7mm Backcountry vs. 7mm PRC vs. 7mm Remington Magnum

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There is no shortage of 7mm hunting cartridges available today, and that list continues to grow with the recent unveiling of Federal’s 7mm Backcountry. If we were to compare all the various 7mms we could fill an entire book (as my friend and fellow writer Ron Spomer just did with his excellent 7mm Cartridges From Around the World), but for the sake of brevity, we’ll simply stick to comparing three popular 7mm hunting cartridges that are available today: the 7mm Remington Magnum, 7mm PRC, and the new 7mm Backcountry.

7mm Remington Magnum: The Belted Classic

The oldest of the lot is the 7mm Remington Magnum which arrived in 1962. It was purely a product of the Magnum Craze of the mid-twentieth century and, as such, it came with a belt and a big enough case to accommodate lots of powder. It wasn’t the first 7mm, but it was offered in the popular Remington Model 700 bolt-action rifle and the 7mm Rem Mag’s ability to cleanly harvest all but the largest and most dangerous game made it an instant winner. It recoiled less than the .300 Winchester Magnum (which debuted a year after the 7mm Remington Magnum) and shot flatter than the .30-06 and .308.

The 7mm Remington Magnum’s most popular projectiles ranged from 140 to 175-grains with velocities ranging from roughly 3,100 fps for the lighter bullets to about 2,800 fps for the big 175s. Sectional density was high and the 7mm Remington magnum produced muzzle energies in excess of 3,000 foot-pounds.

At the time of its inception, shooting game at extended ranges was approached very differently than it is today. Most hunters used holdover when shooting out to 400 yards, and that meant the lighter 7mm Remington bullets were better suited for light game like sheep, deer, and antelope out to a quarter mile because the lighter bullet dropped less. 160 and 175-grain bullets weren’t considered ideal because they dropped more and made it more challenging to properly predict holdover, and conventional wisdom taught us that heavier bullets were designed for heavier game.

The 7mm Remington Magnum was—and is—a very good hunting cartridge. It has remained popular despite a seemingly endless flood of new 7mm cartridge releases, including the .280 Remington, 7mm-08, 7mm STW, .280 Ackley Improved, 7mm WSM, 7mm RSAUM, and others.

7mm PRC: Match Grade Chambers

It wasn’t until Hornady launched the 7mm Precision Rifle Cartridge (PRC) in 2022 that there was a 7mm Remington’s popularity seemed in jeopardy. The 7mm PRC followed the same recipe as Hornady’s earlier 6.5 and .300 PRC cartridges. It utilized a 2.280-inch case with a 30-degree angle. The case is shorter than the 7mm Rem Mag (2.500 inches) and this allows the 7mm PRC to handle long, heavy-for-caliber bullets without robbing case capacity. It also allows the PRC to fit in a long action just like the 7mm Rem Mag.

The 7mm PRC was built around heavy bullets. It offers tight chamber dimensions for improved accuracy and is tailored for long-range shooters. The days of holdover are largely gone, replaced by ballistic calculators and exposed dials. The 7mm PRC’s sleek, heavy-for-caliber bullets buck wind and retain velocity and energy more efficiently than the lighter projectiles fired by the 7mm Remington Magnum. In fact, the 7mm PRC carries more energy at extended ranges than the .300 Winchester Magnum. At 500 yards, Hornady’s 175-grain 7mm PRC ELD-X bullet retains 2,141 foot-pounds of energy in their factory load, more than the 2,033 foot-pounds of energy retained by the company’s 200-grain ELD-X .300 Win Mag load at that range.

The 7mm PRC was an immediate success, and many major rifle manufacturers were offering guns chambered for this round within the first year. Recoil from the 7mm PRC is stouter than the 7mm Rem Mag but it isn’t ferocious, and most hunters who are comfortable with the 7mm Rem Mag can make the jump to the 7mm PRC without issue.

7mm Backcountry: State-of-the-Art Case Tech

The newest member of the 7mm family is the 7mm Backcountry, or 7mm BC. Capable of driving a 175-grain bullet at 3,000 feet per second from a 20-inch barrel, the 7mm Backcountry is a very potent and powerful 7mm cartridge. However, when you place the cartridge alongside a .280 Remington the two rounds are almost indistinguishable despite the fact that the 7mm BC’s ballistics thoroughly stomp those of the .280. How can this be so?

It boils down to case material and pressure. Federal loads their 7mm BC in Peak Alloy steel cases. Unlike cheaper steel alloys used in budget ammo, Peak Alloy is a high-strength metal used in aerospace and racing applications. This allows it to withstand pressures of 80,000 PSI, much more than the 62,000 and 65,000 psi max pressures of the 7mm Rem Mag and 7mm PRC respectively.

