7mm Back Country

Have you heard of the new 7mm Back Country that Federal has just launched?

Vista Outdoors was kind enough to send reamers, head space gauges, and ammunition for early testing.

There is already lots of hype on the internet about it and we expect the new round will live up to most of it.

Ronald Reagan once said “Trust but Verify”.

We think that is great advice.

So, just as we did when the 7 PRC hit the market, we are going to rigorously test the new 7mm Backcountry. We will test accuracy and down range ballistics and post a video with the results..

Based on what we know already, it looks pretty cool.

What is different about it?

The 7mm Back Country does not use a brass case. The case is made of Federal’s proprietary Peak Alloy. This is essentially an extremely high quality steel case that allows the cartridge to handle more pressure than the brass cases we are used to.

Even though the case is designed for more pressure, it does not increase the pressure on your bolt lugs any more than a typical magnum cartridge in a brass case. This is due to the fact that the Peak Alloy does not stretch in the chamber like a brass case. So, the increased pressure is not transferred to the bolt or receiver lugs.

The big picture here is that you get more velocity from the added pressure, even in short barrel lengths.

We build a lot of rifles chambered in 7 PRC. The 7 PRC is an awesome round and also does very well in barrels as short as 20”. You can see our video on 7 PRC Testing by visiting our Youtube Page.

The 7 Back Country boasts the same velocity from an 18” barrel as the 7 PRC gets from a 20” length. With a 20” barrel the 7 Back Country claims about the same velocity as the 7 PRC gets from a 24” barrel, almost 3000 fps with the 170 Terminal Ascent!

This makes the 7 Back Country the most suppressor friendly long range hunting cartridge on the planet.

Another interesting aspect of the 7 Back Country is that it uses the same bolt face diameter as a 30-06. So, most standard long actions can be converted to 7 Back Country with a new barrel.

That means you can use our Deluxe Accurizing service to convert most rifles chambered in 25-06, 270 Win., 30-06, 280 Rem, or 280 AI to the new 7mm Back Country. You can see a list of the actions we service on our Deluxe Accurizing page.

The non-magnum case also allows you to hold four to five rounds in the magazine compared to three rounds with the magnum cases.

The first ammo to hit the shelves will be the 170 Tipped Fusion. We will be testing this soon and will share our results.

We are huge fans of the 7mm PRC, which already has a great selection of factory ammo from multiple ammo manufacturers.

If Federal can get their ammunition to market quickly, with the accuracy we demand, it will be a great addition to the Industry for Riflemen that want a shorter barrel with a suppressor.

We are now taking custom orders and plan to offer the 7mm Backcountry in our Full Custom Series and Pathfinder rifle series with a few of theserifles already in production.

More to come…..

-Matt Bettersworth, President