Anyone using a 7RSAUM with 168 grain Bergers and slow burning powders? **UPDATED

[JLDavid]

I am not sure if this is the right place for this or maybe the Reloading Forum but are any of you 7mmRSAUM shooters using slow powders like Retumbo or H1000 with the 168 grain Bergers? I am in the process of chambering up a barrel in a wildcat that is a 7mmRSAUM/7WSM hybrid on a long action 700. I am a long barrel/slow powder/heavy bullet fan. How much Retumbo are you running with the 168's and what velocities are you getting? If another powder is the way to go, what is it and how much are you loading? Any info is appreciated. Have a great weekend.

David

 

[dragman]

Re: Anyone using a 7RSAUM with 168 grain Bergers and slow burning powders?

I am running the SAUM With the 168's and RL 22 getting over 3200fps. Pm me and I can give you details

 

[rockcreek1]

Re: Anyone using a 7RSAUM with 168 grain Bergers and slow burning powders?

I use H1000 with 180's in my 7RSAUM, but I never tried 168's.

 

[drdtmd]

Re: Anyone using a 7RSAUM with 168 grain Bergers and slow burning powders?

I only have a 24" tube and can reach 2950 easily with h1000 and 168's.

 

[tac284]

Re: Anyone using a 7RSAUM with 168 grain Bergers and slow burning powders?

I have yet to chamber up my 7 saum so I can't help you much. I had planned on shooting 180 or even the 190-195 which ever it was if they ever come out With it and was going to use h1000. Anyways I was noticing your GO BEAVS! and looked to see where your from and your not to far away from me (La Grande). Anyways just wanted to say Hi to a local Eastern Oregon resident.

 

[lvgolfer962]

Re: Anyone using a 7RSAUM with 168 grain Bergers and slow burning powders?

we just chambered up two 7saums with 25" barrels

mine is on a long action and my friends is on a short action.

I scored a few boxes of 162 amaxs and my friend is using the 168 bergers. I stumbled upon a pretty good load with the amaxs

65.5 g of h1000 (its full but not compressed)
according to shooter and my kestral ab they are going 3000 fps


on a side note
my last 7 saum was 30" long
180s with 63 g of h1000 were going 3050 with ease
I played with a box of 168 bergers and threw 64-65 g of h1000 and iirc they were north of 3200

 

[drdtmd]

Re: Anyone using a 7RSAUM with 168 grain Bergers and slow burning powders?

David I thought about it just don't know if I can get enough of it in there to make a difference but again I never tried it.

 

[trailrider121]

Re: Anyone using a 7RSAUM with 168 grain Bergers and slow burning powders?

JLDavid,

Here is some good info from Skyking.

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/index.php?topic=3777194.msg36016384#msg36016384

 

[JLDavid]

Re: Anyone using a 7RSAUM with 168 grain Bergers and slow burning powders?

**UPDATE** I finished chambering and crowning my barrel last night. What I ended up with is a 28" 7mmWSM .133" short with a RSAUM length neck. I can fireform RSAUM brass right out of the box. My neck/throat reamer is a .3175" with .140" freebore. This is what I used to lengthen the neck of the WSM short chamber to match the RSAUM case.

I got my dies shortened and have loaded a few dummy rounds with no issues. I have to get the barreled action bedded into my stock and I will be off and running. I will start my fireforming and load development with Retumbo and 168 grain Berger VLD's. All bolted together it feeds and functions perfectly.

Thanks for the info and I will keep you posted. Have a great weekend.

David

 

[trailrider121]

We will be waiting for pictures... ;D

 

[JLDavid]

It is not very pretty yet but give me a while and it will look a lot different. I am going elk hunting in two weeks so just baby steps till after that is over. I will post more as I progress.

The barrel is off my 7mm Rem Mag that I sold a while back. I shortened it to 28" and chambered it. The stock is a $45.00 unit from Numrich. I took it to the table saw and removed the excess material from the fore end then put it in the mill and converted it from a SA single shot to a LA BDL repeater. I set the pillars and will glass bed it this week. I have a little more sanding to do but the inlet and barrel channel are about done. It will be BMW red and clear coated for the final touch. I have not idea how much it weighs but it is a brute. Should be a pleasure to shoot from the bench.

Have a great weekend.

