I have had such great success with my .260 Ackleys that I thought I would see if the benefits would translate over to 7mm. I have had enough 7mms, such as "Straight" .284's, Shehanes and SAUMs to know that more often than not, getting the level of accuracy I want (not larger than 1.125" @ 300 yards) can be a frustrating proposition. I have found the "7's" to be a bit on the finicky side. I have never found that to emanate from the 6.5's.. I have often wondered if it was inherent in the 7's or case design or what..
I also know that the .284 and it's variants, suffer from weak primer pockets and many, if not most times, you do not get the life from them as one would expect. Not so with "non-rebated rim" cartridges, especially the cartridges formed from the .308 Palma brass. So I decided to see if I can get the strength and accuracy out of the 7mm by going to a 7mm-08 and making it into an Ackley, using the Palma brass.
Rifle Specs: Pierce Short Action "coned bolt" action as the basis.
Jewell trigger set at 2oz.
Krieger 1.250 "straight" w/ conventional 4 groove rifling, utilizing a 1-9 twist set at 30".
Ray Bowman "Electric Blue" wood laminate "LowBoy" stock
PT&G Reamer with a .313 neck and .270 freebore
180 gr. Berger Hybrids / RL-16 Powder and Remington 7 1/2 BR Primers.
GOAL OF PROJECT: To have a 180gr Hybrid (or a 180 VLD) running somewhere north of 2750F.P.S. with the level of accuracy noted above..
FIRST ITEM was to fireform 130 pieces of brass formed into 7mm-08 Rem from the .308 Palma brass. This would get the brass ready AND get over 100 rounds down the barrel in the hopes of going past the "speed-up" associated with new barrels. This was done over a period of 3 days. They came out nicely fireformed. About the only thing "lacking" was the nice "sharp / crisp" shoulder you get with 2-3 firings.
SECOND ITEM was to go and run some 180 Hybrids using the RL-16 powder. Since there is really NO load info for what I was doing, I was "flying by the seat of my pants" and did not want to run into problems. I know that RL-16 has a near identical burn rate as H4350, so I looked at several manuals and their loads for a "straight" 7mm-08. Since these manuals appeared to be using the 175 Nosler Partition (which by the way has a long bearing surface) and they were stating "about" 42.4 grs of H4350, I thought that with RL-16 I could use that as a starting place and work up from there.
RESULTS OF FIRST DAY OF LOAD DEVELOPMENT: I went from 43.2 to 44.2 in 0.20 increments. This would give me a base-line to then use QuickLoad to see where I could or needed to go from there.
43.2 gave me about 2560f.p.s. "average" with fairly HIGH e.s.'s.. I believe this was from the powder not burning efficiently due to lower than anticipated pressures.
43.5 right at 2600 f.p.s. STILL with high e.s.'s
43.7 right at 2620 with much tighter e.s.'s..
44.0 right at 2640 with good e.s.'s.. and
44.2 right at 2655 with 4ft. e.s.'s!!
ALL loads shot either at 1" or under, except 1, the last one opened up to just about 1.250". THIS RIFLE WILL SHOOT! ALL LOAD DEVELOPMENT IS DONE AT 300 YARDS..
This is still at least 100 f.p.s. slower than I want. However, this did set up a base-line for QL to tell me where I need to go..
Johnny Ingram and Joe Regina (Johnnyi and JoeR on this forum) are both QL "guru's" and were helping me out. They are both VERY helpful in the QL arena for me since I am about as computer savvy as I am about brain surgery!
Their input told me that I could EASILY go to 48.0 grains and still be under 65K PSI. Now I am not one to go near "max" loads and am a firm believer that a grain or so less is where good accuracy usually is. So, the next time out (next week sometime) I will load up from 46.0 to 47.3. This SHOULD put me right in the velocity range I want to be with no more (according to QL) than 61K pressure. This is easily handled by the Palma brass.
NEXT UPDATE>>> NEXT WEEK..
I also know that the .284 and it's variants, suffer from weak primer pockets and many, if not most times, you do not get the life from them as one would expect. Not so with "non-rebated rim" cartridges, especially the cartridges formed from the .308 Palma brass. So I decided to see if I can get the strength and accuracy out of the 7mm by going to a 7mm-08 and making it into an Ackley, using the Palma brass.
Rifle Specs: Pierce Short Action "coned bolt" action as the basis.
Jewell trigger set at 2oz.
Krieger 1.250 "straight" w/ conventional 4 groove rifling, utilizing a 1-9 twist set at 30".
Ray Bowman "Electric Blue" wood laminate "LowBoy" stock
PT&G Reamer with a .313 neck and .270 freebore
180 gr. Berger Hybrids / RL-16 Powder and Remington 7 1/2 BR Primers.
GOAL OF PROJECT: To have a 180gr Hybrid (or a 180 VLD) running somewhere north of 2750F.P.S. with the level of accuracy noted above..
FIRST ITEM was to fireform 130 pieces of brass formed into 7mm-08 Rem from the .308 Palma brass. This would get the brass ready AND get over 100 rounds down the barrel in the hopes of going past the "speed-up" associated with new barrels. This was done over a period of 3 days. They came out nicely fireformed. About the only thing "lacking" was the nice "sharp / crisp" shoulder you get with 2-3 firings.
SECOND ITEM was to go and run some 180 Hybrids using the RL-16 powder. Since there is really NO load info for what I was doing, I was "flying by the seat of my pants" and did not want to run into problems. I know that RL-16 has a near identical burn rate as H4350, so I looked at several manuals and their loads for a "straight" 7mm-08. Since these manuals appeared to be using the 175 Nosler Partition (which by the way has a long bearing surface) and they were stating "about" 42.4 grs of H4350, I thought that with RL-16 I could use that as a starting place and work up from there.
RESULTS OF FIRST DAY OF LOAD DEVELOPMENT: I went from 43.2 to 44.2 in 0.20 increments. This would give me a base-line to then use QuickLoad to see where I could or needed to go from there.
43.2 gave me about 2560f.p.s. "average" with fairly HIGH e.s.'s.. I believe this was from the powder not burning efficiently due to lower than anticipated pressures.
43.5 right at 2600 f.p.s. STILL with high e.s.'s
43.7 right at 2620 with much tighter e.s.'s..
44.0 right at 2640 with good e.s.'s.. and
44.2 right at 2655 with 4ft. e.s.'s!!
ALL loads shot either at 1" or under, except 1, the last one opened up to just about 1.250". THIS RIFLE WILL SHOOT! ALL LOAD DEVELOPMENT IS DONE AT 300 YARDS..
This is still at least 100 f.p.s. slower than I want. However, this did set up a base-line for QL to tell me where I need to go..
Johnny Ingram and Joe Regina (Johnnyi and JoeR on this forum) are both QL "guru's" and were helping me out. They are both VERY helpful in the QL arena for me since I am about as computer savvy as I am about brain surgery!
Their input told me that I could EASILY go to 48.0 grains and still be under 65K PSI. Now I am not one to go near "max" loads and am a firm believer that a grain or so less is where good accuracy usually is. So, the next time out (next week sometime) I will load up from 46.0 to 47.3. This SHOULD put me right in the velocity range I want to be with no more (according to QL) than 61K pressure. This is easily handled by the Palma brass.
NEXT UPDATE>>> NEXT WEEK..
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Palma brass will take about 70k it seems
