Will the classic magnums see a renaissance?

interesting you say that there is a down turn in the 7 rem mag and the300 win mag i have worked in the retail firearm industry since 1977 and in the wholesale end
and still work part time in the retail end and there is no down turn in the sale of those to calibres people still walk in looking for them new and used
the only reason you see more for sale is because they have out sold all other calibres for the last 50 years
 
I do love the big magnum cartridges but they sure eat up the powder quick and that s**t ain’t getting any cheaper.
I am currently loading 300 Norma Mag and 338 LM. Those eat up powder in shockingly large amounts. The 338 is currently consuming 105gr of powder with every trigger pull. :oops:


The standard belted magnums: 7mm Rem Mag; .300 Win Mag & .338 Win Mag aren't going away any time soon.

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NAA.
Nobody suggested they are going away. The thread asked if they will undergo a resurgence ... which they will not.


I like my 300WM, reloads driving 200grn Nosslers at 2960.
That is a VERY hot load. :oops: I am loading 300 Norma Mag and it barely reaches that kind of velocity, while consuming considerably more powder.
 
The classic magnums probably won’t resurge but they aren’t going anywhere.
New enthusiast calibers are all well and fine, but what do those guys actually buy? A few boxes of shells and a few bags of brass? What keeps a cartridge alive is the millions of box or two a year hunters, not a few gun nuts who shoot their barrels out and move onto the next great thing. Not that there’s anything wring with that.
 
Doubt the big magnum’s will see a resurgence but I don’t see them disappearing either. You get newer shooters and hunters seem to be looking for cheaper, lighter recoiling, high performance cartridges. I don’t know to many younger shooters that reload, which I think is a must for anyone getting into a magnum.
 
Nobody suggested they are going away. The thread asked if they will undergo a resurgence ... which they will not.

The numbers in ammo sales for any given cartridge will dictate if there is a renaissance in it or not.

There will be a lot of perfectly serviceable rifles in the classic belted magnums eventually passed along to new hunters/shooters.

Time will tell. Personally, I wouldn't jump to any conclusions.

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NAA.
 
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Funny, I was just thinking about trying to find an older 700 bdl in 7 rem mag. Kind of a nostalgia piece for me, my dads friend lent me his for a couple seasons when I was a kid, it was an amazingly accurate rifle still kick myself I didn’t but it from him.
 
Talk about splitting hairs, a bunch of nonsense. Belted or non-belted, they both work equally for me..................they kill big game!
My son killed this bull moose with a big belted magnum, 7mm STW, with a 150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip, yes a ballistic tip; along with tons of other big game.
 

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I agree, handloading is a must, and I’d rather not have to worry about trying to thread the needle of making a belted mag headspace on the shoulder instead of the belt. I can’t see them being able to re-market a belt on a case, which has long been known to not add any strength to the case whatsoever.

The 6.5x55 and the 7x57 both have to much body taper and not enough shoulder angle. I’m not sure they were so much designed for heavy bullets, or not in the way we speak of it nowadays. A 220 in a 30-06 is not seated at the neck shoulder junction.
Again, as a reloader these are not attractive attributes. I’d rather shoot and reload cartridges that were designed to minimize brass flow, maximize powder column etc.
I own rifles in both of the Mauser Calibers. While marketers would have us doubt their effectiveness, they are both very capable. I also have a 9.3 x 57 which I consider an early, non belted magnum, which seems to be gaining traction not only here but on YouTube. The Jonny come lately cartridges have neither the track record nor the familiarity of what might now be called classics.

BTW 7mm and 300 magnum are "classics" as they have been around longer than I have.
 
