History of the 7mm Remington Magnum – The Real Gunsmith

we're gonna talk about how the seven millimeter Remington Magnum came to be less Bulman the rifle expert and test expert living west of Cody Wyoming about forty miles on a small ranch that he had guided many many elk hunters into the high country or while I mean sheep hunters grizzly hunters and so forth and over the years because of the lay of the country the mountains the kind of open country less found that we needed a rifle that was reasonably comfortable to shoot less had access to almost any rifle caliber or rifle cartridge testing almost anything that was made he had a 300 Weatherby and he liked the 300 whether being except for the fact he didn't like the recoil and most hunters that he had in the mountains over the years couldn't shoot a 300 whether he it had enough energy to kill elk at considerable distance and bless his idea with considerable distance was about five hundred yards he thought that's a lot as far as a guy ought to try to shoot game was five hundred yards so he had been using a 275 each in each Magnum the Jack O'Connor gave him was a custom-built rifle by one of the country's custom gun people and he had a seven but 61 sharken heart that he acquired but it didn't have the other one both cartridges had quite the velocity that he felt was necessary to take elk out to about 500 yards he wanted to shoot 160 grain bullet at around 30 150 feet a second so having worked with various other cartridges and so forth at that time left took the 338 Winchester Magnum case and nicked it down to seven millimeter he went to to to Fred Huntington at our CBS and had special dyes made to be able to do that and the very first reloading dyes made or stamped 283 38 Magnum because really several millimeter hadn't been coined yet as as a designation for a cartridge in this country really 280 caliber was basically how it was referred to so that the died the very first dyes were stamped 280 338 Magnum from our CBS then once he had those then he had he had somebody barrel an action for him and so he could test what he you know had come up with and he went to to flavor rifle company and he had a barrel fitted to an action that he had he also hold over a period of time had peel act we do the same thing he tried different barrels from different makers and so forth to see what might be the best choice and anyway I've seen those early rifles les was a very very close friend of mine and we worked very very close together testing rifles and so forth and once les he had used these rifles for a couple season and had some clouds of his that he took into the mountains hunting elk and and sheep and so forth loose grizzly he decided that this was was what he wanted was the cartridge shooting 160 green bullet of about 30 150 feet a second and some of the people that he that he had in the mountains to specific people were were Wayne Leake and Mike Walker from Remington Arms these two fellows were design engineers for Remington and so they used they used the TTB 338 Magnum in the high country or island to kill elk with less moment and with this in mind he got Remington interested in perhaps that cartridge in one of their and one of the in their interim accan rifle built by Remington Arms so they went back home and they discussed it with other people in it Remington Leinen in in Mike and they contacted lesson told him that they want him to come to two Remington in illion New York and and discussed this project and so forth which he did he spent time back there staying with staying with with Mike and his wife olive and in during these discussions it was discussed how many rifles can we sell in a year how much ammunition can we sell in here because this is a considerable layout this is an entirely new adventure you know for Remington they had they had the streak to media Remington cartridge and they sold rifles in that caliber and they felt that it would probably be a deal somewhat of a death blow to the to your image and I think if they came out with left with this cartridge a lesson so they discussed all these things and thought about it and they were hardly lukewarm hardly lukewarm with the idea so after having been back there for a week or so visiting with all those people left came home and he didn't know where anything was going to go on in about two weeks the phone rang and and and it was it was Mike Walker and informing less that they've decided to to head forward with this project of coming out with with the cartridge that he basically came up with and they were going to call it the seven millimeter Remington Magnum this is how this is how the seven millimeter Remington Magnum came to be there's been things printed by people that really don't know the story like I know the story I know the the whole story from from forward to back and we could probably talk for an hour and a half about this but that's not necessary to to make the point that les Bowman developed the seven Remington Magnum with the idea that he needed 18 hundred foot pounds of remaining residual energy at five hundred yards to reliably kill kill a bull elk at that distance that was the minimum acceptable energy and he used 160 green spear bullets 160 green Sierra bullets and 160 green nozzle partitions the mouths of partitions was hands-down the best choice as far as is the game bullet but he shot game with with all three of those bullets and so we know now after many many years that once that seven Remington Magnum came out in 1962 in the newly designed by Wayne and Mike Leake of Remington Arms and the seven millimeter Remington Magnum we know that this is one of the most popular cartridges rifle combinations that's ever been produced in this country for hunting western game and but since that since that time we've had various various people that have used this seven realmeter Remington Magnum stretch the range way way way way beyond the capabilities of reliably taking game we've got people that have have have promoted it as car keys to use in ER in in a hunting rifle to shoot game with a thousand yards or maybe even further it is not never was intended by the founder of this cartridge or Remington Arms that you ever take game at those extreme extreme distances the they bought in the lessons idea to 500 yards and the energy idea and I still think that this is a this is a sound place to stop with that cartridge I honestly feel that it's it's lacking even at 500 yards I think it's an honest maybe 400 yard l cartridge I have done my share of taking game with that cartridge I after using that for a few years I was building rifles on bigger bigger cartridge cases to to get higher velocity and even a heavier bullet 175 grain bullet like a nozzle partition or 175 Hornady interlock and that that stretches our ranges out considerably maybe out to seven hundred seven hundred yards or so maybe eight hundred yards and I've personally taken you know a considerable number of elk over my 53 years of hunting elk you know between about six and seven hundred yards and one elk is even a quarter and personally I'm a capable enough hunter that I can get closer in almost any instance you know and close that gap to probably half of six hundred yards most of our game was killed inside of about two hundred and fifty yards no matter where we're hunting and there's hardly ever any any situation where we can't get closer and if we can't get closer using something as small as a seven Remington magda kill elk then we just simply need to not not pull the an animal at some of these extreme distances with the aspect of wounding it and so forth so I wanted to set the record straight for everybody especially especially people that have have said that really don't understand how this all came to be you know who whose idea was less Bullman made the seven millimeter Remington Magnum in the seven millimeter caliber very popular in this country the credit the credit goes to last woman there were other people shooting various different seven millimeters to Edy's whatever you want to call them at the time but they they were not the people you know whoever may have been mentioned over the years they were not the people that sold the idea and in made you know made it possible for Remington seed to see the light to come out with that with that cartridge you

Channel: The Real Gunsmith

Views: 206,561

Rating: 4.9080458 out of 5

Keywords: the real gunsmith, gunsmith, gun maker, custom rifle, 7mm, 7 rem mag, 7 remington magnum, remington, long range, long range shooting, long range hunting, elk hunting, randy selby, 7mm bullet, 7mm ammo, reloading, long range rifle, firearm manufacturer, gun builder, custom ammo, load development, made in wyoming, 7mm caliber, 280-338 magnum, 280 caliber, 300 wby, 275 H & H, 338 win mag, wyoming hunting, les bowman, po ackley, pfeifer rife company, 280 remington, rcbs

Id: r8S3wXF9XDs

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 27 2017