. Thats blued, crowned, lugs polished, and chambered. I think Krieger offers thier services too for rebarreling. I don't even think Shilen would near as high as $750. Wow, where you getting your guns rebarreled?

Didn't know they shot BR at 500 yards. Actually since its a hunting rifle I would shoot only 5 shot groups max. On my competition rifles I shoot 20 shot groups since we shoot 20-22 rounds per position. All dependant on what you are doing.

If you have your action trued and the bolt sleeved and then add a good top of the line barrel to the issue its gonna run about that much. Truing from a top line smith (I'm pretty picky- I used to use Krieger but I now am picky enough that their barrels are great but the chambering isn't up to my standards) is gonna run 200-300 bucks. About the same for the barrel and add chambering and you are at that mark. I may have erred just a bit in that I omitted the fact that 750 will normally include a brake since I'm talking mag rounds here.

You will note that I differentiated between the best and worst on barreling jobs. All depends on what you want and what you can use. A shaw barrel done by them will get me nowhere at nationals. An Allen or likewise barreling job on a hunting rifle in the hands of a neotype, they'll never shoot it well enough to see the difference.

Jeff