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one thing to consider here is a lot of hunters, not shooters buy what there buddy have or suggest, they don’t have a clue about all the new things that comes out every year. They go to the store and what they have in stock is what they sell, 223, 270, 308, 30-06, 300win mag, maybe a 300wsm, 338 win mag and that is pretty much all! The new calibers like the PRC’s and the nosler’s of this world people don’t really know about them and don’t see them in the field and don’t see ammo on the shelf so they go with what they know or heard of and if you are not a gun nuts you don’t know those cartridges!
In my case, I thought I knew lots about guns and cartridges but in reality I knew really little until I joined here and started reloading.
I mean I knew of most of the standard classics lol but nothing of the new kids on the blocs lol!
So will the sales start to increase of the old classics, I don’t think so! Will they disappear I doubt it!
 
I agree, handloading is a must, and I’d rather not have to worry about trying to thread the needle of making a belted mag headspace on the shoulder instead of the belt. I can’t see them being able to re-market a belt on a case, which has long been known to not add any strength to the case whatsoever.


Why would you have to worry about " threading the needle" of making a belted magnums head space off the shoulder?

It would be the exact same method as a 308 or any non rimmed/belted case. Just don't push the shoulder back so far. Shoot ammo push should back 0.001" now it head spaces on the shoulder.

I do it with 303 British and 375hh. Just poke the should back enough so you can close the bolt with little resistance does not matter about the rim, rebaited or semi or even a belt.
 
I am currently loading 300 Norma Mag and 338 LM. Those eat up powder in shockingly large amounts. The 338 is currently consuming 105gr of powder with every trigger pull. :oops:

lol....that makes me feel better about the 80 or so I am using in the .340 Weatherby. Unfortunately I don't go through that many but it always seems like when I am loading for the the .340 Weatherby, the last thing I loaded was .223 or .17 and it feels like I'm dumping the jug to fill it!
 
Why would you have to worry about " threading the needle" of making a belted magnums head space off the shoulder?

It would be the exact same method as a 308 or any non rimmed/belted case. Just don't push the shoulder back so far. Shoot ammo push should back 0.001" now it head spaces on the shoulder.

I do it with 303 British and 375hh. Just poke the should back enough so you can close the bolt with little resistance does not matter about the rim, rebaited or semi or even a belt.
And when you’ve done that you’re sure the belt is not in contact with the chamber?
The belt on a belted magnum has ZERO upside. It does nothing except potentially cause a concentricity problem. The only reason to buy one is you already have dies and components or loaded ammo.
 
And when you’ve done that you’re sure the belt is not in contact with the chamber?
The belt on a belted magnum has ZERO upside. It does nothing except potentially cause a concentricity problem. The only reason to buy one is you already have dies and components or loaded ammo.
Correct, I agree with all the points made.

Maybe the belt is in contact but it shouldn't be because the case should be square on the bolt face and the shoulder would be self centering
 
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There is, and likely always will be (for the near future at least) plenty of 300wm and 7mm rem mags on the used shelves. There are just SO MANY RIFLES in 300wm and 7rm. Decades of sales from the days where things like PRCs weren't yet available.


That said, I am in the market for a used LH magnum, and the availability today vs a few years ago seems to be much much lower. I haven't seen a cheap LH 300wm Savage on the EE in a while and they used to be pretty common.
 
That said, I am in the market for a used LH magnum, and the availability today vs a few years ago seems to be much much lower. I haven't seen a cheap LH 300wm Savage on the EE in a while and they used to be pretty common.
The one I always see in a LH magnum is 7mm rem mag, then 300WM, I was thinking of grabbing a LH magnum for a bit but went a different and more interesting route as far as I’m concerned. I’ll grab a LH 300WM this year if something interesting pops up.

As a hand loader with 308’s already, 300WM is a no brainer vs 7mm rem mag.
 
Maybe I’m a simpleton, but I haven’t had any issues reloading .300WM as it relates to the “belt” and the accuracy is outstanding after doing some basic load development. It just plain works well for my needs.

I think it comes down to what people are using these for. For hunting and some range work, the .300WM has been a fantastic stablemate. If I was looking at long range PRS, sure there are some other new fangled cartridges out there that might be better, but I feel like it’s allot of splitting hairs and aggressive marketing. Laws of diminishing returns apply here.
 
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