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Agree. The OEM's back then thought that the 7RM shooting the 150 core loct was the cat's meow. Remington offered the 175 core loct for options on weight.
It is kind of a dichotomy there are a lot more factory rifles that can shot accurately farther and that people want to shoot longer farther shots while hunting. What I have seen is in general most gun ranges are typically shorter at least in Colorado, than they were in the 1990s. So the reliance on ballistic programs although sound, my preference still is to shoot at the distance I will harvest at. Hopefully the sport of shooting and hunting will continue to get passed down in spite of the political rhetoric.
My own (albeit anecdotal) experience with 7mm RM is that *consistently* resizing belted magnum cases is considerably more of a pain and requires more setup and finesse than with cases that headspace off the shoulder. While I had a lot of success in the filed with my 7mm RM, it was always a bit finicky to load for, and after a while that took the pleasure out of shooting it for me. I've found the 7mm SAUM much easier to reload for, at least in terms of getting the sizing results and consistency that I want. Moreover, I was only able to get 2--3 reloadings out of my 7mm RM brass due to the bulge that forms in front of the belt and never gets resized after each firing. Granted, that could be partly a function of the brass I was using (Hornady, Remington), but I think it's also a function of the design of belted cases, which in my view is antiquated in comparison to non-belted designs.
What specifically do you mean by "hype"? My understanding of what you said is that if they gave the seven RM faster twist barrels 5 to 10 years ago… Would that have been hype? The problem is gunmakers did not give them a faster twist, in reality they probably couldn't because people use lighter bullets in the seven RM than they do in the seven PRC. I don't disagree with your premise/statement but just because a company finds a niche to fill and they spend their R&R money on it and there's a new generation who can appreciate it. I don't see the problem.
Why do folks act like something new is not needed or a bad thing. Factory rifle makers weren't putting 1/8 twist on 7 mags 10 years ago because guys weren't shooting heavy high bc 7mm bullets. Fyi Browning is now offering a lot of their 7's in 1/8 because of this. The prc is a modern 7 mm magnum round. No unnecessary belt to cause helacious brass growth on the first firing and a better throat design. Also the neck is longer which helps keep the long bullets out the powder column. It was designed around the 175 eldx bullet. When the 7 mag came out in the 60's guys were mainly shooting 140-160 gr bullets.
This is why my 264WM is far superior in every way over the PRC, no matter which one you use as the parent…29.5" 8" twist barrel, custom throat/leade dimension and no taper. The taper is important on SAAMI chambers because originally, the cartridge was designed to run 'bore rider' bullets to reduce pressure…many have forgotten this point.
So the newer cartridges in factory chambers with factory ammo are better?
Yes it was! Iread that in a magazine article a really long time ago! right after 264 came out can't remember the year though!
