New federal cartridge.

Patented alloy case is going to limit interest IMO.

80,000 PSI.

https://www.federalpremium.com/backcountry.html

Interesting concept and the fact they have as many gun manufacturer's onboard to launch will help.

Any idea what suppressor they had that made a soft whistle sound?

I bet that one will fail. It offers almost nothing that I can see and has a special case material.

Seems like it will work better than the .277 Fury hybrid case and be reloadable, they did say it was developed as part of a military solicitation so I wonder if they might be thinking of switching to this type of case. Maybe 7mm Backcountry is basically 7mm-08 with a few tweaks to prevent mischamberings? I haven't seen a case diagram yet, nothing on SAAMI.

I was surprised at the amount manufacturers. Saw a video with the owner of Seekins and he thinks high pressure is the future and has a new action design to handle it.

Long-action, looks more like a .280 AI, just with the different case material.

3000 fps with a 195 Berger in 24". That's 28 Nosler speeds. Curious on the "reality" of this velocity.

Bet it has a little bite on the recoil with no reducers.

This is the 2nd new cartridge that pushes the envelope on pressures. Is high pressure going to be the newest thing going forward? What's barrel life going to be?

I’ll wait on the sidelines until it’s clear this is the wave of the future. It’s worth pointing out that these performance improvements are totally useless for 90% of deer hunters; cost is much more of a factor and I can’t imagine these innovations will be cheap.

I really want to be excited about this. Who doesn't want more/better for less? But I well remember Federal's introduction of the 224 Valkyrie. Pretty much the same promises yet there was very little Federal did not screw up when they introduced the cartridge. I am suspicious of 80,000 psi but that may just date me. I am suspicious that, again, Federal's leadership is comfortable selling us something that makes them a lot of money no matter what the customer actually is buying.

I hope it's the best thing since sliced bread. We'll all know soon enough.

28 Nosler has been doing a fine job for a while now.

And with a brass case.

Exactly! The military is running their new 6.8 round (6.8x51) and is a 308 Win sized case at 80K psi. Their testing rounds were 72K psi. Brass can't handle this kind of pressure. So the case heads are having to go to steel to handle that pressure. 80K psi is well over normal proof rounds for ammo, so that ammo is Paris Hilton hot.

If it’s Paris Hilton hot that brass is wore smooth out.

It's only January 7th....... and that may be the comment of the year!!!!

No thank you

Federal makes really good factory ammunition. Their history of cartridge introductions with the 338 Federal and 224 Valkyrie has been mediocre at best. Their history with reloading components has been abysmal.

If Hornady was marketing it and supporting it then it might have a chance.

Outstanding sir!

Well-made, reloadable, steel cases can withstand high SAMMI pressures

.28 Nosler but with 20 grains less powder which means longer barrel life which the .28 Nosler doesn't have.

2900fps out of a 16" barrel.

I'd say it's worth a look.

I didn’t know powder cause barrel wear.

Yes, maybe, no, depends on who you talk to. Not just how much but they, whoever “they” are, suggest that H4350 will erode barrels faster than Varget.

Seems to me Federal has seen the shift to shorter barrels so you can run a Suppressor and not be ungainly long. This 7mm BC runs same speeds as 28 Nosler with 25grs less powder and a faster burning powder so your not blowing all that unburnt powder from your 20 inch barreled 28 Nosler loaded with Retumbo into your 1000.00 Suppressor.
There might be a slight reduction in recoil but when you move a 170 gr bullet out at 3150 there will be recoil.
I bet Steve Hornady is probably thinking hmmm 6.5 Creedmoor with 143’s at 3100fps right about now.

glad I held on to my H1000 and Retumbo

I don’t think those are the powders for the 7 BC, but maybe you were referring to something else.

maybe a PRC. What do you think the 7BC will shine with?

I don’t know, Buzz, but I suspect it will be something quicker than those two.

Backcountry appears to be the size of a 280 AI. Whatever powder is on the faster side for 280AI would be my guess. You need to be able to cram enough in there to get your 80k pressure.

I ran a QL on 280 AI, 20” barrel and 80k for the ceiling. N560 was the velocity winner at 2944 fps and a 108% load ratio. To get down to a 100% ratio RL 16 will do 2867 fps. QL is usually pretty conservative, YMMV.

