The standard 7mm Remington Magnum, factory loaded with a 140-grain Nosler Partition bullet, generates 3,150 fps at muzzle, 450 fps less than Ferguson's 7mm STW with the same bullet weight. To compare Ferguson's 7mm STW to a 7mm Remington Magnum, consider that at 200 yards, a 140-grain bullet from Ferguson's STW is still travelling 10 fps faster than the muzzle velocity of the same bullet fired from a 7mm Remington Magnum. Simply put, shooting Ferguson's STW is like adding 200 yards to the effective range of the 7mm Rem. Mag.

Based upon these velocities, the energy of Ferguson's 7mm STW in foot pounds is as follows: 4,028 at muzzle, 3,539 at 100 yards, 3,105 at 200 yards, 2,718 at 300 yards, 2,373 at 400 yards, and 2,064 at 500 yards. As with comparative velocities between Ferguson's custom 7mm STW and the Remington 7mm Mag., with the same bullet, Ferguson's custom STW generates as many foot pounds of energy at 200 yards as the Rem. 7 Mag. offers at its muzzle. Generally speaking, whether comparing velocity or foot pounds of energy with the same bullet, Ferguson's custom STW's performance at 500 yards is equivalent to the Remington 7mm Mag. at 300 yards.

Last spring, the call came to announce my new rifle was ready. All the deer seasons in America were long closed, but I just couldn't wait until fall to put it to the test. I called Gwen Hughes at the Rio Bonito Ranch in Junction, Texas, and lined up a hunt for exotics on her gorgeous 16,000-acre Hill Country property. The Rio Bonito offers good whitetail hunting during the regular hunting season, but exotics are huntable any time of the year.

This vast tract of land (not high fenced) is home to no less than 14 species of exotic game, including Russian boar, axis deer, black buck, Texas Dall sheep, Aoudad rams, Sitka deer and many others. There are even a few American bison wandering around the property. The Rio Bonito is worth the trip even if you're not a hunter. The beautiful accommodations, gourmet meals and beauty constitute a wonderful vacation destination for hunters and non-hunters alike. And if you're a bass fisherman, the Rio Bonito is awesome.

I explained to Gwen that we specifically were coming to test my new rifle and that we would require some long-range shooting to prove its ability. On 16,000 acres, long ranges weren't a problem. My ambition was to shoot some deer-sized game at ranges of 400 yards or more.

My rifle was built on a stainless Remington 700 long action, with a 26-inch No. 4, Shilen Stainless Select Match Grade barrel, the finest air-gauged barrel Shilen produces. The stock was a fiberglass McMillan Remington Classic and the trigger was a Jewell Hunting Trigger set at 40 ounces. The rifle was topped with the new Nikon Buckmasters 4.5-14x40 AO scope Its adjustable objective lens allows you to dial out parallax, which is essential for accurate long-range shooting. I chose the silver finish to match the stainless steel barrel and action. James brought along some proven handloads for my rifle, which consisted of Remington factory brass and Federal 215 M primers, a maximum load of Dupont IMR 7828 powder behind 140-grain Nosler Solid Base Ballistic Tip bullets. (See Nosler's reloading chart for the 7mm STW and never exceed manufacturer's published maximum loads.)

James had sighted my rifle in to shoot dead on at 300 yards, as previously noted. A five-shot average produced 3,602 fps at muzzle and produced no signs of excessive pressure on the brass or primers. James grinned as he handed me the target he had used when grouping three shots from my rifle at 100 yards at 3/16 of an inch! My new rifle had it all, speed and accuracy. All that remained was to test it on game. For this purpose I brought along a long model of the Harris bipod and a couple of Nikon Laser 800 Buckmasters range-finders, as well as binoculars and a spotting scope.

The first evening out, our guide took James and me to a high rimrock outlook overlooking hundreds of yards of prime hunting land. The bluff fell off straight below us, enabling us to maintain a bird's-eye view of the cedar and live oak-clustered land below. It was mid-May and the land was green and lush with wild flowers, an infectious kind of beauty found only in the rocky Texas Hill Country in the spring. As evening settled, game began to pop out of the brush. An axis buck, already out of velvet, appeared first at 150 yards. He was tempting, but he was too close for our intended trajectory test. Whitetails began to dot the landscape, too, with several bucks just beginning to sprout velvet bulbs of new antler and a dark, soot-colored Sitka buck wandered through an opening encircled by fat Texas cedars. It was so intriguing to observe and anticipate what game we might see next that we were nearly out of shooting light when two Aoudad rams burst out of the brush and began feeding feverishly in a opening 400 yards away (according to my range-finder).

I had never taken an Aoudad ram. I steadied the rifle on the bipod and fixed the crosshairs in the center of the ram's ribs, tight behind his shoulder. The Jewell trigger responded magically, crisp and clean, with no drag or creep, and the ram lurched forwarded and stumbled into the cedars and out of sight. James laid his own custom 7mm STW across his knee and dropped the other ram at the same range. Both of our bullets found their respective marks perfectly. Center rib point of aim dropped our bullets perfectly into the heart/lung area precisely as James had promised.

At dinner that night, our guide asked us if there was any particular game that we wanted to try for the following day. James was keen to try for a high-horned African oryx. I asked what other species were available, and among the species listed was buffalo. That got my attention. My new sizzler was obviously as flat shooting as advertised, but a question left to answer was whether or not it was suitable for game larger than deer. I wanted to try for a buffalo.

For unbelievers, I recommend that you read P.O. Ackley's chapter entitled Killing Power in Volume I of his Handbook for Shooters and Reloaders. His amazing description of the devastating effects of extreme bullet speed, versus bullet weight, is astounding. In one of his experiments, he shot numerous calibers and bullets into a 1Z2-inch armor plate from the frontal area of an U.S. Army half-track. Ackley reports, In this penetration test, the 48-grain .220 Swift factory load penetrated completely, leaving holes approximately 3/8-inch in diameter ... 100-grain .270 Winchester; no penetration ... G.I., so-called armor-piercing round (from a .30-06) made shallow craters. All shots fired from a distance of 30 feet.

Ackley, arguably the most experienced gunsmith in U.S. history, said, If I were forced to choose only one rifle from my rack and forsake all others, the choice would be simple, I would reach for the .220 Swift. I am not recommending a .220 Swift for buffalo, but the point is that extreme bullet speed (even with light bullets) combined with the extremely fast rotational spin required to stabilize them, provides a dimension of power unknown to most shooters.

The following morning we located three bulls together and I dropped the largest at 300 yards with a dead-on hold on the bull's heart. When the rifle cracked, the bull took one step and fell. Indeed it was enough gun for larger game! I would not recommend the Ballistic Tip bullet for large game such as elk or moose. For that, a partition bullet would be far better, in case you hit heavy bone. But the 140-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip performed perfectly on the unobscured, broadside heart shot on the 1,000-pound buffalo. Before the hunt was over, James spotted a gorgeous oryx, which he took with a single shot.

I was plenty impressed with my Ferguson 7mm STW, and decided right then that it would accompany me to Quebec in September for my caribou hunt. The open tundra of the north allows hunters to see game at extreme ranges and begs for flat-shooting rifles. And then there are those whitetail blinds on expansive green fields in the South that can also present barrel-stretching shots. It's obvious that my new flat-shooting sizzler and I will be spending a lot of time together.

Russell Thornberry

Ferguson Custom Rifles, 5320 FM 1299, Wharton, TX 77488
(979) 533-0140, (979) 532-4799;
Fax: (979) 532-4108
www.2joutfitters.com