Wildcats based off 7mm mag action.

[hogslayer]

I am having a 28 Nosler built my Michael at Hells canyon armory. I have a sako 7mm mag that I am wanting to re-barrel in something else.  Leaning towards a 6.5 SAUM, or 6.5 wsm.  I would like to use my same action and bolt.  Curious what other people have done with building off a magnum action?

[Dan-o]

I imagine plenty of people have already taken a 7MM Rem Mag down to 6.5 MM, but that would be pretty cool......

[hogslayer]

Ya I looked into that thinking the same thing.  Turns out the 264 win mag is .5 grains less in case capacity. 

[rbros]

stick with a long action magnum case.  It will feed a little better than the short cases in a long action. 

[b23]

6.5 Blaser Magnum, aka necked down 7mm Blaser Magnum, I know, right now you're probably saying a 6.5 Blaser what?! 

It has the same case capacity as standard 7mm Rem Mag (82.5gr H2O) and slightly more than the SAUM and WSM.  The case is longer than the WSM but not quite as long as a 7 Rem Mag and not as fat as the WSM but fatter than the Rem Mag.  Norma makes the 7mm Blaser Mag brass and it's easily available from online sources just google 7mm Blaser Magnum brass for sale.

I just had a 7mm Blaser Mag built and used a Remington LSS 300 win mag as the donor gun and had a HS Prec. detachable mag system installed, it feeds very well and has plenty of length for the 180 Bergers I'm shooting.

[Bill W]

I imagine plenty of people have already taken a 7MM Rem Mag down to 6.5 MM, but that would be pretty cool......

Winchester did that back in 1959.  .264 Win Mag.

[b23]

I imagine plenty of people have already taken a 7MM Rem Mag down to 6.5 MM, but that would be pretty cool......

Winchester did that back in 1959.  .264 Win Mag.

To bad they didn't remove the belt from the case design back then, too.

[theleo]

I might be off base but You might be able to do a 35 STA.

[BULLBLASTER]

I might be off base but You might be able to do a 35 STA.

[jdb]

Im not sure but I think the 35 sta requires a true magnum length action while the 7mm is actually a standard length action

[hogslayer]

stick with a long action magnum case.  It will feed a little better than the short cases in a long action.

I have thought about that to.  Only issue I see is that right now at 3.336 coal I am at max magazine and already filed it down big time.  I was thinking of going to a 30 cal mag, but with high bc bullets it wouldn't fit.  I already had to find the second sweet spot for the bergers at .80 thou off the lands to get them to fit.  Otherwise it is single shot. 

[12Gauge]

I imagine plenty of people have already taken a 7MM Rem Mag down to 6.5 MM, but that would be pretty cool......

Winchester did that back in 1959.  .264 Win Mag.

And it became a legend as a barrel burner.  The velocity was to fast at around 3400 FPS, barrels did not last long and they were shot out.   

[yorketransport]

I like the 6.5 Blaser idea! How much experience do you have with wildcats? If you're not afraid of case forming you could do a 6.5x375 Ruger with the shoulder pushed back about .200". Pushing the shoulder back would give you a little more room for the long bullets as well as give you a longer neck.

If it were me, I'd go with a larger bore. The 6.5 and 7mm are so close that it almost seems like a waste. A 358/375 Ruger would fit perfect in there and will almost match the performance of the 358 STA.  I'm a huge fan of the 338/375 Ruger and I'be had 5 of them over the years. Either the 338 or 358 would make a great 20-22" barreled hunting rifle.

[Dan-o]

How about a 243/7MM Rem Mag?
(Your new ultimate antelope rifle)

Or a 22/7MM Rem Mag
(Your new ultimate predator 3,800 fps round)   

[hogslayer]

I have never seen the alaska times round.  That thing is a pig!  I am trying to stay away from having to neck turn and fire form and all that.  I would like to just 1 pass resize the brass if I can.  That's the only reason I was thinking going from .284 to .264.  We shall see. 

[yorketransport]

The 338 and 358 off of a 375 Ruger are simple neck down size jobs. The 338/375 uses a 375 Ruger die to size the body and a 338 RCM die to neck size. It will match the 330 Dakota but with less expensive brass and dies. This is a 30-06, 338 win mag and a 338/375 Ruger.

[b23]

I like the 6.5 Blaser idea!

If nothing else, you'd likely have the only one in existence and that alone would make it worth it. 

[RadSav]

270 Weatherby should be an equal case length swap and no bolt modification.  Performance is quite impressive.  257 Weatherby would give a little more room to play with seating depth in that same action too.

I also think the 30-338 Win is an even swap with both magazine and bolt head.  I spent a good bit of time with a 308 Norma and loved it!  30-338 should be dang near identical to my old Norma, but I think it gives you about .050" more room in your magazine.

[theleo]

Since you're getting the 28 built you might as well go towards the 257 Weatherby or with something that makes a bigger hole than a 30 cal. The 358 Norma should fit and you could keep your bolt, but it's not a wildcat.

[Bill W]

I imagine plenty of people have already taken a 7MM Rem Mag down to 6.5 MM, but that would be pretty cool......

Winchester did that back in 1959.  .264 Win Mag.

And it became a legend as a barrel burner.  The velocity was to fast at around 3400 FPS, barrels did not last long and they were shot out.

I don't know if you ever owned a .264 as it doesn't seem so.   People used to talk about how the .220 Swift burned out barrels and how bad the .17's fouled.   Most of the talkers never owned one.

At one time I had 3 .264's.  Two pre-64 Model 70's and 1 Remington 700 Classic.  I don't know where Winchester got their velocities that the original claims were based on.  Later the published velocities were revised downwards.  The 140 grain ended up with a published velocity of 3030 fps, downwards from the original 3200 fps.  I do not know where the 100 grain factory load ended up.  Originally it was at 3600 fps.

Any high powder capacity, overbore cartridge has the potential to burn out barrels.   Even a .223 will burn out throats if the shooter gets it hot enough.

If I had to do it all over again instead of a .264 I would have purchased a 7mm Rem Mag as there was lots better bullet choices in the past.    Now it doesn't seem to matter what caliber one has.  There are lots of options and premium bullets available.

[slm9s]

There's the new 6.5x300WBY.

[bullfisher]

I am having a 28 Nosler built my Michael at Hells canyon armory. I have a sako 7mm mag that I am wanting to re-barrel in something else.  Leaning towards a 6.5 SAUM, or 6.5 wsm.  I would like to use my same action and bolt.  Curious what other people have done with building off a magnum action?

Are you having it built to 195gr berger mag length? You will eventually gravitate towards the 195's and they end up about 3.7+" in the 28 i believe.

[hogslayer]

I am going to stick with the 180 hybrids.  I have talked to a couple people that ran the 195s and when you factor in the fps gain of running a 180 hybrid the extra bc of the bullet isn't worth it.  And from what I have heard they are really finicky to shoot correctly.  But I am going with a 1:8 twist so I could.  But already bought 200 rounds of 180 hybrids and 10 lbs of retumbo.  Let's just say I am going to make that combo work!

[theleo]

  But already bought 200 rounds of 180 hybrids and 10 lbs of retumbo.  Let's just say I am going to make that combo work!

Or have a lot of 180 Hybrids and Retumbo sitting next to the reloading bench.