Grouse, I was hoping you’d respond. Yes, the gun is quite an odd ball, shot plenty of deer with it and it’s fun to shoot. Just not what I need for my woods. Might be worth just holding onto. Appreciate it.
It certainly is an interesting cartridge and it won’t have much problem killing a whitetail, that’s for sure. However, I think the real reason the 7 WSM ran out of gas has to do with the fact that there are only so many mountain hunters out there who really both APPRECIATE and are willing to pay for the ability to shoot a magnum cartridge in a shorter action and lighter rifle. Almost nobody in Eastern whitetail country needs a magnum anything, much less a super light, hard kicking, fireball like the 7 short.
The biggest downside for many obsolete or semi-obsolete chamberings will come if large numbers of us get forced to stop using lead bullets. Many chamberings are fed by limited runs of ammo followed by years or decades of no production at all, so if suddenly you have to find lead-free ammo, you could be SOL for a long time in some obsolete cartridges.
It might be worth saving your brass going forward, even if you don’t personally reload. If you have brass, you can ALWAYS find reloading dies, so it would be possible to get someone to load for you and keep that rifle fed for decades to come.
Buying 2-3 boxes of the rifle’s favorite load would keep you going for a long time. As factory ammo goes, it isn’t insanely expensive, I’m seeing 35-45 a box as the price range.
Grouse
