When I moved to Nevada from Oregon in 1985, the first thing I noticed was how wide open the country was. Comparing Nevada to all the timber country I grew up in, Nevada is endless. The next thing I noticed when I started hunting this vast country was that my 30-06 didn't have the long range trajectory that I needed or the knock down power I wanted.
After a couple of years of searching and extensive reading I decided on a 7mm STW. I contacted Marty Shaw, the owner of Gun World in Elko, and commissioned him to build my first STW. The year was 1988 and I had just drawn an Ely Bull Elk Tag. My first STW was built on a Remington 700ADL action. Since the STW was a "wild cat" that had just come out in 1988, it was a relatively new cartridge without much reloading data. This was fine with me because half the fun is working up a number of loads and trying out the gun!
Well, needless to say, the gun worked to perfection on my Ely Elk hunt. (View my bull on our Pics & Stories page, located on our left index.) I've also taken quite a few more Elk, Deer, Bighorn Sheep, and even Alaska Bears with my STW over the years.
Since 1988 I have built myself another STW out of a Winchester model 70 with a 26" barrel. The thing that really stands out on the STW is that with all bullets of 140 grain or heavier, it still delivers more than a ton of kinetic energy at 500 yards. Also, using a 10" vital area on game such as Deer and Antelope with a dead on hold, you can hit the vital area with the flat shooting trajectory out to 400 yards. This helps eliminate a lot of guess work on unknown ranges.
I should mention that any one using an STW will not automatically be turned into a long range rifleman. Everyone should know their limitations.
Another thing I should mention about the STW is, it shed it's "wild cat" status in just 9 years. It is now a factory loaded cartridge for standard production rifles. The 22-250 and the 25-06 didn't lose their "wild cat" status for over 40 years. So for any one looking into a new rifle or a new caliber, I would suggest looking at an STW. It shoots extremely flat, hits hard and yet has a level of recoil that is tolerable for most shooters.
Good luck and safe hunting!
P.S.: Write to us and send us your hunting and shooting stories/pictures to NevadAdventureS, Po Box 8308, Spring Creek, Nevada 89815 or E-mail us!