This author got better than advertised velocity in his testing.

https://www.gunsamerica.com/digest/...-fastest-production-7mm-rifle-cartridge/

waiting on some actual live testing by someone here

Have the rifle just need ammo

Be nice to see them loaded with 175 eldx or 175 EH

In a 28 Nosler, we are running a Berger 195 at 2860 fps in a 20" suppressed currently. In a 22", we are running it a little over 2900 fps. In the 26", I'm seeing 3000-3050 fps. This is real world confirmed velocities. And the 28 Nosler is one of the MOST accurate rounds I've played with. I don't see what this 7 Backcountry can do that we are not already doing with a 28 Nosler, even in the shorter barrels. And I KNOW the 28 Nosler will shoot very well.


He stated: I chronographed the load I used on the hunt, which employs a 175-grain Fusion Tipped bullet, at 3,024 feet per second. That’s a little faster than factory-stated velocity, and that was out of a 20-inch barrel. It’s even faster in a longer barrel. These numbers are unreachable with any other same-weight factory 7mm cartridge in same-length barrels.


Their 7 Backcountry "published" data:

The loads and their factory-stated muzzle velocities and G1 ballistic coefficients are:

175-gr. Fusion Tipped 20-inch 2,975 fps / 24-inch 3,125 fps / G1 .575

195-gr. Berger Elite Hunter 20-inch 2,850 fps / 24-inch 3,000 fps / G1 .755

Not a massively long video but this one is interesting I feel and I am not a reloader.

https://youtu.be/OgKWnVUD0DU?si=yts49DP-4yy2mITo

I recently interviewed Matty Nelson with Seekins and he spoke about their new design builds, to handle the "many" more high pressure calibers coming out, soon...

How about just a federal case for the 223 @ 80k psi

Like Bobo is saying, I would be more interested in cartriges for existing cartridges at higher pressures than a new cartridge.

I should get ammo maybe as soon as today but if it shows up tomorrow I will be off chasing coyotes so might be a few days before I get to shoot the 7 BC.

Bobo mentioning the 223 makes me wonder if 80k of pressure down an AR barrel would be feasible… I would guess no. The bolt thrust problem is solved by the stronger brass but that doesn’t change how much gas is shooting thru that gas port. I am sure there will be folks working on that type issue but it may take a while before all cartridges are running those pressures.

On a side note a little birdie told me factory 22 Creedmoor ammo should be showing up on shelves of a couple retail outlets ….. Scheels was mentioned not sure who else.
Also look for a varmint load later this year and it’s NOT the 62gr

From Federal's website:

"Patented Peak Alloy case technology is fundamentally different than brass cases. It utilizes a proprietary steel alloy that includes other unique elements. This same alloy is used in manufacturing safes, nuclear reactors and other high-strength applications. Peak Alloy allows Federal to safely increase chamber pressures far beyond the limits of brass case ammunition, significantly increasing velocity and energy. The Peak Alloy case is also reloadable when following Federal’s lab-tested processes and data."

How much force is going to be required to size the case?

Is it going to require a press that we don't know about yet?

It it going to require a cheater pipe on the press handle?

Lot of scuttlebutt about reloading so not really sure 100% what’s true.
You will only be able to neck size is what RCBS rep says and you can’t anneal it either with the nickel coatings. Sounds like a Lee collet type die might be an option.
Once I have some empty brass that’s what I will probably try first.

My phone has already rang a couple of times about this cartridge, and reloading it.

All I can answer is I don't know what I don't know yet.

How would you remain safe if someone introduced an 80K PSI load that chambers in a 30-06? 84K is the proof load. Not sure we want folks who don't know better running loads like that in a 1903 Springfield for instance. I think they would need to be new cartridges or do something similar to what they did with the 38 Special/357 Mag to prevent the high pressure load being used in a firearm not designed to handle it.

This is a real concern.

I'm sure there will be companies building a press to handle it. If they are to much trouble/have issues i'd build my own.

Looking forward to seeing your results! Which rifle did you go with?

My FFL hasn't called me back to tell me what they were going to get access to, but I'm on the list for orders.

If I was welling to bet one of Horizons

Good things mines bolt 16” 223 with 77TMK @ 2800+ would make me happy

Since there is still debate about reloading I did not “buy” one…. The one I have and I get to play with is a friends new never fired Fierce Carbon Rival FP. Plan is to shoot a few boxes of ammo thru it and build a Ballistic profile he can use.

Bobo knows if I would have bought one it would have been a Horizon. I did buy a Horizon last week but not a 7mm Backcountry….. it’s the caliber Hornady announced they are standardizing and have started shipping brass for ( got 12 bags today) and will be the new kool-aid until another new whiz-bang comes along. 😋
I bought of course the “Venatic” Carbon since it’s sorta named for me. My screen name on all other forums except here is Venatic and most folks know me from Predator Masters as I was a Moderator there for years.
Anywhoooo I now have a new 25 Creedmoor and have been trying to find the ideal powder for both speed and accuracy.
I started out using Alpha SR brass and it’s good stuff but I wanted to do some work with the Hornady brass and large rifle primers.

