Federal’s New 7mm Backcountry Review
Federal Ammunition’s New Hunting Round Means Magnum Power Plus More Compact Rifles
Ammunition manufacturers regularly launch new hunting cartridges. While I applaud the work ethic in generating the new and improved, at least half of these cartridges I’ve used in the last decade really didn’t accomplish much that was new or improved.
The rounds were accurate enough at the range and dropped game in the field. But, despite the marketing sound and fury insisting otherwise, these rounds only did what dozens of other rounds were already doing. I couldn’t find any obvious advantages.
However, Federal Ammunition’s 7mm Backcountry cartridge isn’t just “new.” It actually offers several benefits over traditional magnum rounds.
How Federal’s New Backcountry Round Delivers
The new round delivers magnum hunting power in a more compact rifle platform and does so with less recoil than many other magnums. Its ballistics suggest a longer-range hunting round with considerably less drop at distances than most of the old guard magnums, with more power delivered at the target.
Plus—and this is big—unlike a lot of new rounds that come out with little support, there should be at least two dozen rifles available in this cartridge before the end of 2025.
Federal designed the 7mm Backcountry to deliver magnum ballistics in the 3,000 feet per second (fps) neighborhood, and to do that in rifles with 20-inch barrels versus the 24-inch barrels standard with most magnum caliber rifles. The new rounds—offered in five different bullet types and weights—achieve this goal.
To generate 3K velocities, Federal really juiced up the internal cartridge pressures, the pounds per square inch (PSI) explosion inside the cartridge case that drives the bullet out of the barrel.
For comparison, consider the .300 Win. Mag.—one of the OG magnums—and the stout 7mm Rem. Mag., another hunter favorite. According to Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute, which creates the accepted technical standards for the ammo industry, 7mm Rem. Mag. rounds load up to a maximum of 61,000 PSI, the .300 Win. Mag. to 64,000 PSI.
Meanwhile Federal stokes its 7mm Backcountry rounds up to 80,000 PSI.
The Federal 7mm Backcountry Launch Event
That’s a hell of a lot of PSI, and it had me wondering about rifles and recoil as I drove to Federal’s launch event for the 7mm Backcountry in October 2024. Federal held the gathering at the F-5 Range, a top shooting facility near Pine City, Minnesota, owned and operated by firearms training professional Josh Froelich. A handful of media types, a couple dozen firearms distributors and retailers, and nine rifle manufacturers attended.
“We’re changing the boundaries of what a rifle cartridge can do,” said Mike Holm, Federal’s Director of Centerfire Rifle Ammunition, the morning of the event. “Through 20-inch barrels and with 170-grain bullets, this new round can achieve 3,000 feet-per-second. Welcome to the future of rifle cartridges!”
Given the technical specs Federal had shared with me before the event, I was expecting a real shoulder thumper of a round and some pretty stout rifles to handle it all. My expectations were wrong!
What I didn’t understand—based on my quick scan of the specs—was the importance of the round’s patented Peak Alloy case. Built from an advanced steel alloy, the Peak Alloy’s one-piece case design allows higher internal pressure compared to brass-cased ammunition. And since the case itself handles and contains the much higher PSI generated, rifle makers use their same current designs to build rifles in the new cartridge. Translation: No need for a bulkier receiver or a stouter bolt!
This also means a manufacturer can offer 7mm Backcountry rifles with ammo capacities of one or even two rounds more than standard magnums.
Federal engineers developed the Peak Alloy case in their work with U.S. Military weapons research, over a period of a half dozen years.
Backcountry’s Magnum Velocities
Federal’s Trophy Copper in .300 Win. Mag. pushes a 165-grain bullet out at 3,050 fps, while Fusion Tipped in 7mm Rem. Mag. launches its 175-grain bullet at 2,775 fps. Both velocities are generated from 24-inch barrels.
7mm Backcountry is initially available in 155- and 170-grain Federal Premium Terminal Ascent. The 155-grain option exits a 20-inch barrel at 3,150 fps and still rockets out at 3,000 fps from a 16.5-inch barrel.
The 168-grain Federal Premium Barnes LRX Copper is also a 3,000 fps burner. Federal rates the 175-grain Federal Fusion Tipped option at 2,975 fps, though my chronograph clocked this load at 3,050 fps. All numbers from 20-inch barrels, including my chronographing.
