Introduced in 1962, the 7mm Rem Mag became one of the most popular of belted-magnum chamberings for North American hunting. It shoots a bit flatter than the 300 Win Mag and generates a bit less recoil. Early on, bullet makers did this chambering a big favor with the introduction of relatively efficient hunting bullets such as the 175-grain Sierra SBT that allowed handloaders to create loads that gave the 300 Win Mag a serious run for the money with shots at 500 yards or so. Compared to the 300 Win Mag, the 7mm Rem Mag offers similar barrel life, perhaps 1000 to 1500 rounds, if the owner is careful not to overheat it and does a good job of bore cleaning and greasing before storage. While the 300 Win Mag should otherwise have significantly better barrel life, the foolishly short case neck used prevents it from doing so. While the neck of the 7mm Rem Mag is too short for ideal results, the 300 Win Mag is even worse. The 7mm Rem Mag has been used to good advantage for long-range target shooting. It remains a good choice for hunting most larger species in North America and with the right bullets it is entirely capable for most hunting applications worldwide. Many hunters find the recoil of a rifle of typical weight chambered in 7mm Rem Mag to be about all they want to deal with. Likely, this explains in great measure why it became so popular and remains a favorite of so many shooters today. My lifelong friend and first handloading buddy (I was 14 and he was 13 when we got started), bought a fine Parker Hale 7mm Rem Mag while he was still in High School. He soon developed his elk-hunting load using the 175-grain Sierra SBT and a stiff charge of H870. He chronographed the load at the local gun club range and found it was making about 2950 fps. He used that gun not only for deer and elk hunting, for which he fired one group each year to verify the zero and then fired a few shots to collect his game, but also for varminting with a 120-grain load at about 3500 fps. Over about 35 years he fired about 1000 rounds. Imagine his surprise when he chronographed his original hunting load and found it was making only 2650 fps. H870 is well-recognized as being hard on barrels and cases, at least partly because of the high tin content, but he took care of that gun. He was careful not to overheat the barrel, and could have reasonably expected it to last him a lifetime. He was wrong. Even when we think barrel life will not matter, sometimes it does. As was a host of standard belted–magnum cartridges, this case was derived from the circa 1912, 375 H&H.