New Federal 7mm Backcountry “Ammunition Reinvented”

[Letzhunt]

Look at the video review done by Altera Arms. They are one of several rifle makers that got the reamers and were asked to make rifles in this chambering. They were honest and basically said ... not ready. RCBS has had several years to figure out the reloading and doesn't have it licked yet. Many rifles won't handle repeated firings and reported accuracy sucks.
They are using all the Terminal Ascent bullets in this stuff so we can get them for our hand loads . I predict a fade out and think it only happened as they were looking for a way to bail out of the failed attempt at government contract that Sig got..... but the way the Sig round has issues too.
All this now owned by a Czech Company!

 

[Russ16]

The big game hinting podcast had an engineer from federal on who claimed reloading was easy and they could be annealed. Of course he has an incentive to say so.

Funniest thing I’ve heard in a while was today at DSC. Talking to one of the high tech tactical looking rifle makers he asked what cartridge I like. I said 30-06. He said to stock up because he heard they were going to discontinue ammo for it. I looked at him like he was crazy and said I bet there are as many guns chambered in 30-06 as any other cartridge. Bolt guns anyway. I’ll go ahead and take my chances that 30-06 ammo and components wil be available for a while.

 

[BeeMaa]

Good grief.

Is this essentially a 30-06 case? how long before someone runs a nickel 30-06 case through and...

Yeah, I was just thinking about this as well. Not to mention if someone were to modify an existing rifle by reaming out the chamber to accept the 7BCT that wasn't designed for the 60-65K psi.

I wonder how the lawyers at Federal are feeling about the possibilities.

In truth, it's not all that much different from what SIG did with the 277FURY which is essentially a 308WIN case necked down to 7mm, moving the shoulder & body taper. Yes the did it with a two-piece (and reloadable) steel/brass case, but it's still a 80K psi cartridge done in a different way. Maybe Federal was feeling a little left out of the game and needed a product to make them feel relevant after SIG won the military contract.

Plus the 277FURY fits in the AR-10 platform which was necessary for use by the US Gov't. The 7BCT being based on the 30-06 would require a significant change in the operating system. Although I suppose they could go back to using the M1 Garand.