Much of the excitement surrounding the SHOT Show is witnessing the development and evolution of firearms as entities solve emerging problems. With wait times for suppressor approvals being cut down to days or even hours, shooters everywhere are enjoying quieter range sessions that are enthusiastically neighbor-approved. Adding a silencer also takes away a fair bit of recoil, making the sport ever more friendly to new shooters. While they reduce noise and kick, suppressors add something else, though: length. A 24"-barreled rifle with a 6" can hanging off the end isn’t exactly the recipe for a balanced firearm, particularly in the hands of a smaller-statured participant. The solution has always been to crop the barrel, but the reduction in "runway" comes with loss of velocity and downrange performance.
Pushing a bullet harder and faster to compensate for a shorter barrel creates more pressure than a typical brass case can handle, taking that off the solution board. This is why Federal’s new-for-2025 7mm Backcountry cartridge is getting so much attention. By swapping brass for a proprietary steel alloy, the new cartridge is capable of handling higher pressure levels and driving a 155-grain bullet over 3,100 feet per second (fps) in a short, 20" barrel. This leads to a gun that is easier to handle and less math involved for odd-distance shots. As the case is truly the only new component of this revolutionary cartridge, this means it can be reloaded with existing powders, primers and projectiles.
Prior to the NSSF SHOT Show, I was invited out to Minnesota to test the cartridge alongside similar offerings. Our first impression was that the recoil level wasn’t anywhere near what you’d expect. As this isn’t a magnum cartridge, the slap to the shoulder just wasn’t there. My second impression was regarding its ballistics, as it passed through some extraordinarily windy conditions without wavering and took next to no adjustment to impact targets from 100 to 300 yards. This year’s NSSF Media Day at the range duplicated those conditions, as well as the results telling me and the thousands of attendees that we had a winner on our hands.
Lastly, in sharp contrast to Federal’s 30 Super Carry Introduction, there are already more than 11 manufacturers building rifles, with more being announced each day. Several companies are simply rechambering existing models to accept this cartridge, while others, like Geissele, have entered the category with a brand-new build. For more information, visit federalpremium.com
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