When people say they have a "7mm rifle", are they generally referring to 7mm-08 or 7mm Rem Mag?
....or 7mm Mauser (aka 7x57), or 7STW (7mm Shooting Times Westerner, aka
Shoots
Through
Wisconsin)or the 7mm Weatherby Magnum .... or, or,or .....
The .280 Remington is a 7mm rifle, as well, as is the 7-30 Waters .... and the 7mm Remington Ultramag ....
7mm is a bore diameter. There are quite a lot of cartridges that use it.
could I get a basic power ranking of the most popular hunting cartridges? For instance, I know .30-06 is mostly equal to .308 but can be loaded a bit heavier, and that .270 Win is weaker than those but overpowers .243. My trouble is figuring out where rounds like 7mm (either one), 22-250, and 300 WSM fit.
That's a huge subject, and answers are not definitive- the .308, despite have less case capacity, has a higher SAAMI pressure limit, mostly due to the 100 year old 30-06 guns out there....
Of the 7mm cartridges I listed, the least powerful is the 7-30 Waters (.284" bullet in a 30/30 case), the 7x57 and 7-08 (a .284" bullet in a .308 case) are roughly equal when loaded to their full potential, the .280 (a .284" bullet in a 30-06 case is next going up in power (relatively speaking), then the 7mm Remington Magnum, then the 7 Weatherby magnum, then the 7STW (a .284" bullet in an 8mm Remington Magnum case) ...... the Ultramag is largest production 7mm that I know of ..... the case allows 7+ cc of usable case capacity- charge weights run 80 to 100 grains of powder..... it's overkill. I'm sure there are others, some of which are obsolete (7TCU? 7WSM?)....
My general concern, as a non-reloader, is choosing a well-supported, well-established cartridge.
The 7mm Mauser has been around for 100 years. It's not going away anytime soon.
The 7-08 is very popular.... not going away, either, and if it did, you can make brass for it out of .308 WIN, .243, or just about any other .308 based case.
While not as common as .270 WIN, the .280 Remington (aka 7mm Remington Express) is not going away either ....
The 7mm Rem Magnum will be around, but I feel it is wastefully inefficient..... same, but only moreso with the bigger cartridges (The Ultramags are just silly) Many people think my favorit deer cartridge is inefficient, too (.270 WIN)....
The Weatherby is a niche cartridge, and spendy to buy....