Lloyd Smale said:
a 20 inch 7mag might not make much sense but id bet every gun in the house its capable of outrunning a 20 inch 270 by a 150 fps or so. with proper loads. Id bet it would run neck and neck with a 22 inch 270 or even beat it by a small ammount. Especially when using heavier bullets. I do know this. Ive got a buddy who chopped a 300 win mag off at 20 inch for a short barreled elk rilfe. Ive seen the chronograph myself show a 5 shot averarge of 3050 for his load with a 165 partition. Youd play hell getting that out of an 06 with any lenght barrel. I guess my point here is a guy should jump right in and critisize a gun based on information hes gotten on the internet. Just because some gun writer years ago said you need a 24 inch barrel for some gun to work or the bullet just dribbles out of the barrel sure doesnt make it so. Sure isnt much game in the US that that 165 partition at 3050 wont take cleanly! Kind of like the 2506. Most will say that a 243, 257rob 6.5x55 270 280 and 06 work just fine with a 22 inch barrel but put a 2506 with a 22 inch barrel over the bags and you just turned it into a 250 sav. Alot of this bunk comes from back in the day when these rounds were developed and the slowest powder available was 4831 and if you loaded you used either that or 4350 period.. Sure a 2506 does a tad better in a 24 inch barrel but so does a 270! Same thing goes for the first part of this argument. Gun shops sell a slug of 20 inch barreled 06s and 270s and yes they loose a bit of velocity but guys are will to give that little bit of velocity up to have a handier gun. A mag rifle doesnt loose any less velocity cutting the same off of a barrel as a standard gun and if so not enough to make a differnce. A 1rsi in 7mag would make a heck of an elk rifle for walking in the hills all day and id bet those bullets are going to bounce off the elk!
You are right, a 20" 7RM does not make much sense.
But, if that's the performance a guy wants from a magnum, no harm is done if he is happy. I use a magnum when I want the ballistic advantage of a magnum. I would think that a guy could get 3050 with a 165gr. bullet with a chopped 300Mag, I can get 3250+ with my 300WM with a 165, and 3150 with a 180gr, which is why I have a 300WM., but we all have our own goals, mine is to get magnum performance from a magnum, if 3050 with a 165gr. bullet is where a guy wants to be, then he has success, but a chopped 300WM will not do the job for me, I would just use my 22" 30-06 at 2925 or my 30-06AI at 3025 and call it good.
I don't have to guess about the 20" Vanguard 7RM, I saw with my own eyes those results too & it worked out with a 140 gr. to be about 100fps faster than a 22" 270 Browning at camp. It had a good deal of blast & noise as well, but yes faster than a 20" 270 would be, but I would not have a need for that either.
I certainly have a place for short barreled guns, I like my 18.5" 308 & my short 223 alot & these rounds still behave like those particular rounds should.
To each his own
