Federal introduces 7mm Backcountry

Reloading for me is a form of therapy and necessity. It has absolutely nothing to do with cost. I reload primarily for 7x57, 7x64 and 7x65R, as well as for several obsolete antique revolver cartridges. For the most part, if I want to shoot the old girls, I need to reload. As for 7x57, I can make that cartridge perform to modern standards through my M77. It is my do-it-all cartridge. Secretly, it is also kind of comforting to know that I can reload for years using only basic Lee Loaders under any circumstance, including field conditions. Steel cased designs don't make the cut for me for that reason alone.
 
Last edited:
The reloading of a cartridge it’s important to me mostly because the cartridges I use don’t come factory loaded for the projectiles I like! I know that’s a personal preference and I agree most of the hunters can buy 3 boxes and be good for a long time.

The 4 factory offerings in the 7mm BC don’t really offer what I’m after aside from the Barnes loading. An I dislike the idea of a single offering. I’m very interested to see if other companies decide to load for this or not. Maybe federal will add more projectiles but for now I’m steering clear.

Another thing to keep in mind is the SAAMI specs text things to 65k psi. Which includes actions, barrels, rifles and even suppressors for our American friends. That means while it might work you have to be careful with the plug and play in this rifle. I would lean towards buying an already tested rifle rather than building one. A good example is go to the SAAMI website and look at the .277 fury cartridge drawings. They have multiple warnings on them about the extra psi.

I’ll definitely be watching and very interested to see where this goes. As a reloader I likely won’t buy one but love to see companies trying to push the boundaries and looking at new things to advance the market.

B
 
hunter-4-life said:
In todays day and age, unless you've been loading for 10+ years and your press, scale, tools etc are paid for (paid for as in you've loaded 1000+ rounds with them) its still cheaper to just buy factory ammo for 90% of people. You have to shoot A LOT of shells to make it worth your time and save money. By the time you factor in prices of components, dies and your time its not as cheap as some think.

Me and a fellow reloader/gunnuter sat down the other day and actually figured out how many round you'd have to shoot to pay for your reloading gear if you were just starting out or even if you used a friends press, scale etc etc. We used the 300 win mag, and said the average price was $85/box for factory ammo.

So at $85/20 (1 box) is $4.25/round.

On average a QUALITY hunting bullet (Accubond, Partition, Berger etc) bullet is $1.50/lead (this is average, obvisouly some are $1.75 and others are $0.80)
1lb of magnum powder (h1000, retumbo, etc) $110/1lb or 7000gr OR $0.015/gr
Primers we all know $25/100 or $0.25/pop

So to load 300 win mag, 180gr Nosler Accubond, 79.0gr of H1000

Leads: $89+tax= $98 or $1.97/lead (box of 50 leads remember)
Powder: H1000 at $99+tax/lb= $110 or $0.015/gr x 79.0= $1.19/shell
Primers: $25+tax/100=$0.27/ea

Total NOT including brass, dies or your time, load development to achieve your accuracy goals (more time and components) is $3.43/shell. Now factor in either new brass, or even buying once fired at say $0.60/ea grand total is $4.03/shell. Then if you factor in dies at say $80/set, if you load 100 shells (5 boxes of ammo, call it 5 years of ammo, for some thats 10 years of ammo) thats another $0.80/shell. So now your at $4.83/shell, so $0.58/shell MORE than factory ammo. And again, your time isn't free, your trips to the range for load development aren't free AND who knows how many round you'll need to test before you find accuracy and velocity equal to or better than factory ammo.

Reloading is just another VERY expensive hobby. If you shoot a box of shells a year like 90% of hunters do, you don't save anything by loading your own. And FWIW, I am an avid reloader. I am not against it whatsoever BUT for those who think they save money to load 20-50 rounds a year to hunt, you really don't unless you consistently do that for

If the velocity from Federal stay as high as it is and the accuracy is acceptable, I don't even see the point in reloading. Go buy 3 boxes of shells and be on your way for the next how ever many years.
Click to expand...

Why are you using accubond bullets but not comparing to Accubond factory ammo? A quick Google search suggests you're looking at $120/box+tax for that.

Plus your math is assuming brass is only used once, and Primers are more like $16/100 these days (that's what I paid multiple times in the last year for CCI).

So really it's more like $7+ a round for factory, vs $4 a round to reload. If you are making practice ammo that could be more like $3/ round with a cheap bullet like a speer or Hornady, which is half the price of cheap factory ammo loaded with similar bullets.

I'm always on the lookout for deals, and thanks to that I can load for my 7mm08 and 243win for $2.50 using a nosler partition or under $2 each with a speer or Hornady btsp.
 
Reloading is a must for me too and it has to be “easy”, not having to spend 10 minutes on resizing one case lol! I started reloading when I got in calibers that were hard to find good factory ammo for up here! Before I was pretty happy to just shoot factory loads in my 30-06 and found pretty good accuracy with factory loads, good enough for hunting anyway. But then now I also reload for 30-06!
I found I do shoot way more since I reload so I think I’m a better shot for it, but I sure don’t save money lol!
 
Suther said:
Why are you using accubond bullets but not comparing to Accubond factory ammo? A quick Google search suggests you're looking at $120/box+tax for that.

Plus your math is assuming brass is only used once, and Primers are more like $16/100 these days (that's what I paid multiple times in the last year for CCI).