David

 

[JLDavid]

11-06-14

Fire formed the first case from my hybrid. There is not a huge change in case dimensions but it should give me the case dimensions and capacity I am looking for. I wanted the neck length of the RSAUM and the shoulder angle of the WSM case. I got what I wanted, for a change. ;D

I loaded up a light load of Retumbo and seated the 168 grain Berger VLD out to engage the riflings. I think this case expanded nicely in the new chamber. I measured the formed case and the results were not surprising. Expansion at the .020" line was .003". The shoulder was moved out from .531" to .539" and the neck diameter of the formed case is .315". I am still looking for a 36x BR scope for testing and load development. When I find one I will start full on testing. Here is a photo of the cases. RSAUM on the left, WSM case in the middle and the hybrid case on the right.

Have a great weekend. I am going elk hunting!!! Happy days.

David

 

[JLDavid]

It has been a while since I updated my progress. I have been chasing kids playing basketball and wrestling but I will have some free time pretty soon, until baseball starts!!! Our weather has improved considerably so I may even be able to get to the range soon.

The dies I shortened are standard RCBS dies and will not size the neck enough to hold a bullet on the fire formed cases. These were some Remington brass I had from a 6.5 RSAUM that I shot for a while. I had to heavily neck turn them to function with the reamer neck diameter I had. The necks were very uneven to begin with. I still have the reamer so I may revisit this chambering again in the future. I do not want to buy a bushing die just for this project so I have finally found 100 new Norma cases to fire form and develop loads. Hopefully they will be here by the end of next week.

I still have a little stock work to do before painting. I need to lengthen the bolt slot and form the grip a little more then final sand it.

Hopefully at tax return time I will be able to buy a 36X scope for testing. So, I am still making progress but it is pretty slow. Take care and have a great week.

 

[dkhunt14]

For 35.00 JLC made my regular die a bushing die. Quick turn around and the ability to change neck tension. Matt

 

[JLDavid]

Update 8-9-15

Finally got to take a little time and test the Hybrid today. I mounted a Leupold 4-12x40 VXI scope I had laying around. I wanted to buy a 36x scope for testing but that is not going to happen for a while so I used what I had. Weather was a pleasant 77 degrees with a 12 mph wind right in my face and some mirage. The first group includes a couple of shots walking the crosshairs to the bullseye . The other two groups were 3 shot groups. These are fireform loads of 60 grains of Retumbo and Berger 168 grain naked VLD's at 2720 fps just into the lands. Cases formed nicely and fed well from the Cabela's KwikKlip bottom metal. The accuracy of 4 groove Bartlein barrels amazes me. This is the 3rd barrel I chambered and they have all shot lights out. I can't wait to test some full power loads. Will post more photos when I shoot them.

David

 

[JLDavid]

12-31-15

I got a 6-24x42 Sightron mounted on it now and got it sighted in. I shot some more fireform loads so I have 30 formed cases ready for load development. The rifle is a pleasure to shoot from the bench. Just wish the weather was a little better. 23 degrees and foggy but still a productive day. I didn't take any pics of the groups but I did take some of the rifle and clips. Off to Joseph to watch some high school wrestling. Happy New Year to you all.

 

[JLDavid]

Still trying to figure out the photo posting!!!! One more hopefully

 

[JLDavid]

Wow it has been a long time since I have updated. I ended up at 64.5 grains of Retumbo and shot several groups like these. I decided to build myself a lighter hunting rifle. I went with a Gunwerks GRB short action with a Wyatt's magazine box, Bartlein 3B 5R barrel at 27 1/2", Jewell trigger and HS sporter stock. I worked a pile of storm for a neighboring Co-Op which paid for a Nightforce NXS 5.5-22x56. I put a Muzzlebrakesandmore 4 port brake on it so it recoils like a pussycat. I also started moly coating my own bullets so all load development from here on out will be with moly. I loaded up some test loads from my old data and went and shot this morning. No earth shattering results but I have a baseline anyway. My old cheap chronograph was giving me fits so I really don't have any good velocity data but i was in the 2890 fps range. My last barrel really started shooting around 2950+ so back to the bench.

 

[JLDavid]

Here are a few photos of the finished rifle. When a buddy has some time he is going to paint the stock in Kuiu Vias camo. Can't wait. Also going to look to upgrade my chrono to a Magnetospeed and quit fighting with my old ProChrono.

 

[JLDavid]

I have a limited amount of Retumbo to work with so I may switch over to H1000 if I don't get improving results. Groups were in the 3/4" range at 100 yards. Hodgdon does not list Retumbo for 168s but max is 66.0 grains for 175s. H1000 64-67 grains for 168 grain Bergers. Since I have a little more case capacity with fireformed brass and lower pressure with moly bullets, I think I will be able to get to 2950 to 3000fps node. My old barrel really shot well there.