hunting with Berger bullets

[Kenster-Boy]

If I could ever get these darn things to shoot I may be able to tell ya how they do on game at the end of August. I just can't get them darn things to shoot! I don't know why but I have a 9.5 twist in a 7mm rem mag trying to shoot the 180's and I just can't get a group much under 1 inch at 100 yards. I am gonna try to shoot em at 300 tomorrow to see if it makes a difference.

I don't mean to hi jack a thread but any feedback would be helpful.

[Derek M.]

I am probably stepping overbounds here but wouldn't a 9 or 8 inch twist be better in 7mm for that long of a bullet?

How far from the lands are the bullets seated?

[Kenster-Boy]

Yes, you are completely right but I have a factory savage 112BVSS and have no desire to put a custom barrel on it. So I am stuck with a 9.5 twist. Well Berger recomends a 9 twist so I figured that it would shoot fine. I have an awsome load for the 175 SMK and they recomend a 8.5 twist or faster. So I just sort of figured to that it would work but maybe I am wrong. But hey I hear that SMK work just fine on game anyway so maybe the SMK it is.

The bullets are seated to engage the lands by maybe .001-.005" at most. Which is what Berger recomends.

[Derek M.]

Then I would say you have 2 immediate options.

1), try seating the Berger a bit deeper, and try up to 4 loads with each consecutive load going deeper but by a very small margin.

2), stick with SMK. I personally do not see how the 2 brands will perform noticeably different on game as neither are designed for it.

I knew that Sierra MK would work on game because back in 1990 I bought a box and loaded them in a friend's 30.06. He must have killed 8 or 9 deer that year. Sure, I knew they looked different, but I didn't know what a "match grade bullet" was compared to a "hunting bullet."

So, out of sheer ignorance, I load up a bunch of paper punchers for my friend, and he's dropping deer up to 175 pounds left and right out to 225 yards without any evidence of bad bullet performance. (I was very green then).

He popped a doe at 35 yards as she faced him. The bullet actually exited out her distal paunch right below her vent. But there were fragments throughout as we gutted her. She fell dead right there.

[skeeter]

Shooting my .257 stw, at first i couldnt get the ballistic tips to group under an inch.I tried everything.But at last i moved the bullet out to the lands and there she was .1/4 of an inch at 100 yards.Sometimes its just some thing simple.