7PRC

I’m thinking of getting away from my 300win mag and going the 7PRC route. Any feedback from people that are using this for deer hunting? I hunt Alabama and also Kansas.
Thanks

It will kill a deer if you put a bullet in the right place.

Both have more than enough energy to do the job. People have killed deer, elk, and moose with much less.

And it won’t if you don’t

AMEN to both.

I shot a 7prc last week that belongs to a friend. He has a fierce and it was supposed. We were shooting those Hornady 160gr CX loads. I must say I was extremely impressed. One hole at 100 yards and almost same hole at 200yards. We shot out to 690. He shoots long range a bunch but I really do not. He dialed up 12moa and it made ringing the steal very very easy at that range. I have a 6.5prc that I really like. He has the 6.5, 7, and .300prc. I sort of feel that the 7prc might be the perfect balance of those 3 if you were looking for just one. The recoil was negligible and the fact that it was suppressed almost made it feel like I was shooting a .22 rim fire. Like I said, I was extremely impressed by everything I experienced last week with that caliber. Good luck!

I guess it depends on how far you want to shoot deer. A 7-08 will kill deer farther than most folks care to shoot one.

7mm PRC is effectively a 7mm Mag slightly improved to shoot heavier bullets more efficiently for longer range shooting. I would rather have the .300 for Elk.

For deer.... it will kill the crap outa one. 7 mag is my whitetail go-to for foot plots and field hunting. 160 Sierra = DRT. Not even a question... very few runners. I prefer to do all my hunting before I shoot.

I have been shooting 7 PRC a good bit lately performance wise a deer would not know the difference between the 2.

To me, the 7 PRC is a nearly ideal "do it all" North American cartridge. but, because it will do everything satisfactorily, that also means it's going to be less than ideal at either end of the spectrum. too much gun for whitetail/ antelope, not enough for large bears, IMO. In saying all that, I love the idea of the cartridge and am waiting to build/ buy one sometime soon. I'm a big fan of 7mm projectiles.

With these PRC cartridges, it seems like they targeted them to essentially match their belted counterparts in terms of abilities with certain bullet weights. Maybe a few fps increase but not much. I wonder why they didn’t build in another 75-100 fps increase if they were going to the bother of the new design. That would have squelched the criticism of “won’t do anything that the 7mm may/300 Win mag/etc won’t do”.

It's marketing and selling products. Everything has been done before. We were shooting the equivalent of 6.5 PRC 20 years ago when we put a 6.5 in a 7mm SAUM and called it a 6.5 Rocket.

The difference in 2023 is that overall the shooters themselves today have a better understanding of ballistics. You still have plenty of people on hunting boards such as this shooting 120's from 7-08, 140's in 7 Mag and hollering about needing a magic bullet that's been around 30 years. That crap is getting cut out. It's just a lack of understanding of ballistics. Today more people are into long range shooting and when you get into that, to be good at it you have to understand what you are doing.

Take a 7 Mag improve it to shoot long high B.C. bullets and here you are.

Back in the day we did it on our own. Now they are marketing it.

The 7mm PRC actually does do something that the 7mm mag doesn't, but there is a limited market that actually needs/wants the benefit. With lightweight bullets, there is essentially zero benefit to the 7 PRC, however, with heavy for caliber bullets, the & PRC is 100-150fps faster than the 7 mag. With the oal allowance on the 7 mag the long bullets take up too much powder space and you lose performance. There are some custom rifles that have throated chambers and lengthened magazines that allow the bullet on the 7mag to be seated much further out and they basically match the PRC. the PRC gives the same performance with off-the-shelf ammo and rifles.

At the end of discussion yes it's a better cartridge.nothing wrong with belted 7mm mag but the prc is slightly better .
Especially if your not throating a custom chamber like I do it when you have a rifle built
I like the long heavies and aren't one to follow a fad.i understand the benefit

If you already have a 7mm Mag there's no reason to get a 7PRC.

However, if you do want to shoot long range and high BC bullets the 7PRC is made for that. A 180gr high BC bullet out of a 7PRC has more energy at longer ranges than a 300 win mag at the same bullet weight.

I'm in the process of building a 7PRC rifle right now.

I've got a buddy that's a gun builder, he just finished a 7PRC. It shot excellent, but he said he thought a Rem.7mag. would out run it, dont over think it, rebuilding the wheel.