With the military’s adoption of the 6.8x51 SIG FURY cartridge for its Next Generation Squad Weapon, it appears that steel-cased ammunition at higher pressures are here to stay (the 6.8x51 utilizes a special steel/brass alloy case). Building on this concept, Federal has created a hunting rifle cartridge that utilizes the same concept. By increasing the pressure, Federal has created a cartridge that can reach 7mm PRC velocities with similar weight bullets and a barrel that is four-inches shorter, and this allows for shorter, handier, rifles without sacrificing velocity. It’s also a boon for the growing number of hunters who prefer to hunt with suppressors. I’m one such hunter, and I appreciate that the 7mm Backcountry offers impressive ballistics from a rifle with a stubby barrel. Even short suppressors measure about six inches, and when you add that to a rifle with a 24 or 26-inch barrel the gun becomes unwieldy. However, a 20-inch barrel with a suppressor remains maneuverable in the field.

Availability of Rifles and Ammunition

The 7mm Remington Magnum has been popular for more than six decades, so it should come as no surprise that there are lots of factory load options and reams of reloading data for this cartridge. A popular online ammunition vendor currently offers 70 different 7mm Remington Magnum load offerings ranging from 120 to 180-grains, the majority of which are designed specifically for hunting. Those loads averaged between $2.00 and $5.00 per round, which makes the 7mm Remington Magnum the least expensive and most available of the three cartridges.

That same site listed 21 available 7mm PRC factory loads with prices ranging from $2.25 to $7.00 per round. It’s also worth noting that approximately half of the cartridges available were designed specifically for long-range target shooting, which should come as no surprise since the 7mm PRC was conceived to serve as both a hunting and target round. Grain weights ranged from 150 to 185 grains, but the most popular grain weights were 160 to 175 grains.

Not surprisingly, the upstart 7mm Backcountry offers the fewest number of factory loads at five, all of which are loaded by Federal. This limits the number of available factory loads, but there may be additional manufacturers offering up 7mm BC ammo. Ammunition costs range from $2.65 to $3.40 per round for factory ammunition with bullets ranging from 155 to 195 grains.

In terms of rifles, the 7mm Rem Mag is a runaway winner because it has been in production for so long. There are plenty of rifles, old and new, chambered for this round. Normally when new rounds arrive, it takes some time for gun manufacturers to jump onboard, but that hasn’t been the case with the 7mm PRC. Browing, Ruger, Seekins, Savage, Christensen, Weatherby, and a host of other rifle manufacturers already offer guns chambered in 7mm PRC so finding a gun is not an issue.

The 7mm BC also seems to be faring well early in the race with PROOF Research, Seekins, Savage, Weatherby, Horizon, Christensen, and other manufacturers offering guns. If you’re searching for a budget rifle, I suggest looking for the 7mm Rem Mag.

Field Use

I own an early production Ruger M77 7mm Remington Magnum and that rifle is accurate and versatile. It’s perfectly-suited for medium game like deer and antelope at the limits of my effective field range and it will also work on elk, moose, and African plains game. My friend Patrick Cairns of Bushman Quiver Safaris in South Africa keeps a Tikka 7mm Rem Mag as a rental rifle for clients, and he has high praise for the cartridge on a full range of African plains game from duiker and springbok to eland and kudu, and that gun has probably accounted for more game animals than most guns ever will. The late writer John Wootters once wrote in Petersen’s Hunting that his favorite hunting cartridge was the 7mm Remington Magnum, and Mr. Wootters punched many tags during his long career as a gun writer.

If you’re hunting large game at extended ranges (beyond 400 yards) I do believe the 7mm PRC offers an advantage. Those long, sleek, heavy-for-caliber bullets buck the wind well and hit with more energy than the 7mm Remington Magnum. The difference between the two rounds is inconsequential on deer-sized game under 300 yards provided proper shot placement, but for cross-canyon shots on elk, moose hunting, and the largest African plains game the 7mm PRC offers advantages. The 7mm PRC is also a better option for anyone who wants to shoot long-range targets with their hunting rifle simply because the high BC bullets are more forgiving in the wind and shoot flatter at long ranges.

The 7mm Backcountry offers ballistics similar to a 7mm PRC from a shorter barrel, which is a major benefit when hunting with a suppressor. 7mm BC rifles can be built very light, and recoil is not out of sorts with other 7mm rifles. I killed an elk last year with the 7mm BC and found it to be highly effective, though I imagine that elk would have met the same fate if it had been hit with a 7mm Remington Magnum or 7mm PRC.

If you own a 7mm Remington Magnum and keep your shots under 400 yards there’s little reason to swap your gun for one of the other 7mms as performance will be similar. However, if you want to extend your effective range or spend the off-season shooting targets at 1,000 yards or more a 7mm PRC offers better ballistics and a wider selection of target-specific ammunition. The 7mm Backcountry is a fine option for a dual-purpose hunting/target rifle and it offers similar performance to the 7mm PRC with a shorter barrel. 7mm BC ammunition can be reloaded, but there isn’t as much data available as there is for the other two cartridges.

All Perform Well

There are minor differences with all three of these cartridges, but there’s also great overlap with regard to their performance. In truth, a quality rifle chambered for any of these three cartridges will work quite well provided you choose a quality hunting bullet and—most importantly—that you make a good shot. Regardless of ballistic performance, no cartridge compensates for poor shot placement.

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