Another side note my local Ace Hardware has sold 6 Horizons in 7Mm Backcountry even with the fact there is no ammo. Store manager says ammo from two suppliers supposed to arrive any day.

Loaded a few 7mm Backcountry just now…. Want to go shoot’em but have to go to my granddaughter’s birthday party.


Gonna be interesting for sure.

I got a notice Midway has ammo in stock but their shipping is high.

David, does the 7mmBC compare with the 7mmPRC?

I think velocity wise it’s closer to 28 Nosler the big question after seeing how the cartridge is put together is how accurate can it be. The 7PRC is very accurate but is about 150fps slower.
Not sure how accurate these reloads are going to be just because it’s hard to control neck interference with something that has a Rockwell hardness of 38! That’s harder than the Bolt face of your rifle.
I tried to champher the case mouths and all it does is polish the mouth.

Sounds like sizing is going to be a joy. How ironic would it be that Federal makes both the softest and hardest cases on the market

Hey they are listening to feedback

Exactly, I guess they like extremes

Very interesting results reloading 7mm BC. I used 280AI data and started 3gr over max….
Not .3gr 3.0 gr over. Then worked up to 5.0gr over max.
My first shot was slightly faster than book at 2953fps. Next load .5gr higher went exactly same .1 ES . Then worked up until I was 5 gr over and only sped up to 2990.
Barrel was shooting quite a fireball as well with unburnt powder embers flying ( indoor range I had onlookers watching)
I know the factory has Ball powder but not how much because to remove the bullet Horizon had to drill it out.
These results were puzzling as usually you see a big jump in velocity in a two grain powder increase especially when you are running this high of pressures.
Going to try a slightly faster burn rate powder to see if I can get better speeds.

That’s pretty wild. I wonder how tight the factory neck tension was compared to your reloads? I assumed tighter but not drill it out tight.

Would it need that hard crimp for proper ignition like H110 to reach the correct pressure before the bullet is out the door? I know H110 will act as you described if it doesn’t have a serious crimp.

.280 A.I. I like H-4831 SC

What powder were you loading with?

H-4350 in a long action .473" (or a short mag) is a snappy recoil. As I'm sure you know.

I was using 4000MR but now I am thinking it’s going to be a faster burn than that.
Maybe way faster.

Im so impressed by some of yall of this kinda stuff. I read this stuff like I was reading a foreign language, but if I read long enough, maybe I’ll learn to speak it.
What was the Star Trek or Star Wars saying about going where no one else has gone? Keep going guys.

To boldly go where no man has gone before?

It's all physics. And then some chemistry has to be sprinkled in. Here is on example of a powder burn rate chart.

https://loaddata.com/Article/BurnRateCharts/Powder-Burn-Rate-Chart-NEW/159

Yeah, not like those burn rate charts, from fastest to slowest, haven't been around for a looooong time and are constantly updated.

Yes they are updated and don’t take a burn rate chart as gospel just like reloading data in the books is not always the same from one to another.
Here is latest Hodgdon and I can give example’s.

https://hodgdonpowderco.com/wp-cont...ess-Relative-Burn-Rate-Chart-WEBSITE.pdf

This one shows 4000MR way faster than it is BUT it’s in its correct position on the chart JG posted above.
But on the other hand look at N550 on the Hodgdon chart. It’s about right but on JG’s chart it’s showing much slower than it really is. It is slightly faster than H4350 no doubt because I use it all the time.
While burn rate charts can be helpful you need to use them along with a reloading manual to keep yourself safe….. no not really safe because I doubt using them as gospel would cause any catastrophic problems but you might be pulling some bullets.
When you load wildcats or “ boldly go where no man has gone” your gonna be pulling some bullets.

Agreed. Same caution should be used if you use Quick Load. It's an estimate, not gospel.

I used to have to pull bullets, because you are correct. Now that I'm shooting the rifle 20 feet away from the loading bench, when I see pressure I stop climbing in powder charge. It sure does make things efficient. And having my own documents, as I'm sure you do as well, I know what real maximum are. I prefer to do new load development in summer. If it's safe in 95° weather, it's probably always safe. There are published maximum that are way too conservative. And there are some published maximums that are telling the truth.