Just bought three rifles from the widow of a fellow recently deceased. No great deals but they were all "lefties" so I was happy. (that's because I'm a lefty also) Anyway one is a Remington 700 late 70's early 80's in 7mm Mag. since I already have a couple of 7mm mag was wondering if it was possible to ream it into a 7mm STW since I don't have one of these?

Supposed to be just that simple.

No action work required, just ream and go.

It is that simple but I wouldn't bother unless the rifle has a 26" barrel.The stw gains little over the 7mmremmag with shorter barrels.

Ream it out and shoot.I have personally seen a 24" 7STW put 3450 on the chrony with a 139 Hornady and a "whole bunch" of Reloder 22 powder.But then again,I had a 24" 7 Rem Mag that would put a 140 Ballistic Tip to 3350 without problems so like stubblejumper says,there isn't a whole lot to gain with a 24" barrel.Maybe a better choice would be rebarrelling to something else.Do you have a 300 Magnum of some flavour? What about a 338 or a 375 H&H? Want to go smaller.257 Weatherby? LOTS of choices with a Rem 700 long action magnum.

Just one thing to think about when reaming a 7mm Rem Mag to 7mm STW. Look at the diameter of the case right at the shoulder on a 7mm Rem. It's slightly larger than the diameter at the shoulder on a 7mm STW. If your 7MM Rem chamber is not a minimum dimensioned chamber, and you use a minimum dimensioned reamer for the STW, you might not get complete cleanup of the 7mm Rem chamber and end up with a little ring in the chamber at the position of the shoulder on the 7mm Rem. This happened to me. It shot fine, there were no extraction problems, just a little ring on each fired 7mm STW case that resizing took care of. It didn't seem to cause any problems with case longevitiy either.

I knew you guys would know. Thanx!

I have done a number of these; back when Remington first came out it was fairly popular. Like was said, just ream it out to the new chamber. The only thing to watch out for is the headspace issue; be sure not to have the chamber cut any deeper than the original belt/headspace dimension.

Jim

This was how I made my first STW back when it was a wildcat. It works fine. Yes a 26" barrel would be better (so would a 28 over a 26, really), but you still get an increase in velocity over the average 7mm RM, and it will shoot a little flatter. Try it, you might like it. The shoulder thing is true, at first I would end up with a tiny line right at the old 7 RM shoulder junction on the STW cases (8mm Rem Mag at the time), but polishing the chamber a tiny amount fixed that. - Dan

Theoretically, you should be able to ream out the chamber and do nothing else.

Unfortuanely, especially with the notoriously sloppy chambers of Remington 700's, you will likely be better off setting the barrel back ONE-HALF thread. This will turn the barrel 180 degrees and put the old caliber designation beneath the wood, allowing only a new caliber stamping of 7mm STW to show. It will also allow you to re-ream the existing rebate for the cartridge head belt to minimum dimensions, and will allow you to clean up any unsightly bulge at the old shoulder junction. (When turning the barrel a half turn downward, you will end up with the iron sight holes on the underside of the barrel. They are no more unsightly -- pun unintended but well-placed -- there than on the top when neatly plugged with filler screws.)

My gunsmith insisted on doing it this way, even though he was working with a Sako and its generally tighter chamber. It makes for a clean, tight chamber and is a cheap insurance policy.

A friend of mine rem 700 24" that was turned into a 7stw. It shoots but it's a dog for speed--maybe 60-75 fps faster than the 7 mag. Funny thing is no animal he has shot noticed the lack of "lazer speed".