Im looking to do a new hunting rifle build and can get a screaming deal on a Bighorn short action with mag bolt face. I hunt mainly west Texas mule deer at ranges from 200 to 800 ish yards. My main concerns would be good brass availability in the future. I reload and dont mind necking up or down. Am I doomed going with any of the SAUM or WSM? Are there any other options?

Thanks

I'm not a fan of the WSM calibers, except the 338 WSM (that would be one of my top picks). The last pick would be 7 WSM, due to brass availability, and crappy Win brass. The 7 SAUM is not too bad and brass can be had somewhat easy with premium Nosler brass. The 30 cal options same story. I have thought about building a 6.5 Rem Mag pushing a 140 grain at top speed. It is faster than the 6.5x284 and holds about 5-8 grains more powder. I have 900+ pieces of Rem 6.5 RM brass, and it is a really good short action magnum round. It would be great for long range shooting, also.

So would you like to sell me some brass? I assume you are talking about 6.5 rsaum Chad?

Agree with Chad on this one, and the 6.5 Rem Mag is a cartridge that was ahead of it's time along with the 350 Rem Mag. Short fat Magnums.

No, the 6.5 Rem Mag is different than the 6.5 RSAUM. The 6.5 Rem Mag is a belted magnum case, like a 300 Win Mag or 7 Rem Mag, just shorter. But it's a short action round. The 6.5 RSAUM is a 7 SAUM necked down to 6.5. That's not a bad option, either! It's a little more of a wild cat, but I know several comp shooters running these, and rumor is there will be commercial brass soon. It would be a hot rod. The SAUM has the desired 30 degree shoulder, and good case capacity. The 6.5 SAUM would hold about 55-62 grains of powder, and the 6.5 Rem Mag will hold about 50-55 grains of powder, depending on a few factors.

But the challenge with most short action magnum rounds is getting the high BC bullets to fit and feed out of the short action magazine, without having a huge jump to the lands. A lot of shooters build it on a long action for this reason. If you plan to run the high BC bullets, you will need to work the math out with your max magazine length, COAL, bullet jump, and your chambers throat, to make sure it will all fit the way you want it to. I have known many 6.5x284 shooters who buy a high end short action rifle wanting to shoot the 140 Berger's at 2900+ fps (in a 22" barrel), and we can't get it to fit in the mag and be even close to the lands.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6.5mm_Remington_Magnum

I have a 6.5 SAUM and love it as I am a bit of a speed freak.

Hornady made a run of the brass and it was sold through GA Precision. It sold out fast and there should be more runs once in a while. You can neck down 7 SAUM or 300 SAUM.

Mag length might be an issue for you as Chad mentioned. Not sure if you can get a custom chamber to help with that or just single feed.

6.5 SAUM is running 60-62 gr of H-1000 in lots of rigs. And is pushing a 140 Hybrid 3100-ish depending on barrel length. And I wouldn't go shorter than 24".

I would recommend the 7 mm wsm over the 270 wsm do to better bullet selection.
Balisticly there are identical. Brass is hard to find.
I have had a 7 rem mag I like the 6.5 mag for its flat shooting.
The problem is that the belted magnums head space off the top of the belt.
A regular case headspaces off the bolt face.
The belt over time will stretch and a full length resizing can not restore it to length.
This is the reason I went to the wsm cases.
A interesting wild cat is the 6.5 mm wsm.
You need to consider this for a gun build.
I have hunted mule deer with my 7mm wssm for years.
Look at the ballistics of all of these cartridges and make up your own mind.

7 wissum here

Been away from the Forum for the last couple weeks during the move last month, but this thread had caught my eye when I could sit down for a few minutes.

I have a 5 digit New Haven, last year of production, M70 Fwt in 300WSM I picked up for cheap trading that I've shot just enough to know that it'll go boom when you pull the trigger. Definitely NOT a silky smooth promising shooter waiting to happen, with only average accuracy at best so far - no time previously to do load workups, that really was bought to do a 6.5WSM or 6.5RemMag on, before I bought the last 260 T3.

So THE QUESTION IS...what to do with the WSM for a + ?? yard shooter, or just shoot it as good as it can be shot with minimal tuning until something better wanders thru? and am willing to spend the time at the too short range until I can take something out to much longer distances that is worth the 100 mile drive to McLennnan County.

Here at the new place there is a 200 yard range that is handy to do load ladders at and regain what I can of my own trigger skills once we get settled in, unlike living at Lake Texoma was for the last 10 years.

What say the Peanut Gallery and Short Non Belted Mag lovers/haters?
Ron

I have a 300 wsm in the exact same rifle.
The factory is way too lite.
I restocked with a houge/Knox comp stock
It is been beded and accurate.
It now shoots like a 270.
You can't make it shoot with a lite stock.
You will beat your self up

Not surprising that the OEM wood Fwt stock & barrel are too light, and already know that the shape of stock does not fit me well.

Sounds like I will have somebody smooth it out and look at putting it in one of the Boyd wood stocks like the Boyd "Prairie Hunter" Montana Rifle Co uses on their upgraded line of M70 clones until I decide what it will become in the future...although the gun writer guy I read most has TM'ed a 9.3 WSM called a 9.3BS (aka Barsness-Sisk) that sounds like fun. I've used a 9.3x62 successfully in the past and like the bullet performance on game. A 338WSM would also fill that bigger bullet niche & both have die sets available from Forster I think it is.
Ron