7mm rem mag - suggest powder, bullet

[NotEnoughTriggerTime]

in the process of procuring a 7mm rem mag, and need a little help with bullet and powder selection.

I've had pretty decent luck gettig Sierra Match Kings to shoot pretty accurately in my other rifles, and will probably start with that brand. Intended targets are Whitetail Deer, and paper at various ranges. The rifle is a 9-1/2 twist Savage, w/25" barrel.

What weight of bullet is ideal for the 9-1/2 twist @ 7mm Rem Mag velocities?

Whats a good powder to safely reach those velocities with consistancy?

Thanks!

 

[Guest]

I have had great luck with Nosler 150gr Ballistic tips and H-4831 in two 7mag I reload for , both guns are factory one is a Browning A-bolt and the other is a Rem 700. Both guys are deerhunters and don't shoot past 300yds , BUT , while developing loads for their guns I shot them out to 500yds and the Ballistic tips worked great , I was able to keep both guns under 6" at 500yds , I know that ain't great but for factory guns with zero work done to them I was impressed.

By the way the 150gr Ballistic tip has a BC of .490+ and I was able to get 3200+fps out of both guns and still be accurate and under pressure.

What are your goals and ranges for this gun?

 

[NotEnoughTriggerTime]

6" at 500 yards would be good enough for my purpose - PA Whitetails, and getting my jollies on paper targets for fun. My present deer hunting is in the woods, but we have some shooting paths cut where you can see deer at about 200 yards. At other points in the season, I do have some times where longer shots present themselves at different locations.


I have a .270 Win that I have been hunting with for the past 20 years, and have been using 150 gr BT Noslers for about the last 10. The bullets don't go through the deer, and I think they're loosing too much energy on the entrance. In some instances, I've had bigger entrance wounds than exit wounds. The last buck I shot I hit broadside @ 100 yards, and the deer took off like he wasn't hit. 2nd shot (running, about 75 yards later) hit across the loins

and he crashed into a tree. Autopsy found a blown up heart and lungs from the first shot, the deer would have dropped in short distace if I had missed. There was no blood trail from the first shot. (no snow either, so there could have been a light trail and I might not have seen it.)

I shot at another buck earlier in the day, which crossed a property line and was tagged by another hunter. I swear that I hit that deer, but since the BT's aren't coming out, there was no blood trail.

I've also hit deer in the shoulders with the BT's, and they do the deer in, but they really blow the seams in the meat pretty bad. Again, I think they are releasing too much energy on entry.

Overall, I've dropped about 20 deer with the Noslers. Its a love/hate relationship at this point, the accuracy is good, and they obviously kill deer for me. My reservation is that I think there is probably a better bullet out there, that will do similar damage, and carry on through.

I'm planning on trying Sierra Gamekings, or Nosler Partitions this year, and see what they do.

 

[Guest]

Its hard to beat the Nosler Partition for a good expanding and deep penitrating bullet.

You could try some of the new bonded bullets like the SST and Nosler Accu-bond's.

I have heard great things about the MK's being good hunting bullets just don't tell anybody else your using them or your likley to hear about how terrible they are cause their a "TARGET" bullet. But hey do expand well , never seem any critters hit with one but did see a man hit with a 168gr MK from a 308 , very messy but good expansion

 

[sniper2]

I use 150gr bullets of several brands sitting on 69 grains of 7828 with 2.70 O.A.L. Shoots min. out to 370 yds.

 

[Guest]

I had a 7mm rem mag in the sendero And I used the 162 gr amax in it with 70 grains of rl 25 with about 3000 fps and it works great.
rebarreling that gun to 6.5 wsm. S1 is doing the smithing for me. he says he can get the wsm case to feed properly in a rem 700 action.But that is what others here are saying about 7wsm and they are not so I guess we will just have to see. It is ashame to spend all that money and it not be right the way it should be before it gets to the customer.

 

[Guest]

nett
How fast are you shooting the BT's.
I found if you keep them things under 3000fps you will find them to your liking.

 

[brian b]

I spent the whole weekend testing and doing
load developement on a SAKO AV in 7mm win.mag.,the only bullet I was testing was
the nosler 150 gr. ballistic tip,I tested
6 powder's with several load's for each
powder. at the end of the weekend atleast
for this gun the clear winner was 65gr. of
vvn560 av.vel.3018 with s.d.4
I kept thinking that I could get more velocity out of a 7-mag.but this was the
best I could wring out of this 24" barrel
without sacrificing accuracy.

 

[orwapitihunter]

I'm using 66.3gr of IMR7828 to push a 160 Accubond at 2975fps from my 24" factory barrel. This is a touch off max but it's where my barrel wants to shoot. I have had it shoot under an inch at 300yrds.