Is the 7mm WSM dead?

[MarkA]

+1
I have used the 140 grain Ballistic silver tip (a Ballistic tip with a different color tip) from Winchester
with very good results.

My preferred bullet for hunting is the 140 gr Accubond, but the Winchester ammo is my go to if I haven't loaded any.

The 7 WSM is only dead if we let it die. It is a great short action round and should be around for a long time. Brass will be available if we watch for it. All brass is in short supply even brass that can be turned into the 7 WSM. (I made some out of 338 RUM when it was readily available and 7 WSM brass was unavailable).

Keep your 7 WSM !!!

J E CUSTOM

The 140AB is a real sweet spot in physics. I was shocked to see how much speed the 7WSM was capable of compared to the other wsm family as I built loads for it. It is a screamer for 24" barrels.

Yep and Federal loads in their "premium" ammo with 140 NBT rated at 3,310fps. Shot couple of rounds of it over magneto speed last year and went 3,285 fps. I don't use them for anymore because the brass is now nickle plated and cost too high.

So I just buy fusions or blue box stuff for brass harvest. Brass cost is the same doing this. The biggest reason I stay Federal is their ammo is loaded with their 215 mag primer so I don't deprime and waste repriming when using the Federal ammo for brass harvest. I just neck size and reload with 140AB's. Harvested brass has been amazingly accurate even first firing.

 

[MarkA]

I had one, well still do, first generation Savage that was released prior to the hold on the 7WSM. The hold on the 7 was due to being able to close the bolt on interchangeably on the first Saami 270wsm and 7wsm ammo.

At that time the base to start of shoulder dimension was the same on the 270, 7mm and 300wsm's at 1.664" ( and now the 325wsm as well) which was going to be extremely dangerous for the 270 and 7mm.

My first generation gun was put on hold at Savage and took over a year then to get the gun because the chamber was "revised" on the 7wsm to a dimension of 1.702" from base to shoulder so you could not close the bolt on a 270wsm rifle if you stuck in a 7wsm round it!!

This made the 7WSM very late to market in comparison to the 270WSM or we would be having the discussion is the 270WSM dead instead!

 

[just country]

morning, I was told by reliable gun smithy's that the reason for the decline of WSM

line was that the original designer got greedy, and wanted a bit of the all WSM

cartridges and products marketed for sale to the public. the manufactures informed

the designer to take a hiddyhoo. the manufactures quit selling and making the WSM

Brass. plus the 28 Nosler which is the same case except for the length and design

filled the void. necking down the 300WSM to 7mm is a very good option, or to neck

up the 270WSM. I have a custom 7WSM. totally love the round. but if done all over

again I would go with the 7-300WSM. more case room. more boom. wonder how

long the WSM cartridges will b produced for the public. . we as reloaders and

shooters r seeing the demise of true wildcat cartridges. the ammo

industry saw that there was more money in loaded ammo than selling

reloading products. the situation is going to get worse. the power of greed. lightbulb

 

[KYpatriot]

I think its going to continue to die a slow death. Its not an improvement over the 7RM unless you must have a short action, in which case it gives up performance to the rem mag especially with the heavies we long range shooters prefer. Its a niche round, that is just too well covered.

 

[mattri]

Great replies to all.

How does the Fed brass compare to WW? Not just a better/worse conv but case capacity, longevity, consistency etc?

 

[Varmint Hunter]

" I have a custom 7WSM. totally love the round. but if done all over

again I would go with the 7-300WSM. more case room. more boom. "

Actually, the 7-300WSM has less case room but the difference is negligible.

 

[J E Custom]

morning, I was told by reliable gun smithy's that the reason for the decline of WSM

line was that the original designer got greedy, and wanted a bit of the all WSM

cartridges and products marketed for sale to the public. the manufactures informed

the designer to take a hiddyhoo. the manufactures quit selling and making the WSM

Brass. plus the 28 Nosler which is the same case except for the length and design

filled the void. necking down the 300WSM to 7mm is a very good option, or to neck

up the 270WSM. I have a custom 7WSM. totally love the round. but if done all over

again I would go with the 7-300WSM. more case room. more boom. wonder how

long the WSM cartridges will b produced for the public. . we as reloaders and

shooters r seeing the demise of true wildcat cartridges. the ammo

industry saw that there was more money in loaded ammo than selling

reloading products. the situation is going to get worse. the power of greed. lightbulb

I hadn't heard that, Interesting.

