Is the 7mm Backcountry a Gimmick or a Game-Changer?

The Backcountry uses a new kind of case that allows it to be safely loaded to a whopping 80,000 psi. Those high pressures, Federal claims, allow the Backcountry to hit 3,000 feet-per-second (fps) with a 175-grain bullet out of a 20-inch barrel.

That’s the kind of claim that will make you sit up and pay attention, but we’ve seen this song and dance before. Every new cartridge is supposed to revolutionize the industry, but few actually do, and this one has only been out for four months. That’s why I was excited to get my hands on a few boxes of ammo, along with a slick rifle from Horizon Firearms, to see if the Backcountry lives up to its promises.

At the heart of this cartridge is a proprietary steel alloy case Federal has dubbed “Peak Alloy.” We don’t know exactly how it’s made (see: “proprietary”), but the ammo maker says it’s stronger than brass and can withstand much higher pressures.

As far as I can tell, it works. I’ve seen zero high pressure signs on the cases I’ve shot–no cracks or bulges or stuck actions. But you don’t have to take my word for it.

The Sporting Arms & Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute (SAAMI), the association tasked with establishing industry standards for safety, gave the Backcountry its seal of approval. What’s more, Derrick Ratliff of Horizon Firearms told me they haven’t had any trouble, either. They’ve shot thousands of rounds using this cartridge over the last year, and he said he’s never experienced any high-pressure-related weirdness.

Red-tipped bullets are the 175-grain Fusion, and the blue tips are the 168-grain LRX.

If you’re not a ballistics nerd, and many hunters aren’t, the upsides of the 7mm Backcountry might not be immediately obvious. I’ve tried to explain the advantages of this cartridge to several people who don’t live and breathe muzzle energy and bullet velocity, and they look at me like I’m trying to sell them ShamWow.

It helps to compare the 7mm Backcountry to other common 7mm cartridges. A 175-grain 7mm Rem. Mag. leaves a barrel around 2,800 fps, and the 7mm PRC chugs along around 3,000 fps. Both are high-powered magnum cartridges capable of taking pretty much any North American big game animal. But the 7mm Backcountry has them beat—at least, according to Federal’s published data. Both of those other 7mm cartridges require a 24-inch barrel to hit those velocities, but the Backcountry can reach 3,000 fps out of a 20-inch barrel. From a 24-inch barrel, it can throw a 175-grain bullet 3,150 fps.

Why does that matter? A few reasons. If you use a 24-inch barrel to hit those higher velocities with a 7mm Backcountry, you’re looking at 10 fewer inches of drop at 500 yards compared to the 7mm Rem. Mag. and 500 additional foot-pounds of energy in that elk or deer or moose.

However, if you like running a suppressor or you want your rifle to be as light as possible, you can still exceed the performance of the 7mm Rem. Mag.–and match the performance of the 7mm PRC–in a shorter, lighter rifle. Throwing a 6- or 8-inch suppressor on a 24-inch barrel turns your rifle into a broomstick. Reducing the gun’s overall length without sacrificing performance is a huge plus for many hunters.

But why stop at 20 inches? The Horizon Venatic Carbon I used for these tests sports a tiny, 16-inch barrel. You might assume that bullet velocity falls off a cliff, but that isn’t the case. In my testing, the 175-grain Fusion bullet averaged 2,884 fps out of this rifle, and the 168-grain Barnes LRX averaged 2,894. That’s a loss of only a little over 100 fps compared to a 20-inch barrel, and still better than a 7mm Rem. Mag. out of a 24-inch barrel.

A 175-grain bullet going 2,900 fps has enough juice to take anything you might like to hunt at any reasonable distance. Doing that with a 6-pound rifle that measures a mere 38 inches is something previous generations of hunters could only dream about.

“I want to be mad at it, but I haven’t quite found a reason to be mad at it yet,” Ratliff joked. “I know everyone wants to say it’s bad, but I can’t find a way to say that, outside of not being able to reload it.”

Of course, there are lots of Gucci wildcat cartridges that offer incredible performance but can’t be had for love or money. The 7mm Backcountry won’t do you much good if you can’t find it on the shelves.

Right now, Federal is the only company making the Backcountry, and it’s unclear if any other manufacturers will jump on board. Hornady or Remington or Nosler might start loading cartridges with Federal’s Peak Alloy cases, or they might try to introduce their own high-pressure option. If they choose the latter, Federal might be the only company to ever make the Backcountry.

“If those other ammo companies can’t support it, it makes it really hard for a cartridge to have stay-power over time. Look at the 6.8 Western. It was great, but it had no support,” Ratliff pointed out.

That prospect should make hunters nervous. Not having ammo to use in your hunting rig is the worst, as many discovered during the ammo shortages of 2020 onward. If another black swan event sparks a panic, it might turn that Backcountry rifle into nothing more than an expensive paper weight.

This is usually the part where I would say, “But you can get yourself a set of dies and reload your own.” Unfortunately, that’s not the case with the Backcountry–at least, not yet. I have heard of some especially ambitious reloaders using a 280 Ackley reloading die to roll their own 7mm Backcountry cartridges, but I do not recommend that experiment. No reloading equipment companies have released a die set for this cartridge, and it’s unclear if a regular reloading press could even work with the Peak Alloy cases. (This, by the way, is why Sig’s Hybrid case uses a steel head affixed to a brass body. Sig engineers wanted to give reloaders a way to make Fury cartridges safely, which may not be possible with a steel case design.)

