BEFORE Remington’s 7mm magnum, the 7mm Weatherby Magnum on a standard length H&H belted case appeared in 1944. It is an excellent and well-balanced cartridge, but it never gained much of a following among hunters. I believe there were two reasons for this: One, it had a slow 1:12 twist that wouldn’t handle 160gn bullets accurately, and two, Weatherby rifles were rather expensive. Since the mid-1960s 7mm Weatherby rifles have had the faster 1:10 twist, but by that time it was too late and sales didn’t improve.
The next 7mm magnum to surface was the 7x61 Sharpe and Hart developed in the US by Philip B Sharpe and Richard F Hart, who had the ammunition loaded by Norma. Based on a belted case shortened to 61.01mm (2.402”) it had a maximum cartridge length of 81.03mm (3.190”) compared with 85.34mm (3.360”) for the 7mm Weatherby. In 1953 it was chambered solely in the little known Schultz & Larsen rifle.
Only one load was offered — a 160gn bullet at a claimed 3000fps, a velocity difficult to reach and factory loads were only able to achieve 2900fps even in a 66cm (26”) barrel. A later version from Norma dubbed the S&H Super had increased case capacity and boosted velocity to 3100fps, but the 7x61 never gained much popularity in the US because both the rifle and ammunition were of foreign manufacture, and distribution was limited.
I’ve read
