My Rem 700 7mm SAUM

I have been wanting one of these for a while now. Many of you will know I'm all about a short handy rifle that can still stretch the legs a bit for hunting. The whole idea of the SAUM for me over my now sold 7mmRM was to make the ultimate do it all hunting rifle by getting magnum punch from a short action and in turn an overall shorter rifle. Thanks to a few GCs along the way, particularly @Kelton for providing me the donor Rem 700 WSM action for the build, I finally managed to find the right time amongst other financial commitments and get the build done.

I had originally planned to do your typical custom build - manners stock, bartlein barrel etc but with long wait times on these items and my window of opportunity suddenly turning up in front of me I wasn't going to have the patience to wait that long. Instead I opted to support NZ made for the two key items I needed being the stock and barrel. This meant I could get them right there and then and get the build underway much faster.

After a few emails back and forth with True-Flite I locked in a plan and got the action in the mail to get started. Eight weeks later it arrived back at my local Hunting and Fishing. First I loaded 19 rounds using some 160 TMKs and IMR 4831 I had lying around to break in the barrel following True-Flites instructions. Then I moved on to load development with Reloader 26 and Berger 168 VLD Hunting projectiles. In my first ladder I was pleased to see I was getting the velocity I wanted, especially knowing it was going to speed up more as the barrel continues to break in. I then started fiddling with seating depth and true to the stories the VLDs were fussy in this regard but relatively simple to find what they did like. In the end the sweet spot was 55 thou jump right between 50 and 60 thou that both shot well. Being pushed out the barrel at 2900+ fps I am bloody stoked and fizzing to take it hunting next week!

As a final note, True-Flite were awesome to deal with and extremely helpful with great communication from start to finish. One happy customer.

Full build details:

- Blueprinted Rem 700 Short Action.
- Fluted bolt with half cock and Sako extractor installed.
- Wyatt’s CFE 3” mag box.
- Trigger Tech Special Trigger.
- 20” Fluted True Flite Ultra Match Barrel at 1-9” twist chambered for the Berger 168 VLD Hunting.
- DPT Magnum Suppressor.
- Hi Tech Composites Hunter Stock.
- Talley Rings.
- Swarovski Z5 3.5-18x44 with 4w reticle.
- Backlanz Gen 2 Bipod.

https://i.ibb.co/Z6CwD3Q/IMG-1226.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/SNqzQ47/IMG-1227.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/W60Pgb4/IMG-1228.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/XzVccNX/IMG-1229.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/kMyn2XK/IMG-1230.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/R3FM3Jy/IMG-1393.jpg

Wow, those results out of a 20" barrel! :on fire:

Perfect mate

Great caliber. Well done

Looks bloody awesome i'm very jealous

Sent from my CPH2145 using Tapatalk

Very nice, congrats. The guys at TF are always great to deal with in my experience

Looks bloody primo man handles well to very impressed

Cool build and very nice results. I like!

What was the all up weight of the final result??

very nice indeed and she looks nice to carry as well.......
I predict a video of it being blooded coming very soon...but more than likely NOT this coming Saturday.......

Nice bro, Ill go on the list for when the next build is in the works :P

@Tentman on my bathroom scales its saying around 3.7kg
@Micky Duck definitely not this Saturday! The deer can wait till Monday after I have given some Greenheads a good bit of shellshock!

Noe just need some custom turrets from Custom Scope Turrets and you will be away!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by robhughes-games

Noe just need some custom turrets from Custom Scope Turrets and you will be away!!

---

Yup got the two turn MOA one on there

Why you went for the black not blue bolt shroud is beyond me! @257weatherby

Hell that's one nice looking rifle and a great shooter to boot, can't wait to see it in action.

Fantastic build mate. What contour is the barrel?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Very cool shooter looks great and good to see the kiwi manufacturers getting a foot in the door on this one. I’d be interested to see it weighed on something other than bathroom scales though surely it’s under 3.7kg?

Cheers gents, I got them to match a Bartlein 2b for the barrel contour which is a little chunkier then your standard Tikka sporter etc. I’m guessing that’s where the little extra weight comes from but that combined with the stock shape does make it nice to shoot.

Pretty much perfect hunting rig[emoji1690]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First two victims. The 168 VLDs smash them pretty good. I don’t normally shoot young males but anything was on the cards this trip as we sought a good supply of meat to send my mate home with.

Did the VLD's exit? They don't very often (150grn 270wsm) for me.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tahr

Did the VLD's exit? They don't very often (150grn 270wsm) for me.

---

Yup exited both times at around 100 and 130m

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by stagstalker

Yup exited both times at around 100 and 130m

---

Good

@stagstalker nice rig, what brass and primers did you settle on.

This looks like the perfect hunting rifle to me. Without the annoying manual feed problem the guys have with the Model 7, which would be a non-starter for me. I’m also glad you haven’t chased the weight down to the absolute minimum at the expense of shooting manners and the ability to handle a longer shot string. All very sensible in my book. Good job.

:thumbsup:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eastern Wander

@stagstalker nice rig, what brass and primers did you settle on.

---

@Eastern Wander ADG brass and Fed 215 primer

Well done, always nice to blood a new rifle. How many rounds does the mag hold?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by outdoorlad

Well done, always nice to blood a new rifle. How many rounds does the mag hold?

---

Two in the mag box if the bolt is in and closed but it will take three if the bolt is open and the top round can sit all the way up on the feed lips. It’s the only part of the rifle i’m not fully satisfied with but for what I will do with it there shouldn’t often be a situation that’s an issue unless I really stuff up (which can happen lol) or if I wanted to shoot a few in one go which doesn’t often happen.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by stagstalker

Yup got the two turn MOA one on there

---

how do you get on without the zero stop? Has the turret ever moved on you unintentionally?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Marlin4570

how do you get on without the zero stop? Has the turret ever moved on you unintentionally?

---

two turn moa is zero stop man wait i thought he was running a vx5 haha

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Marlin4570

how do you get on without the zero stop? Has the turret ever moved on you unintentionally?

---

I’ve left the zero stop in on the SAUM as 13.5moa (one turn) gets me to 590m which is plenty. My other Z5 that i’ve had a few years now and is currently on my 260 has it removed. Never been an issue. I have a note on my phone which tells me how many revolutions from the bottom my zero is just. incase I ever got lost on where it might be for some reason. Haven’t needed to resort to that yet though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Marlin4570

how do you get on without the zero stop? Has the turret ever moved on you unintentionally?

---

I’ve left the zero stop in on the SAUM as 13.5moa (one turn) gets me to 590m which is plenty. I got the two turn dial just for future proofing incase I did decide to remove it later.

My other Z5 that i’ve had a few years now and is currently on my 260 has it removed. Never been an issue. I have a note on my phone which tells me how many revolutions from the bottom my zero is just incase I ever got lost on where it might be for some reason. Haven’t needed to resort to that yet though.

Small update on this rifle. I have since swapped the centre feed mag box for a staggered mag box which I can now top feed. Got sick of having to flip the rifle and load rounds through the floor plate. Top staggered feed has been much better with the same 2.990” mag box length.

I was also finding my load wasn’t quite as consistent as i’d have liked. @Kelton got me onto using 210 primers instead of 215s and she is a bloody tac driver now! The VLDs were very fussy on seating depth with the 215s but since going 210s it just shot them well regardless of seating depth. I settled on 20 thou jump with the 210s and 168 VLDs with 63.6gr rel 26 at 2900fps.

Taken it’s fair share of animals now, of particular note it has taken a real liking to smashing bull tahr.