Last, the 7mm Backcountry is offered with a 195-grain Federal Premium Berger Elite Hunter bullet, and with a 20-inch barrel velocity logs in at 2,850 fps.
Accuracy Report: Federal’s New Backcountry Cartridge
At the Backcountry launch event, I shot over a dozen new rifles, most of them suppressed.
I drilled steel targets at 350 and 400 yards at least 20 times and I don’t think I had a single miss. But while I made hits, I couldn’t measure groups, not with 30 people shooting off rounds. And, truthfully, making those hits wasn’t terribly difficult. The rifles, after all, sported high-quality rifle scopes that were pre-zeroed, and we shot from very solid rests. A good shooter would have no problem engaging the targets.
Soon after I got home, Christensen Arms sent me their Ridgeline bolt action chambered in 7mm Backcountry; Federal provided a few boxes of the 168-grain Barnes LRX and the 175-grain Fusion Tipped rounds. I mounted a Trijicon AccuPoint 3-18x50 scope onto the rifle and headed to my range.
To evaluate a new round, I need to run through at least 100 rounds of ammunition and in each bullet weight. But, lacking those amounts of ammo, I only did an initial evaluation of the rounds. I did have 20 rounds more of the Fusion Tipped than the Barnes LRX, so I could chronograph the Fusion, 10 rounds at an average of 3,050 fps.
With the rifle and scope zeroed, I began shooting three-shot groups of the Fusion Tipped in the 1.5-inch range at 100 yards. As I got used to the rifle and my shooting position, groups steadily shrunk to 1 inch. And then I placed a group at 0.80-inches and my last at 0.75-inches.
I switched over to the Barnes LRX round and was soon hitting 1-inch groups. My last two groups came in at 0.65 and 0.45 inches.
I can’t wait to see how other Backcountry rifles perform. They already have some stiff competition from Christensen.
How’s The 7mm Backcountry Recoil?
You wouldn’t confuse 7mm Backcountry recoil with recoil from a rifle chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor or .308 Win. The 7mm Backcountry recoil is definitely snappier and has more muzzle rise. But it still doesn’t hammer your shoulder like a 28 Nosler, a 7mm Rem. Mag. or a .300 Win. Mag.
The accuracy testing I mentioned above took 65 rounds of the two different Backcountry loads over a two-hour period. I shot without a suppressor. And I didn’t have to watch out for that involuntary flinch that happens after a box of traditional magnum rounds. I also didn’t find the .300 Win. Mag. bruise to my right shoulder the next day!
Yeah, I know, real men don’t care about recoil. In fact, they like it! A big hand for real men. Me, I’m damned happy shooting a round featuring all the power and range of traditional magnums but with significantly less recoil.
The 20-Barrel Advantage
Suppressors are a major accessory for today’s modern hunter, but they present a problem with traditional magnum-caliber rifles. Once you attach 6 to 8 inches of suppressor onto the end of a 24-inch barrel, you have a rifle that hangs up on vegetation and bangs around the inside of a shooting blind. Lots of fun getting in and out of an ATV toting that flagpole, too!
Federal’s Holm said his research found many hunters moving away from magnum cartridges in long barrels in favor of shorter, more compact rifles sporting suppressors. But for a shorter barreled magnum, the trade-off is a loss in bullet velocity, and that equals less power and diminished effective range.
With the 7mm Backcountry, a hunter shooting suppressed can have a shorter barrel and magnum velocity.
7mm Backcountry Rifle Options
While developing the Backcountry rounds, Federal worked closely with rifle manufacturers. As a result, at least two dozen rifles chambered in 7mm Backcountry will hit the market in 2025. Christensen Arms, for example, offers the Ridgeline in 16-, 20- and 22-inch barrels as well as the Evoke bolt action in 16- and 20-inch barrels.
Aero Precision, Fierce Firearms, Geissele Automatics, Gunwerks, Kaspar Outdoors, Proof Research, Seekins Precision, Savage, and Weatherby are also producing 7mm Backcountry rifles.
Prices of 7mm Backcountry range from $54.99 to $81.99 per box of 20 rounds. Ammunition and rifles should arrive at dealers by the end of this month.
Compact rifles, less recoil, and all the power of a magnum round: that’s truly new and improved. For more, visit federalpremium.com.