Sim G wrote: I'm not sure you've made the right choice....
We agree with you in part, ooman, but we think we have made the wrong choice for the right reason. Allow us to elucidate.
As you'll know from our many other threads, we have a growing collection of olde gonnes but no modern target shooting rifle - our newest full bore rifle being a Swiss K31. Ovenpaa is currently working some magic on a nice P14 target rifle for us, so we are well able to shoot out to 300 and 600 mards with our existing military surplus rifles. We have been contemplating the options for a 600 to 1,000 mard target rifle for some time and seriously considered getting something in .338 Lapua. However, lack of suitable ranges and advice from the denizens of this esteemed forum guided us towards something in 7mm. We were in the process of settling on a Howa 1500 or Remington action, an AICS stock and a Truflight or Bartlein barrel in 7-08 when the opportunity to buy a used 7mm Magnum popped up. The 7mm Magnum has a Remington action and is in an AICS stock, and is priced at rather less than the cost of the components we had identified. The barrel looks to have plenty of life left in it too. Our plan is therefore to use it as is until the barrel wears out, at which point we may have it re-barrelled in 7x57 or 7x64. Until then, we'll have a flat shooting, accurate rifle capable of being used on most UK ranges, at a very good price and an incentive to take up paw loading to feed it.