The good news is that Federal has released a full suite of options and ramped up production to match demand. The company says they plan on releasing the following loadings:

• 155-grain Terminal Ascent
• 168-grain Barnes LRX
• 170-grain Terminal Ascent
• 175-grain Fusion Tipped
• 195-grain Berger Elite Hunter

As of this writing, Federal shows the 168-, 170-, and 175-grain as “Available” on their website, and Midway USA lists two of those options in stock for about $60 per box.

Ammo might be hard to come by, and barrels might not last as long. There’s no getting around the fact that the Backcountry will wear out a barrel faster than a standard-pressure cartridge. How much faster is hard to say, but as MDT’s Rob Orgel points out, the Backcountry probably won’t be ideal for high-volume shooters.

Of course, Federal didn’t name this cartridge the “Competition LaserBeam.” They named it the “Backcountry,” and their current offerings all feature hunting bullets rather than match-grade pills. It’s obviously meant for hunting applications, and in that context, barrel life matters far less. Hunters may never shoot 2,000 rounds with a rifle, even if they use it every season for their entire lives. There are better options for competition shooters, but the Backcountry is meant for the field.

When Federal approached me to put the 7mm Backcountry to the test, they sent me a list of gun makers that had committed to chambering rifles in their new cartridge:

• AllTerra Arms
• Christensen Arms
• Fierce Arms
• Geissele
• Gunwerks
• Horizon Firearms (Kaspar Outdoors)
• Proof Research
• Ruger
• Savage
• Seekins Precision
• Weatherby

Not all of these manufacturers are currently offering rifles in the 7mm Backcountry, but some of them are. I was also pleased to see that there’s a nice mix of high-end and budget-friendly companies, so you should be able to find a rifle that meets your price point.

I opted for the Venatic Carbon from Horizon. At $3,999, this isn’t a rifle I would ever be able to afford on my own. But I wanted to give the Backcountry the best chance possible. Whatever performance issues I ran into, I didn’t want to worry they might be caused by the rifle.

I had a few concerns when I took the rifle to the range. First, I wasn’t sure whether the Backcountry would live up to its velocity promises. As you’ve already read, it did.

I was also concerned about recoil, especially with such a light rifle. I shot using the supplied muzzle brake, with a bare muzzle, and with a suppressor. I concluded that I like this rifle/cartridge combo significantly more with a can attached to the end.

The rifle kicks like a mule without a brake, but produces a teeth-rattling concussion with a brake. I was not looking forward to accuracy testing until the suppressor came into play. My .30-caliber SilencerCo suppressor was more than able to tame the 7mm Backcountry, and I felt no discomfort at the range. Even in the field, shooting without hearing pro didn’t leave my ears ringing.

The 7mm Backcountry is a magnum cartridge, and it kicks like it. A heavier rifle would do a better job absorbing that recoil, and a longer barrel would help tame the concussion. But whatever gun you use, I wouldn’t recommend hunting without hearing pro unless you have a suppressor.

Finally, I was concerned about accuracy. A souped-up cartridge screaming out of a 16-inch barrel is liable to do just about anything. I’d seen reports that the Backcountry struggled to post consistent groups, but Ratliff told me they’ve seen “solid groups” that are even better than what he expected. My testing confirmed that assessment.

Groups shot with the 175-grain Fusion.

As you can see, the 7mm Backcountry is more than accurate enough for any reasonable hunting situation. Those groups combined with an SD hovering around 10 equal excellent downrange performance. I didn’t have enough ammunition to conduct much testing at extended ranges, but the few groups I shot at 200 and 300 yards were all sub-MOA. I also didn’t have any trouble ringing a steel prairie dog at 400 yards.

Confident in the Backcountry’s performance, I was excited to get an opportunity to take it out into the field. I’d been talking for several months with the folks down at the East Foundation about visiting their ranches in South Texas, and they were kind enough to invite me down for a free-range nilgai hunt.

We put a stalk on a bull, and I took a shot from a tripod at 166 yards. I was told to aim for the shoulder since the vitals are farther forward than a whitetail. I hit a little farther back than I intended, and stories of nilgai absorbing bullets and running off flashed through my head as the animal took off. But my fear was unnecessary. It tipped over after running about 50 yards, and the cleaning process revealed that I’d hit both lungs with the 175-grain Fusion bullet.

There are still questions that need to be answered about the 7mm Backcountry. Barrel and action longevity is a big one. I’m curious to see accuracy reports from less expensive rifles (it seems like most users so far have opted for higher-end options), and the reloading question could be a major wrench in this machine. I’m also wondering if we’ll see high-pressure .30-caliber or 6.5mm cartridges down the line.

We do know enough to say that the Backcountry gives hunters an edge. It isn’t magic. It won’t guarantee success in the field, and honestly, it doesn’t do that much more than other modern magnums on the market. But it does offer better velocity and energy in a suppressor-friendly platform. With the 7mm Backcountry, you don’t have to sacrifice performance just because you want to save your hearing. For some, that’s enough to make the switch.