7mm Backcountry Hullabaloo

February 5, 2025

By JIM MATTHEWS

Outdoor News Service

               For all my rifle and hunting buddies who are hearing about the qualities of Federal’s new 7mm Backcountry rifle cartridge, I don’t want to piss on the wildfire of excitement being generated, but I do want to temper expectations.

               If you haven’t read some of the Federal promotional material or the early hype from gun scribes who’ve had a chance to see and shoot the early prototypes of the cartridge, here’s a nutshell summary: Visually, the new 7mm Backcountry is very similar to a 280 Remington Ackley Improved. The big deal is that the case is made with a steel alloy instead of brass. This steel case can be loaded to 80,000 psi versus the 55,000 to 60,000 psi limits of most brass cases. This means it can push bullets faster than any other 7mm round on the market. Because the steel case can house that extra pressure without it being transferred to the action, the new round can be chambered in just about any rifle that can fire .30-06 head-sized rounds.

               There are also some claims it will kick less because it requires less, faster-burning powder to generate the higher velocities/pressures, but I’m calling that mostly physics-minutiae bullshit. I’ve found that guns kick less if you want to believe they kick less, and guns of good design feel like they kick less than guns of poorer design. You can believe what you want.

               Some are already saying this is the future of all cartridge firearms – steel alloy cases that can house more pressure and generate superior ballistics. This is the dawn of new era.

               And I agree it could be. But I’m skeptical because I’ve watched the firearms industry operate for several decades.

               For this to indeed be a new era, I think three things have to happen.

               First, SAAMI (the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute) is going to have to figure out a way to allow these new steel alloy cases to be used for existing cartridges like the 6.5 Creedmoor, .270 Winchester, etc. This will allow all contemporary cartridges to be loaded to the higher pressures generated (and contained) in these steel cases. Right now, all cartridges regulated under SAAMI can generate a set maximum pressure, and those pressures are set based on brass cartridge cases and/or the strength of the firearm chambered for the round (now and in the past).

               It can happen. I suspect the industry organization can come up with a designation “exception” for the higher pressures generated in the new steel cases – just like it did with +P loads. Shoot the new whiz-bang steel-cased loads in your .308 or .270 and get another 300 to 500 fps for equal bullet weights. Did you perk up?

               If that were to happen, it would broaden the appeal of this new technology beyond a novelty, beyond the need to buy a whole new rifle, beyond the worry of not having ammunition or cases available in five years should the idea flop.

               Second, the cases are going to have to prove to be reloadable (which Federal claims they are) because most of today’s hunters and shooters who will be all ga-ga over this new cartridge reload their own ammunition. The loading will also have to be compatible with existing reloading equipment, so it won’t require too much additional investment. If it takes more than a new set of dies, most of us will probably stick with what we are shooting. A factory-only ammunition option will be a huge drag on the 7mm Backcountry and any other developments to follow.

               Third, and perhaps the most difficult, is that there are a lot of savvy hunters and shooters out there who may not see the modest ballistic advantages of a new 7mm Backcountry as worth the investment. Now, if Federal can clear the SAAMI hurdle and come out with .308, 6.5 Creedmoor, and other rounds, that might cinch the future of steel cartridge cases. But it will also kill off the 7mm Backcountry. I mean why would you shoot the 7mm Backcountry if you could shoot your existing 6.5 Creedmoor or 7mm PRC with even better ballistics?

               It would have made more sense for Federal to get the SAAMI problem solved and come out with steel, enhanced-ballistic rounds for all popular contemporary cartridges rather than introduce another cartridge to showcase an arguably great idea. This should have been an entire ammunition line introduction rather than a single cartridge introduction. Sadly, I think is could doom this great idea.

               The gun industry is rife with examples of great ideas crashing into inept marketing and design departments at major companies.

I can give you dozens of examples of failures from the industry, especially with rifle cartridges: The entire super short magnum line of cartridges from Winchester in .223, 243, and .25 WSSMs flopped, even with a cool, new very short Model 70 action to house them. Why? Well, the calibers were wrong. If Winchester would have introduced perhaps a 6.5 WSSM they would have had .270 Winchester ballistics in a rifle that could have weighed 5 ½ to 6 pounds from the factory -- the perfect carry hunting rifle just as that was becoming a rage. But likely, the Winchester honchos had watched Remington’s failure of its 6.5 Remington Magnum just a few years before, and thought a 6.5 WSSM would fail, too.

It wasn’t that the 6.5 Remington Magnum was a bad round, or before it’s time, as some have said. This short, belted case generated great ballistics (from a 24-inch barrel) but they were stuffed into an 18 1/2-inch barreled, butt-ugly Remington Model 600 that made a lot of noise and had .250 Savage ballistics from that short barrel. What were they thinking?

There was a .308 something or other from Thompson/Center, I think, that was nearly identical to the .308 Winchester in look and ballistics. Why? Someone was sold a bill of goods on that one. The .284 Winchester, again, a great mountain-rifle cartridge in the right gun, was introduced in lever-action and semi-auto close-range hunting guns, its ballistics squandered. I don’t think Winchester ever had it in the short-action Model 70 Featherweight where it might have gained a following. (Melvin Forbes sure sold a lot of .284s in his ultralight rifles.) And what happened to the .375 Ruger, the 8mm Remington Magnum, the .225 Winchester, or all of Remington’s SAUM (Short Action Ultra Magnum) cartridges?

So I want to temper all the hoopla about the Federal 7mm Backcountry. Personally, I think it’s DOA, especially if steel-alloy cartridges are introduced for popular calibers. And if Federal (or some other company) doesn’t come up with whole steel-alloy line, this whole thing will fade into obscurity like so many other good cartridge ideas gone wrong in the gun industry.

END

Jim Matthews is a syndicated Southern California-based outdoor reporter and columnist. He can be reached via e-mail at odwriter@verizon.net or by phone at 909-887-3444.