7 X 57 mm

[Ben]

I have a pair of 7 X 57 mm rifles. I also have a custom 280 Rem.
All shoot cast bullets very well.
We don't see much about the successes of cast in the 7 mm rifles.

Any of you have a 7 X 57 mm and care to share your results shooting cast bullets ?

• Which mould ?
• Which load ?
• Possible photos of your rifle(s) and / or groups.

Ben

 

[RBHarter]

You pluck at my heart stings .
At the moment my 7mm are in states of rebuild or put aside to work 35s and 45s . I also lost a San disk with about 8 yr of range pictures on it that will take weeks to recover from all over .
1st up is a goodsteel piece .
It is a Carcano 41 Tierney .
21" Montana Rifleman bbl
7x6.8 Rem
The first load I shot in it was a 120 Sierra SP 2nd circa 1972 . The 2nd after having a base line was an RCBS 27-130 FP sized .278 and rolled in 2 wraps of green bar matrix printer paper. With 22.5 gr of RL10x it shot 3 into a nickel with a 5 shot opening to just fit under a quarter . The new build Wildcat blues showed up after a tweek and I haven't put the time back into it to find the bug . I think it is an OAL bug .

I never had any real success with with the 1908 Oviedo 7x57 . The above 2nds showed that 3" was possible with the stock sights and 29" bbl dropped into a Boyd's prairie hunter stock but a cast or pp load has eluded me to now . The bbl isn't much to look at and frankly I was surprised that it shot 3" with jackets . It is slated for either a 280 Rem short chamber clean up to keep the GI parts together or a Rhineland arms bbl swap to become a 45-60-350 NE rimless (460 S&W in a cut 308,x57 or '06 case) held to 40kpsi.

There is a Savage bbl here somewhere that was supposed to be screwed on the old 110 to be a 7x57 but it is MIA .

There is a 1916 DMW Gew 98 waiting quietly for its new 7x57 bbl to get screwed on also .

Of those ready to run the 7mm-168 SIL has shot poorly but may be a case of under sized nose and powder choices . They also don't seem to care for loveren style bullets as they tumble .

Maybe this is the inspiration I need to get back on the projects .

 

[Ben]

Stay with it.
Report back...................

 

[fiver]

the 7's rely on fitment and of course velocity.
the 2 rcbs boolits shoot pretty well for me and the walt melander cut 150gr nei mold does right well in the 7x57 Ackley.
I'm trying to keep an eye on NOE's website since they cut a copy of the old lyman mold that is a true well fit to the throat of modern rifles bullet, that was ahead of it's time then they dropped it.
right when it become useful of course.

anyway run your loads about 80-85% of what you'd run in a 30 cal rifles and you'll see similar results.

 

[fiver]

oh one little trick I found that helped pick up some accuracy with the long nosed rcbs molds was to rub a light amount of lube on the nose.
a little bit of my swaging lube dabbed on one finger and smeared between it and my thumb then swiped down the length worked wonders for shrinking groups.

 

[Ben]

A nice ten round group at 100 yards.
7 X 57 mm
168 gr. RCBS sized .286"
Hornady gas checks
10.0 grs. Alliant Unique
Neck sized brass with Lee Collet N/Sizer
Wolf L R Primer

A fun load. ( By the way, I think I'm allowing my narrow fore end on my rifle to roll a bit, right and left in the front bags causing a bit of right - left dispersion down range on the target )

At 65 years of age, I'm really glad I'm finished with those " Belted Magnum Days " of 30 yrs. ago and can now settle down to some real " FUN SHOOTING " where I can keep my fillings in my teeth and not be shooting 72 grs. of powder at a pop ! !

 

[Ben]

Here are some groups fired at 50 yards with my Ruger Model 77 stainless 7 X 57 mm rifle. The Lee Soup Can 7 mm cast bullet has been super accurate in my particular rifle. In a military rifle, I couldn't say ? Many have VERY long ( and worn ) throats.

In the targets below, inner circle is .480 ", the outer dia. of the orange is .890".
50 yards, 5 round groups.
Ben's Lube, bullets sized .2862 " with Hornady gas checks.

 

[Ben]

I've been shooting several different 7 mm cast bullets in my new custom, Argentine 98 Mauser, 7 X 57 mm rifle during the past month, looking for " just the RIGHT load ".

I've shot the Lee 132 gr. soup can, the RCBS, 168 gr., the SAECO 073, and the RCBS 145 gr. Today I also fired about 30 rounds with the 175 gr. RN , Lyman 287308.

As of this date, the clear leader in the accuracy dept. is the RCBS , 145 gr., regardless of the powder used and velocity of the round .

I've yet to find a bullet / load combination at 100 yards that will beat it's performance in my particular rifle.

I fired this 10 shot group at 100 yards. I'll readily take the blame for the " 4 wild rounds ". Sloppy shooting on my behalf. However , that still leaves me with 6 rounds in a shade over 1/2 " ! ! ANY of the 10 rounds would have killed anything that I'm likely to be shooting at.

I find the accuracy potential of this rifle to be impressive considering that this is a super light weight hunting rifle.

A fun load, and a fun rifle to shoot !

( BTW, all powder charges were thrown with a SAECO powder measure, none were weighed, no bullets were weighed, mixed HS brass, all cases were neck sized and fired about 6 - 7 times each )

Ben



____________________________

The target you see below was shot with :

Alliant Unique 11.0 grs., RCBS 145 gr., Sized .2864" with an OAL of 3.065" , using Wolf Large Rifle Primers. Neck sized brass. 10 round group fired at 100 yards.
_____________________________



6 rounds in a shade over 1/2 " Range 100 yards



Here is a pic of the RCBS, 145 gr. bullet that is shooting so well out of my rifle .

 

[Ben]

I cast more of the RCBS 7 mm , 145 gr. Sil bullet today.

Here it is sized .2862" , lubed with Ben's Red, with one of my .014" AL , 7 mm, gas checks, ready to load.

 

[S Mac]

Just wondering Ben, in your pic of the RCBS bullet in the case, is it seated as deep in the case as you use it or is that pic just for demonstration? It's really hanging out there.

 

[Ben]

I'd have to go and pull a box of loaded ammo to be able to answer that.

Most 7 mm rifles have VERY long throats. If I had to guess, for that particular rifle , I'd say that is the actual OAL.

Ben