nakneker
Gold $$ Contributor
Good choice too, Zack made me a 25-284 on a 700 action I had laying around. I haven’t played with it yet but it should be fun. Good luck!
I've got a high BC bug up my keister
- Thread starter fatelvis
- Start date
Build one. Get a Zermatt Origin and you can put on a lighter barrel to hunt and have a longer heavier barrel to shoot long with. You can also swap bolt heads and have other short action cartridges. Go with the 7SAUM and you can then change over to any short action cartridges by a barrel and bolt face swap.
On the belted brass, it will swell eventually but will take a few loadings. Just bumping the shoulder .001-002” when loading is all you need to do when FL sizing. There used to be a Larry Willis belted mag die that slid over the cartridge to the belt and sized it down. Not sure if they make them anymore. That said now I would get a 7PRC instead of the RM if going long action magnum.
I have a pile of components for a 280 project I didn't do. Yet.
My first dedicated ELR practice gun was a 7/270WSM shooting the 180 ELDm. It ran close enough to bigger stuff out to 2200 yards to be an effective trainer.
The 7 saum has about the same case capacity as the 280AI. The shorter case makes it easier to fit in a (long action) magazine with long bullets seated into the neck. Their case capacities are about 10 grains of water lower than the wsm, 7RM, or 7 PRC. The 7wsm is about 20 grains less than the 28 Nosler. 10 grains of case capacity cost somewhere around 1/3 the barrel life. Never mind that recoil thing in a relatively light target rifle. Recoil is more than just your ability to tolerate it. Managing it well enough to be able to spot your shots with a high magnification scope is an absolute requirement.
Weight and barrel length are your only cheap friends for LR. I like M24ish sorts of guns for steel inside 1000 yards. M24 or Heavy Varmint contours. Maybe a Remington Varmint/Sendero contour if the cartridge is no larger than 7 RM or PRC and an aggressive brake is used. With the weight you've described, 7saum is as large as I think would be fun. The 7 saum is easier than the 280 AI.
swd
Silver $$ Contributor
An 1800 yard steel gun and 8lbs are 2 separate rifles in my opinion but if I had to do it I'd be looking at 7mm or 300 mags of some flavor with a muzzle brake. The 7PRC would fit the bill nicely. At 8lbs and having a scope that will be effective at that range you will have to be VERY careful with the weight of all your components. CF stock and a light weight action and light weight rings. I would decide on the scope first and build the gun to make weight around it.
alf
Silver $$ Contributor
No offense, but that Nightforce is a piss poor choice for long range, it only has 40 MOA in total adjustment range, vs say a 5.5-22 with 100 MOA on tap.
Neither of those are good choices for shooting as far as you want. They are BR scopes and have limited elevation as you have seen.
If you didn’t want to spend a lot then you could get something like a Vortex Strike Eagle that has 110 moa of adjustment. Will allow the use of 40 or even 50 moa of cant in the base/mount and will let you reach out far.
RegionRat
Gold $$ Contributor
You can manage sizing the 7 MAG like anything else, but if the chamber is reamed too large you may find you need a belted magnum collet sizer that addresses the body just above the belt.
https://www.larrywillis.com/7mmremmag2.html
Not sure how much shooting you have done, but the sound of your desired rifle weight and running very many shots a day through something over 3200 ft*lbs is not what I would recommend you do unless you have tasted that kind of concussion and recoil.
Picking a magnum for shooting any volume usually means running a very heavy gun, not a light one.
Let's take a minute and see if you can learn something from high-power games where they may shoot over 60 rounds plus sighters in a day.
I would say that if you attended a big F-Open 1000-yard match and walked those lines, you would see more of the 7 Sherman (a 284 WIN based wildcat) and the 7 PRCW (a 6.5 PRC based wildcat) than anything else.
Sure, on the very windy days the bigger short mags or full magnum cartridges can dominate, but the majority of folks can't shoot them well due to the fatigue. Very few folks will run a magnum all the time and do it well in that setting.
There is a reason those 284 WIN variants and now the 7-6.5 PRC variants are very popular with folks who shoot a lot at 1000 yards.
That level of energy with a 7mm Berger 180 Hybrid would mean you could shoot as many rounds in a day that you wanted to, without needing a heavy shooting coat and a bottle of Advil. YMMV
Golden Eagle will not work. Trust me, I tried. Only has 55 MOA in elevation. I just purchased a Vortex Strike Eagle FFP, 34mm tube 5-25x with 110 MOA in elevation. Amazon had them on sale for $626. Warne had the 20 MOA mount on sale for $150. About the least expensive setup you'll find to get out past a mile. I have a 333LM and a 300WM that it will be used on.
Should have added, the Vortex Venom 5-25, 34mm scope is not illuminated and only has 85MOA in ELE adjustment, but Amazon had them for $411. Great starter scope
I was shooting a lot of 300WM 10 years ago as a cheaper, lower recoiling alternative to 338 Lapua. I'm down to 1 long range rifle in that chambering. There is zero incentive to tool up from scratch to shoot a belted magnum today. There is also more to the case head separations than just managing the shoulder bump.
7wsm, 7RM, 7prc are not great ideas for an 8# target rifle. I'd let the 8# thing go before the magnum 7mm thing. Carbon fiber barrels are an especially bad idea for what you're contemplating.
I might just be unpopular, but as often as not, I'm shooting alone. Even with a spotter, nothing is more intuitive than a self spot through the rifle scope. The gun needs to track well enough to keep the target in the field of view. Shooting prone rather than from a bench helps. PRS style stocks with front and rear bag riders parallel to the barrel help, but they weight up those guns to over 20# and run down the recoil impulse with smaller cartridges for a reason.
I used the Gen 1 Razors for my early attempts past a mile. They're a bit dated now but a few years after their introduction were easy enough to find new for under $1400. That may be reflected in the used market today. 20X with 135 moa of travel was a big deal 10 years ago. They're relatively heavy. That wasn't a bad thing in my world.
Quite a few folks, here saying that a beyond 1000 yard gun should be a tad heavier than an 8lb hunting rifle. Lots of experience in those words. I tend to agree with them. About as light a rifle as i have used for this is a Factory Sendero.
Personally, i might have changed from my first 7mm Rem Mag and went to one of the newer nonBleted magnum's But there i was.. Already had everything i needed and didnt have to re tool and it does what all the others do, So many of those cases are so close together in performance. If i had to start from scratch not having all the 7 RM stuff I might go for the new 7mmPRC like others have mentioned.
I like the idea of a lesser cost Vortex Vennom It will get it done. Hell the first time i shot past 1000yds was with a 4.5-14X Leupold Veri X 3 with a dam target dot. lol I was having soo much fun!
You have received some great advice so far. Cant see what you come out with.
Personally, i might have changed from my first 7mm Rem Mag and went to one of the newer nonBleted magnum's But there i was.. Already had everything i needed and didnt have to re tool and it does what all the others do, So many of those cases are so close together in performance. If i had to start from scratch not having all the 7 RM stuff I might go for the new 7mmPRC like others have mentioned.
I like the idea of a lesser cost Vortex Vennom It will get it done. Hell the first time i shot past 1000yds was with a 4.5-14X Leupold Veri X 3 with a dam target dot. lol I was having soo much fun!
You have received some great advice so far. Cant see what you come out with.
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