Good 7 Mag load

[hillbill]

I have just acquired a 1968 Browning FN Safari Bolt gun in 7 Mag, it appears to have been fired very little but will know more when I scope the bore. for now it will only be used for deer but I plan to maybe use it for Elk in the future IF it shoots well, I have access to some 168 Bergers and was wondering about some loads for the ole boy.

any favorites?

 

[STOMP442]

The 168 Berger is a great bullet and the perfect fit for the 7 mag in my opinion. 68.5gr of H1000 or 70.0gr of Retumbo have been my pet loads for multiple 7 Mags. Should get velocities between 2950-3000fps.

 

[hillbill]

Thank you sir

 

[AckleymanII]

Check Twist rate, may have a 10 twist.

I also shoot 70-71g of Retumbo with 215 with 168g Berger in a 9T.

 

[hillbill]

it's a 10 twist so it might not handle the heavy stuff well? honestly I don't know how accurate it will be anyway, always admired these guns but have never owned one.

 

[Gb300wm]

N560 topped with a Berger 175 elite hunter was a great load for me

 

[JTEX]

My best load with the 168g Berger was a stout dose of Re 19. Shot very well.

 

[std7mag]

168gr VLD-H over a charge of RL26 here.

Have been using the 150gr ABLR over RL26 with excellent accuracy results.
Hope to try some terminal ballistics with it this year.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

The grand slams are still great hunting bullets,easy to develop loads for. The lighter ones for deer and the 160 or 175 for elk. These will shoot through game, even angled shots.

 

[centerlineseal]

I have found outstanding accuracy with a 168 Berger VLD Hunt using 65.0 gr. of IMR 7828 and a CCI 250. Not overly fast, but in my 1970s era rem M700 with well over 1,000 rds. down the tube, it is consistently less than 1/2 MOA.

 

[Kevin Crain]

162 eldm, Norma brass, RL 25 @70gr's 3000fps 26" R700...

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

This year I used the Berger 150 classic hunter, 140 yard shot on a cow elk. DRT.

 

[308 5R]

160 gr Accubond, 62-63 gr RL23, CCI 250 2950fps. Browning A-Bolt. 1/2” and ES of 10. Slow but consistent as all get out.

S/F
Ryan

 

[WEL]

150 gr ballistic tip and 61-62 gr IMR 4350. Everbody thinks you need a super slow powder. Not so with the 140-150’s which are perfect for deer. The other load I’ve recently had luck with is R26 and the 160 gr accubond or 162 gr eldm. The 162 gr eldm or used to be amax is a devastating bullet at long range. More consistent performance than a bergers imo.

 

[riverside jeep]

Is there a thing about 7mmR.M. that makes them so easy to shoot well? My buddies and I have stacks of rifles of various calibers that we load for and everybody has the same results. We don't even really try and everything we throw at a 7 mag shoots great, as in with very little load development we get 1 ragged hole groups out of basic off the shelf rifles.

 

[std7mag]

The 7mm Rem Mag is not finicky over powders or bullet choices.
I shoot everything from 120gr HP varmint bullets through 168gr Berger VLD.
Powders range from H414 through to RL26.
Some shooting 175gr plus will use RL33.

Out to 400 yards my best groups have actually come from the 160gr Sierra HPBT GameKing over RL19.

At 600 yards my best group ever was the Rem Mag with 150gr Nosler AccuBond Long Range over RL26.
Honest 1.5"group of three. (My last 3 rounds i had with me) The Gods were smiling on me that day!
I haven't attempted it since! Lol

 

[TRP]

Don't have any load info for the 7mm but I hope you enjoy the rifle. I have one built in 1966, 270 win. It shot about 1 MOA with handloads. After bedding the action and inletting the barrel area it now shoots 3/4 MOA, good enough for hunting at reasonable distances. My bore has seen better days, lots of fire cracking from the throat to a few inches up the bore. It is definitely is my prettiest rifle.

 

[hillbill]

put on and bedded a pic rail, tried 2 different factory loads, one at about 2" the other about 1".
could use a trigger, it breaks slightly over 4lbs which feels like a ton to me.
as I have time I will bed it and play with loads to see what it will do.

thanks for the loads guys!

 

[john 800]

I am a little late to the party but ill share what has worked for my rifle. 150 grain balistic tip with imr 7828 and cci mag primer has shot well. (From ken waters’ pet loads book/arricle series) re22 is also a pretty safe bet on powder.

 

[vegas]

Is there a thing about 7mmR.M. that makes them so easy to shoot well? My buddies and I have stacks of rifles of various calibers that we load for and everybody has the same results. We don't even really try and everything we throw at a 7 mag shoots great, as in with very little load development we get 1 ragged hole groups out of basic off the shelf rifles.

I think you are right. Mine had a small burr in the chamber towards the base of the cartridge that gave me some sticky bolt lift. Prior to discovering it, I loaded H1000 in so many different charge weights as I went down thinking I had pressure issues. There wasn't a load over a minute to be found. And I discovered two distinct nodes at 66gr and 68gr with the 162gr class of Hornady bullets.