Humbled by the gunsmith

[std7mag]

Take the 270!
If a 308 or 7mm-08 can kill an elk at 400 yards, then a 270 certainly can!

As a foot note, and not that i'd recommend it, but there is footage of a woman killing an elk at 683 yards with a 243 Win.

Are you getting my hint?!! Lol
Take the 270.
Re-barrel the 7mm Rem Mag!

 

[FLS]

Ditto the comment above. If you’re shooting the 270 better, take it. It’s more important where you hit them than what you hit them with.
I’m taking an older 700 Mtn Rifle in .270 to WY for antelope and deer then to CO for elk. The little 270 is a laser with 130 TTSX’s. I had planned on taking another rifle, but it’s not ready. I have total confidence that if I put those Barnes bullets where they need to be an Elk will be riding back to SC with me.

 

[ImBillT]

You don't need 1 MOA for elk. Can you hit a paper plate at 400 yds (2 MOA)? If so, you are more than good. Kill zone is mighty big on a elk.

But, you do have to be confident in your rifle. I switched last year from my 30-06 to my 6.5 CM because I hate the trigger on my '06 and just didn't have same level of confidence.

I partially agree, but having a 1 MOA gun gives another MOA margin of error on the 400yd elk shot. 1 MOA isn’t usually all that hard to squeeze out of a decent setup, so it’s well worth getting to in my opinion. That’s particularly the case since many people consider a gun to be 1 MOA when their gun puts three shots inside an MOA one time. Although it might be technically accurate to consider it a 1 MOA gun if it averages 1 MOA, I generally refer to a 1 MOA gun as one that will put five shots under 1 MOA just about every time.

 

[ImBillT]

Take the 270!
If a 308 or 7mm-08 can kill an elk at 400 yards, then a 270 certainly can!

As a foot note, and not that i'd recommend it, but there is footage of a woman killing an elk at 683 yards with a 243 Win.

Are you getting my hint?!! Lol
Take the 270.
Re-barrel the 7mm Rem Mag!

This...with just about every 7mag that has been fired a couple times. That’s hyperbole, but you can wear out a 7mag faster than almost anything out there...at least before the .26 Nosler came out. Once they start wearing out, you can usually get them to shoot well after a good scrubbing, but the more fire-cracking you get in that throat the fewer shots they can take before they foul out.

 

[cahunter805]

As stated above some rifles just don’t like certain bullets. It could be the throat or bore is rough or machined bad also. Good idea on seeing what ammo the gunsmith used. If you want to continue to use the 7mm go get a few boxes of different brands of ammo and test them. 160 accubonds are a great choice.
FYI Lead Sled= JUNK! They can really damage a rifle especially with weight in them. Also they don’t allow for a good shooting position or cheek weld. Get yourself a good set of bags or use a bipod/rear bag and see how the rifles shoots also.

 

[std7mag]

Worst comes to worse, you can always sell me your Rem Mag.. Lol
Been wanting to turn one into a 7mm Dakota.

 

[Tufrthnails]

Both of my Savages love being dirty. I don't actually count rounds between de-coppering, but approx every 400 rounds I clean the barrels down and de-copper. For 20 rounds they both shoot horrible groups and tighten up drastically over the next 20 rounds. It's really cool to watch the 6.5 go from a 4" group at 100 yards to 1/2" groups. My buddy has the exact same model and his likes to shoot carbon cleaned. He can put some really small groups together for 40 rounds and then it needs the carbon cleaned. Out of curiousity I ran my bore cam down both barrels and mine looks like it was chewed on by a beaver. His rifling is much more consistent.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Ditch the lead sled.

 

[IdahoPotato]

Well, lesson learned. I got my sh!t together and bought the reloading stuff I needed and put together 10 different 3-shot groups at the Nosler listed COAL. Used 160 gr. Nosler Accubonds, Federal once-fired brass, RL-26. Had some heavy bolt lift approaching 69 grains. Right at 67 grains I had easy bolt lift and a group at ~0.8 inches. I did use my lead sled (sorry not sorry). I'll figure out my drops at yardage this Saturday after I load a bunch more. I guess some rifles can't just take any ammo off the shelf and produce a half decent group.

Good enough, I'm going hunting.