7mm Rem mag barrel length?

[shotwell]

I'm planning on rebarreling my old 700 in 7mm mag. It will
be used for deer and pronghorn. I figure shots out to 500 yards. I plan on using light and heavy bullets. My question
is what would be a good barrel length? It will have a muzzle brake.
Thanks

 

[Hired Gun]

If you can manage the length I would put a 30" barrel on it. If not then put at least a 26" barrel. Anything less and you are burning a lot of powder outside the barrel.

 

[sure shot]

24' to 26' is enough and remember the brake will add 2' to the overall length.

 

[sewwhat89]

I 2nd Tommy! For a 7RM 25" with Holland Brake or whatever will give you most of what you are going to get with it. For the RUM and such, step up to the 28-30", but that's not needed on the 7RM.

Shooting the same load in a 24 and 26" barrel in two 7RM I have access to have a net difference of 42 fps with 140 gr Accubonds. You will never recoop that with your back complaining about that extra pound of barrel wieght. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Mysticplayer]

24" then brake works just fine for me.

Jerry

 

[budlight]

I "had 7 mag" The key word is had. The case isn't big enough. I aquired one of the original 7 STW's before it was a comercial round.

I did lots of chrono time with my 7 mag and when it was popping the primer the 7 STW was 150 FPS faster and not even stressing.

Not everybody likes packing a 28 inch barrel, but I do. I don't even have a brake on my .458's I use the heavy gun idea to stop recoil. Big barrel and straight stock.

 

[Kenster-Boy]

A 26 inch barrel has always worked fine for me. It gives enough velocity and stabilization of the larger high BC bullets to do some long range work. The 7 mag also has a moderate recoil that most people can tolerate without a brake. Just make sure that you pick a barrel with at least 1 in 8 or 8.5 twist so that you can stabilize the high BC bullets.

I just don't think that you can beat the old trusty 7 mag for deer sized game out to 500.

Just my $.02