A bit patterned magnetic recording medium comprises a substrate having a surface, and a plurality of spaced apart magnetic elements on the surface, each element constituting a discrete magnetic domain or bit of the same structure and comprised of a stack of thin film layers including in order from the substrate surface: a seed layer; and a perpendicular magnetic recording layer in contact with a surface of the seed layer and comprising a Co.sub.1-x-yPt.sub.xCr.sub.y alloy material, where 0.05.ltoreq.x.ltoreq.0.35 and 0.ltoreq.y.ltoreq.0.15. The Co.sub.1-x-yPt.sub.xCr.sub.y alloy material has a first order magnetic anisotropy constant K, up to about 2.times.10.sup.7 erg/cm.sup.3, a saturation magnetization M.sub.s up to about 1200 emu/cm.sup.3, an anisotropy field H.sub.K=2K.sub.1/M.sub.s up to about 35 kOe, a hexagonal (0001) crystal structure with c-axis perpendicular to a surface thereof, and an X-Ray diffraction (XRD) rocking curve with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of .about.5.degree. or less.