So really it's more like $7+ a round for factory, vs $4 a round to reload. If you are making practice ammo that could be more like $3/ round with a cheap bullet like a speer or Hornady, which is half the price of cheap factory ammo loaded with similar bullets.

I'm always on the lookout for deals, and thanks to that I can load for my 7mm08 and 243win for $2.50 using a nosler partition or under $2 each with a speer or Hornady btsp.
Click to expand...
I knew someone should nitpick my numbers, and quite frankly even if I’m $0.20/round high. You can’t tell me for the average Joe you don’t save money reloading. Anyone who thinks they do isn’t good at math or thinks the budget will balance itself….. especially when you start getting the fancy gadgets, your chronograph, your headspace comparators, etc etc etc. Sure if you wanna load cheap soft point shells you might save some money. But with today’s factory ammo choices, and for the average joe, you don’t save anything.

I’m using a quality bullet compared to a quality factory ammo (Accubond vs Berger) You can’t get 7BC with an accubond yet. Nor can you buy terminal accent leads etc etc. And sorry, not sure where you’re getting primers for $16. Everywhere I’ve looked is $25/100 plus tax for Federal/CCI.
 
One often overlooked aspect of reloading is the ability to make ammo when there aren't any on the shelves. It was just a couple of years ago tht people were in a panic about ammo availability. Even common stuff like 9mm and 223 was not that available and when you found it was very expensive. A bunch of hunters I know had real trouble finding ammo for anything that wasn't 308 or 3006. 300WSM was vacant from shelves for ages.
 
hunter-4-life said:
I knew someone should nitpick my numbers, and quite frankly even if I’m $0.20/round high. You can’t tell me for the average Joe you don’t save money reloading. Anyone who thinks they do isn’t good at math or thinks the budget will balance itself….. especially when you start getting the fancy gadgets, your chronograph, your headspace comparators, etc etc etc. Sure if you wanna load cheap soft point shells you might save some money. But with today’s factory ammo choices, and for the average joe, you don’t save anything.

I’m using a quality bullet compared to a quality factory ammo (Accubond vs Berger) You can’t get 7BC with an accubond yet. Nor can you buy terminal accent leads etc etc. And sorry, not sure where you’re getting primers for $16. Everywhere I’ve looked is $25/100 plus tax for Federal/CCI.
Click to expand...
PR sold 8600 Fed 215M primers on Friday Jan 10 between 4:02pm and 5:00pm. The last 8600 went in about an hour @ $17.99 per hundred.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: DGY
I could see this useful in AR platforms, short barrelled, silenced

Also standard action, short barrelled brush guns not giving up velocity
 
Last edited:
I would rather hunt with my 1886 45/90 and cast bullets than one of these latest developments, because I believe in the stalking aspect of hunting , not trying to make 1000 yard wonder shots that should be kept to punching paper.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DGY
hunter-4-life said:
I knew someone should nitpick my numbers, and quite frankly even if I’m $0.20/round high. You can’t tell me for the average Joe you don’t save money reloading. Anyone who thinks they do isn’t good at math or thinks the budget will balance itself….. especially when you start getting the fancy gadgets, your chronograph, your headspace comparators, etc etc etc. Sure if you wanna load cheap soft point shells you might save some money. But with today’s factory ammo choices, and for the average joe, you don’t save anything.

I’m using a quality bullet compared to a quality factory ammo (Accubond vs Berger) You can’t get 7BC with an accubond yet. Nor can you buy terminal accent leads etc etc. And sorry, not sure where you’re getting primers for $16. Everywhere I’ve looked is $25/100 plus tax for Federal/CCI.
Click to expand...

It's not just 20c, it's over $1.50 when you factor in multiple uses of the brass, the fact you get more than 100 loads from a die set, and the fact Berger bullets are readily available at $1 a pop.

Is anyone saving a ton of money buying components at full retail prices? No. But you can save a lot if you stock up when there are sales - my last boxes of partitions were 40% off and my last 2 jugs of powder were under $50 each (All bought in 2024).

As for the $16 primers, I've been buying mine at Cabelas. One is local to me so I just order em when they have stock online and get em shipped to the store for free pickup.
 
Last edited:
Suther said:
It's not just 20c, it's over $1.50 when you factor in multiple uses of the brass, the fact you get more than 100 loads from a die set, and the fact Berger bullets are readily available at $1 a pop.

Is anyone saving a ton of money buying components at full retail prices? No. But you can save a lot if you stock up when there are sales - my last boxes of partitions were 40% off and my last 2 jugs of powder were under $50 each (All bought in 2024).

As for the $16 primers, I've been buying mine at Cabelas. One is local to me so I just order em when they have stock online and get em shipped to the store for free pickup.
Click to expand...
We can agree to disagree. I just know, without a doubt, unless you’re shooting A LOT throughout the year, you don’t save money.
 
Tech changes. Bottom line material costs can be a significant factor in mass production. Brass is costly compared to steel. Industry may be using civilian use to determine effective direction to develop more efficient cartridge types. Clearly the military is trying to create more cost effective high pressure/velocity cartridge types. IE the Fury. I suspect that an industry leader in cartridge manufacture is trying to use an economical source to run testing at a minimal cost to develop.
As far as the efficiency of the cartridge goes, it clearly is new level tech and more effective by simply being faster than a brass cartridge.
Will I run out and grab one? Not yet. But I haven't determined costs of factory ammo, availability of materials and difficulty to reload.
I suspect it will be some time before we see any of them in Canada.
Keep your stick on the ice. Cheers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom