Should I build a 7 Saum or 7-300 wsm?

[Timnterra]

Why not just build a 7WSM? Hornady now offers brass and the quality of it is excellent. I just finished this 7WSM and went with a 8.25 twist. I purchased 200 pieces of Hornady brass and so far so good. Still breaking im the rifle and have only shot very mild loads with the Hornady brass but the weight sorting is negligible. I annealed and prepped all the brass before starting break in. Brass was $55 per 50.

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I had a 7 WSM and it was a tack driver, but I never once found brass for it the whole time I owned it. I ended up fire forming 300 wsm brass for it. I figure I'm not giving up anything to go with the longer neck of the 7-300wsm and the assurance that I will always be able to get brass.

 

[jareese]

Have you looked at any of the Medium acton offerings from Sherman Wildcats? If you don't mind fire forming, there are a couple interesting options.
Sherman Max
Sherman Mega

 

[grouse]

Almost correct....they are stopping BULK brass shipments.

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I would go 7saum since you are using a 9 twist. Barrel life will be close to the same, 1000+ unless you run the Ricky Bobby upper nodes. The 7/300 can hit another node the saum can't touch with a Berger 180......The saum seems to be easier to tune overall than the 7/300. Both will shoot small if you get'em right.

Agree. No reason to get the long mags with a 1-9 twist. That's going to limit your options in bullets. I have both 7wsm and 7-300 wsm. They are both good options in my opinion. Winchester Brass for the 7 wsm is not bad at all. I went with 7-300 to run longer bullets and I get the benefit of Norma brass. 270 wam brass is easily necked up. Resale on the rifle will probably be better with the saum.

 

[North Idaho Hunter]

@Timnterra we carry mesa precision altitude stocks for the tikka. Very nice stocks for the money, in 2022 I'll do a better job of keeping them on hand at all times.

Like @grouse mentioned above I too have had great luck with the plain vanilla 7wsm & win brass. Bertram has been a solid option in that chambering as well.

You'll get more velocity with that over the SAUM (if your looking for raw speed I would stay WSM!)

 

[MW204]

I'm going to be building a mid weight rifle for western hunting. I have a Tikka Wsm action, a Mcmillan game scout stock and a broughton 1-9" twist barrel. Now i need to decide which cartridge to chamber the rifle for. I'll be using Norma or ADG brass no matter which cartridge I go with so that's pretty even. The wsm has a bigger case and holds the big brother 300wsm owns the 1,000yd world record smallest group, but the Saum is known for accuracy and easy tuning. I love and hunt in the west and this will be used for long shots on everything from antelope to elk. I'll probably be shooting 180gr bullets for the most part unless it likes the 162-168 class better.

If it helps you make up your mind I have a brand new PT&G 7mm-WSM reamer that I'll make you a deal on, plus it's ready to ship if you're interested.

 

[Forcedoutage]

For me it was easier to reload for. Larger nodes and they seem to load heavier bullets for their size in the sweet spot between 2900-3k depending on which one. Don't get me wrong, it will be hard to beat a WSM on a medium length action, but the more I hunt and shoot them more I lean away from chasing speed. Just me.

 

[WahooYahoo]

Almost correct....they are stopping BULK brass shipments.

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I would go 7saum since you are using a 9 twist. Barrel life will be close to the same, 1000+ unless you run the Ricky Bobby upper nodes. The 7/300 can hit another node the saum can't touch with a Berger 180......The saum seems to be easier to tune overall than the 7/300. Both will shoot small if you get'em right.

If yer not first, yer last!

 

[Varmint Hunter]

7-300WSM is what I'll do when I rebarrel my 7WSM. I've had really good luck with fully prepped Win brass in the 7WSM but I just want to use high quality brass from the start when I rebarrel.
Presumably, using 300WSM brass would give you increased neck thickness which then could be turned for uniformity and a perfect match to your chamber neck, if that's important to you.

The SAUM would just be easier and resale would be better IMO.

 

[D$tring]

That's the reason I'm using a Tikka action. The action is the same overall size as a Remington long action but I figured if I was going to build on a long action I might as well do a long action caliber. But the Tikka being more of a medium action, in my opinion, is perfectly suited for the short magnum cartridges.

You just got me in trouble….Now I need to build one on a Tikka action!

 

[Ucsdryder]

AG Composites just came out with their gen 2 tikka stock. It fixed some of the gen 1 issues with feeding and action screw engagement. I've been playing with it for a week and it's flawless. It's worth a look and might be the perfect back country, long range stock.

 

[D$tring]

Either way you go, If your using a Tikka action…
Switch it to a long action magazine, running a longer OAL will give you more case capacity.
You can run 180s over 3.0"

love it! Why didn't I think of this when I built mine. Love this forum.

 

[31pointer]

Why not just build a 7WSM? Hornady now offers brass and the quality of it is excellent. I just finished this 7WSM and went with a 8.25 twist. I purchased 200 pieces of Hornady brass and so far so good. Still breaking im the rifle and have only shot very mild loads with the Hornady brass but the weight sorting is negligible. I annealed and prepped all the brass before starting break in. Brass was $55 per 50. Seems Hornady has upped their game in their brass. Not sure what they've changed but I've had great results lately with my PRC's and now the WSM stuff.

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Where did you find decent hornady brass? All the hornady brass I've dealt with, have been Winchester quality.. junk

 

[ccmain]

Why not just build a 7WSM? Hornady now offers brass and the quality of it is excellent. I just finished this 7WSM and went with a 8.25 twist. I purchased 200 pieces of Hornady brass and so far so good. Still breaking im the rifle and have only shot very mild loads with the Hornady brass but the weight sorting is negligible. I annealed and prepped all the brass before starting break in. Brass was $55 per 50. Seems Hornady has upped their game in their brass. Not sure what they've changed but I've had great results lately with my PRC's and now the WSM stuff.

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Nice looking rifle, lost the vision in my right eye in the military and had to learn to shoot lefty,love seeing Nice left handed rifles

 

[JAYgs8163]

Where did you find decent hornady brass? All the hornady brass I've dealt with, have been Winchester quality.. junk

I think Winchester makes some of the Hornady Brass but not that much of it. My PRC brass has been excellent and so far my 7WSM brass has been excellent. I know multiple gents that are on 7 and 8 reloads of their Hornady PRC brass.