169 Gr Hammer bullet in 7 MAX

[Korhil78]

Loaded up a pressure test today with 169 Gr hammer hunters with RL26. I started near my load that I have with the 195 Gr Berger figuring that that would be a safe starting point, So I started with 64 Gr of RL26. Glad I started with that amount because 64 Gr was already at max pressure with the 169 Gr hammer. I had a good ejector mark and the start of a heavy bolt lift. Only fired the one round and went back home and used the bullet puller on them all. I then loaded up a round each of 62, 62.5 and 63 Gr. Went back out and shot them and that was the magic area. No pressure signs even with 63 Gr.

Went back home again and loaded up 3 rounds of 63 Gr of RL26. Went and shot them and got a 1/2" group and an average of 3095 FPS. 7 rounds fired. Will need to shoot more to verify at distance and may play with seating the bullet deeper to see if I can get a even tighter group.

7 Sherman MAX
169 Gr Hammer Hunter
63 Gr RL26
.030" off rifling
ES 13
3095 FPS average

The smaller holes are 223.

I am wondering if RL23 may give me a higher velocity but not sure?

 

[Korhil78]

I think I'm gonna try this load out at distance and see how it does. It meets my velocity requirement.

 

[Northkill]

RL-23 more temp stable too. Nice work though. That's a great combination you got going.

 

[Korhil78]

Yes…I'm going to do a pressure test with RL23 to see what my max will be. If it ends up giving me the same velocity then I might as well use RL23

 

[Northkill]

Yes…I'm going to do a pressure test with RL23 to see what my max will be. If it ends up giving me the same velocity then I might as well use RL23

I'll be glad to hear how it works out. My 7-LRM is almost a ballistic twin. I'm running 69 gr RL-26 in mine with the 169 HH and getting 3,050 fps. Not as efficient of a case as yours. I have some issues summer to winter in my ballistic profiling due to velocity changes. Just did another load with the 180 Berger Hybrids using 66.5 gr RL-23 running at 2,940. This is way below pressure but gets me 0.280 grouping and long brass/barrel life. Just seems my 24" Proof doesn't like speed.

Pulling a 6.5 Sherman Max together right now with a 7.5tw 5R Bartlein Carbon... Pretty excited to see what she'll do.

 

[Korhil78]

Went out and did a pressure test with the 169 Gr hammer hunter and RL23 to see how it would do in my 7 Sherman MAX. I would rather use it than RL26 because it's more temp stable. Loaded a round each of 63-67 Gr of RL23 seated .040" off. I started to Find pressure at 64 Gr with a slight ejector mark but that was it. I stopped at 65.5 Gr as the ejector mark was pretty pronounced.

Went back home and loaded up 3 each of 62, 62.5 and 63 Gr and went back to shoot for groups. Pretty impressive accuracy and RL 23 gave me a little better speed and accuracy than RL26! 63 Gr of RL23 had an ES of 5 and a Std. Dev. of 2.4.

I will load up 5 of 63 Gr and test it at distance to see how it does and what BC I have to input to make it work. Super pleased with the results so far. I have found 2 good loads so far with 2 differbet

 

[Northkill]

Looking up, bud Keep the info coming. I'm benefitting.