Thread: 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.