The reason I built mine was that It had the biggest case capacity of all the WSMs and SAUMs.
brass only became scarce because of it's popularity. Remington was the first to come out with a Short mag and Winchester had to trump the SAUM by adding a slightly larger case to there WSMs,

Although the difference between the WSM and the SAUM is very little, I succumbed to the larger case as lots did. The 7 WSM is the largest case in the WSM line and has the best ballistics of all the others.

The 270 is/was popular because of the ammo and brass availability and the fact that it is very close to the performance of the 7 WSM, Although there is not as many good bullets available for it, it is a very good cartridge and all the people that have one love it.

Comment; Who knows what the cartridge/brass makers are thinking anymore and we just have to keep great cartridges alive. The 280 rem is a good example of a great cartridge that just would not go away and has become one of the most popular cartridges today.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Dgd6mm]

I have both the 7rsaum and the 7wsm, both with about 250 rounds down them. They just sit tucked away. Both are excellent cartridges, excellent accuracy.

 

[sideshowbob]

morning, I was told by reliable gun smithy's that the reason for the decline of WSM

line was that the original designer got greedy, and wanted a bit of the all WSM

cartridges and products marketed for sale to the public. the manufactures informed

the designer to take a hiddyhoo. the manufactures quit selling and making the WSM

Brass. plus the 28 Nosler which is the same case except for the length and design

filled the void. necking down the 300WSM to 7mm is a very good option, or to neck

up the 270WSM. I have a custom 7WSM. totally love the round. but if done all over

again I would go with the 7-300WSM. more case room. more boom. wonder how

long the WSM cartridges will b produced for the public. . we as reloaders and

shooters r seeing the demise of true wildcat cartridges. the ammo

industry saw that there was more money in loaded ammo than selling

reloading products. the situation is going to get worse. the power of greed. lightbulb

I am not quite sure I understand your smithy. The WSM line was developed by Winchester, Winchester employees are usually bound by contract to assign any rights that they may have in an invention to their employer (Winchester).

If your smithy is correct, then this should apply to all of the WSM line. Or, is this greedy person only asking for too much royalties for 7mm WSM?

 

[J E Custom]

http://www.saami.org/PubResources/CC_Drawings/Rifle/7mm%20Winchester%20Short%20Magnum.pdf[/url]

http://www.saami.org/PubResources/CC_Drawings/Rifle/300 Winchester Short Magnum.pdf

http://www.saami.org/PubResources/CC_Drawings/Rifle/270 Winchester Short Magnum.pdf

The 7mm/300 WSM is a good one but it doesn't have the case capacity of the 7 WSM

J E CUSTOM

 

[DAS30378]

If im correct all the short mags are off the same case design so any shortmag brass will work. I don't get why people say that they are building a 7-300wsm its the same as a 7 wsm just neck sized the 300wsm mag brass to accept .284

 

[sideshowbob]

If im correct all the short mags are off the same case design so any shortmag brass will work. I don't get why people say that they are building a 7-300wsm its the same as a 7 wsm just neck sized the 300wsm mag brass to accept .284

I was thinking the same thing. Either the 7-300WSM reference is a joke, or it is an esoteric name which cartridge details cannot be determined by the name alone.

 

[sideshowbob]

I think the main reason for the brass shortage is the overall ammo shortage. Because the 7mm WSM is not as popular as the others, including 300 WSM, it is more acute.

I don't think the 7mm WSM is dead. I had one built about a year ago and the builder told me that although it is not as popular as the 300 WSM, he builds about 10-20 per year. Small, but not dead. I don't even think that counts as dying.

Maybe Len can chime in on how many orders he gets. It is still listed on his main website.

 

[7mmShooter]

The reason people are necking the 270 or 300 WSM brass to 7mm is because both of those are way more available than the straight 7mm WSM, the dimensions are different on the 7mm WSM to prevent it being chambered in the 270 WSM. 7mm WSM can be formed from the other two, but it is a bit more work to do than just necking the other two to 7mm. The 7mm WSM has a higher capacity than the other two variants because of the shoulder being pushed forward (which also prevents chambering in the 270 WSM).

They are great rounds, but the dimension changes have pretty much doomed the straight up 7mm WSM unless a brass manufacturer decides to bring it back