7mm Shooting Times Westerner

[Quoheleth]

What ever happened to this crackerjack of a round? I was a subscriber of Shooting Times back in the late 80s and early 90s and, IIRC, Lane Simpson and his buddies worked up the 7mm STW. It was supposed to spank the 7mm Remington, .300 Winchester, and .270 Weatherby in just about every ballistic category. I think the only thing they were waiting on was factory chamberings in it.

I thought of it this morning while reading through my Lee reloading manual and saw the data on it. It got me thinkig, wondering "what happened." To be clear: I'm not looking for one, I don't want to buy one. This is more of a question of curiosity.

Q

 

[kyle1974]

I think it's still out there, but it probably got outshadowed by the 300 ultra and 7 mm ultra mag factory offerings...

 

[Uncle Mike]

It's still around, but as kyle said...outshadowed by other cartridges.
The 7mm Ultra Mag. eclipses it by a fair margin, and the 7mm STW has the dreaded 'belt' for which some deem bad.

The ultra mags put more than a few prospective cartridges to pasture.

 

[Runningman]

The 7mm STW is not very popular these days. But some including me still hunt with it. It was a one time chambered by Remington, Winchester, and Sako (maybe a couple others) for around a three to five year time frame. But more or less faded away with the influx of new cartridges series in the late 90s thru early this decade. Cartridges series such as the WSM, RUM, and SAUM. Remington, Federal and Winchester still manufacture ammo for it.

 

[NCsmitty]

Factory STW ammo from ASquare showed 140gr HP @ 3450fps muzzle velocity, which bests even the 7mmRUM 140gr @ 3425fps.
I did find the 7.21 Lazzeroni Firebird, and it absolutely tops the 7mm charts with a 140gr @ 3750fps, with the STW second.
The 7mm STW is a powerful, flat shooting round, but is very hard on barrels with top end loadings.

Ballistic tables here.

www.shootingtimes.com/ballistics/ballistic-tables



NCsmitty

 

[dubbleA]

I had one made back in 89 or 90 when it still a wildcat. I got my first reloading data from the 2nd ST issue by L Simpson. The article had a picture of an opened Hodgdon manual with the loads. I went by them and had trouble, as it turned out they were way over max for most rifles, when I got my Hodgdon manual the loads were backed off 2-3 grs. I used 8mm RM and fire formed alot of 300 H&H cases and used IMR 7828, H1000,R22 and H 5010. I did not get the amazing speeds listed by the author even in a 28 inch tube with what I consider safe pressures. I used it for a couple of years and now it's been a safe queen for many years.

 

[hardluk1]

Georgia arms still loads ammo for the 7mm STW also .