Discussion Forums

Mike Dewey

Things pretty quiet on the forum front, so here’s trouble…

So, there I was, having to make a decision. Life is too varied to pick a single gun for everything. Sure, there are choices that will punch paper, kill gophers, work close on big or little and reach out long distance, but some compromise in there. What to do?

I started with the 7mm Remington Mag 45 years ago, thinking it would do it all, but expensive for practice and probably marginal for big and furry close up. So, since more is better, here’s where I stand now.

Practice and varmints

CZ 527 Varmint in .17 Hornet with 4-16x40 Vortex scope

It was much the same price here as a good .22LR but with the ability to reload. Extremely accurate (can put 5 shots < .25” at 100 yards), cheap to shoot, fun to reload, deadly on gophers (ground squirrels), easy to shoot with heavy barrel, set trigger and negligible recoil, the trajectory (with 25 grain V-Max Hornady’s) pretty well matches the 7mm to a little past 200 yards.

Close range ‘thumper’

Brno ZKK 600 in 9.3x62 with Leopold 2-7x33 VXR (illuminated center dot) scope

Forty-six years old (bought used in 2015). Accurate enough for its range (routinely shoots 1 ½” at 100 yards, some under 1”, still working at it) easy to carry, quick to handle 20” barrel, hard hitting enough for pretty well anything in Canada, great penetration, easy to reload, not too difficult to find components, can remove scope quickly and revert to the pop up peep if necessary, using Nosler 286 grain partitions at this time (be fun to swage down some 225 gr .375 Hornadys), Boyd’s Platinum standard walnut stock - pillar bedded, easy to keep both eyes open with the scope on lower powers, fun to shoot, recoil is solid but not sharp, 2” high at 100 yards, 2” low at 200 yards, hold a little high at 250 (7” low).

Long range

Remington 700 in 7mm Rem Mag with Sightron SIII 6-24x50 FFP LRMOA, Shilen SS Select Match barrel #17 (Sendero) profile, action blueprinted, Timney trigger, HS Precision stock ‘pillar’ bedded (machined washers on top of the aluminum block).

Very accurate (haven’t fully developed loads yet but last test with 160 grain Accubonds at 3080 fps put 4 shots in a ragged hole but choked on the 5th opening it up to .75”), shoulder carry (12 pounds), good range and power, currently using Nosler 160 grain Partitions for moose/elk and Nosler 160 grain Accubond for longer range (will try AMax & Berger when the snow goes), easy to find components, heavy 24" barrel and HS stock tame previous rather sharp recoil, now a pleasure to shoot, Accubonds too violent at close range…

After glassing all afternoon at 250 to 400 yards with no luck, came upon a small mule deer buck on my way home about dark. Poor thing was turning towards me at 35 yards as I shot – in through near shoulder blade, out through liver. Broken shoulder blade, damaged lungs no diaphragm, chunk of liver the size of my fist on the ground, still ran 50’ before cartwheeling. Thinking about developing a round nose 175 grain load at perhaps 2500 fps to carry for close-in opportunities.

Too many, too few, wrong calibers, what’cha got?