7mm STW Brotherhood - For those who shoot the 7mm Shooting Times Westerner

Here is my 7STW, Ruger #1B with a Leupold Mk4 3.5-10X40 TMR. My current load is 160gr Accubond, 81.0gr's of VVN570, WLRM primer & R-P brass. I'm getting around 3100fps and 1.5"- 2" groups @ my 250 meter zero. I just started working up a load with 175gr Sierra GK's with VVN570 and am getting a surprising 3170 to 3220fps. Shooting at 100yds. my groups have varied from 1.5" to 2.25" but their POI are real close together and I show no signs of pressure but that is 100+ fps faster than I expected. I think I may have something to work with though.:D

Dchamp, first of all, welcome to the website, and " The Brotherhood". Nice looking stick you have there, and some Beautiful country in the background.
I think maybe the reason your 160 bullets are slower then your 175's , is that the powder you are using may be too slow for the 160's, and your barrel length. I could be wrong, but dosen't your rifle have a 24 inch barrel ?
Anyway, it is working fine for the 175 grain bullet. That speed is darn good!
I love that laminated stock. Nice job, and again Welcome!!!
 
Well, that sounds better than what you were going through awhile ago. I know what you mean about the different resonate ring that the gun gets after a bedding job. That should take care of the action screws backing out. Now that you have the pillars on, I am told that a torque setting of between 35-40 inch pounds is the best. I run all of mine at 35 . I check them frequently, as I have a inch pound torque wrench in my range box. Just make sure you have adequate clearance around both action screws.
I simply pulled them down and loc-tited them with blue. They'll be fine unless I somehow crush the pillars:D. It looks like there is some residual fouling in the barrel too that I am having a bit of a time getting out. I am working with it with barnes cr10(just picked up 2 bottles today-sale locally) and it seems to be better. I probably got the **** thing to hot working with it and baked some fouling in.
 
Well, Lefty7mmstw,thanks for your imput I do appreciate it.The barrel is 26" long. VVN570 might be a slow powder but I think its similar to Retumbo, not sure, and it works so darn well with 160gr and heavier bullets in the 7mm STW. I've had it up to 3300fps+ with the160gr Accubonds but that was at max pressure. I had the same accuracy that I have now but didn't like living on the edge with max pressure and I got the performance I was looking fore. I use Quickload to help me formulate loads and the 175gr gamekings are pushing approximately 100fps+ faster than predicted which isn't necessarily a bad thing but I'm experimenting with optimal barrel timing and trying to hit X node based on barrel length in the hope of better accuracy and spending less time and material in deveoping loads. If you get a chance google Long's OBT (optimal barrel time) concept. It's very interesting.:D
 
Well, Lefty7mmstw,thanks for your imput I do appreciate it.The barrel is 26" long. VVN570 might be a slow powder but I think its similar to Retumbo, not sure, and it works so darn well with 160gr and heavier bullets in the 7mm STW. I've had it up to 3300fps+ with the160gr Accubonds but that was at max pressure. I had the same accuracy that I have now but didn't like living on the edge with max pressure and I got the performance I was looking fore. I use Quickload to help me formulate loads and the 175gr gamekings are pushing approximately 100fps+ faster than predicted which isn't necessarily a bad thing but I'm experimenting with optimal barrel timing and trying to hit X node based on barrel length in the hope of better accuracy and spending less time and material in deveoping loads. If you get a chance google Long's OBT (optimal barrel time) concept. It's very interesting.:D
From what I've seen the 7stw and 7rum are both at their best with 160 and 175 grain pills with 50 bmg class powders like 8700 and I 5010. Retumbo will work well enough but I should think 3200 fps to be a mild overload with a 175 in a 26" barrel. I did hit 3100 fps in my 24" barrel with 171's and rl25 this summer with book loads, but they were a bit stiff and would have been 70kpsi if I had a guage on the gun. The node for that load seemed to be at 2950 fps.
I hate hunting for nodes(unless you are still accurate enough out of node) and will usually trash a load if it becomes obvious I'll have to; the rifle won't necessarily shoot in the node 100 degrees from where you are currently, so you are wasting time and barrel life continuing.
 
Ok guys I finally got my gun together and wanted to share a few pictures. It looks and feals great and shoots awesome ! Rem 7mm stw.
http://emob1342.photobucket.com/albums/o771/oglebuck/Mobile Uploads/IMG_1870_zpsfc412a5b.jpg
http://emob1342.photobucket.com/albums/o771/oglebuck/Mobile Uploads/IMG_4019_zps1706a176.jpg

Ogle buck, that's a fine looking stick, but you better get it off your wifes bureau. She's going to beat your ***!!!! Very nice rig, and I'm sure it's a shooter. Nice job, and let us know how she shoots.
 
Great stuff guys. I have a Ruger that needs a new stock. Where can I look? The thumbhole stock looks good too, I may do that on my Savage, do yoj kniw if they make it for them. Lefty, stop abusing the STW or I'll have to report you to Lane S.
 
Great stuff guys. I have a Ruger that needs a new stock. Where can I look? The thumbhole stock looks good too, I may do that on my Savage, do yoj kniw if they make it for them. Lefty, stop abusing the STW or I'll have to report you to Lane S.
I'd look at stocky's or boyds for a stock for any rh laminate. Boyds is semi-local to me but they don't make lefty stuff-- go figure. They only make rh or cross-over, so if you are in your right mind you have to go to stocky's. (left minded people can go to either)

I dare you to report me!!! I double dog dare you and hurry up already.
 
Great stuff guys. I have a Ruger that needs a new stock. Where can I look? The thumbhole stock looks good too, I may do that on my Savage, do yoj kniw if they make it for them. Lefty, stop abusing the STW or I'll have to report you to Lane S.

I TRIPLE Dog Dare you....... Now take that!! :D

P/S, I E mailed Rifleshooter, and Shooting times, and asked that someone get a message to the honorable " Layne Simpson" and that he visit the website. I have not heard back from anybody, but I think he would be impressed. We' ll see what happens.

So Lefty, you better be on your P's and Q's there buddy boy, or I'll tell you what!!!! :):D
 
I TRIPLE Dog Dare you....... Now take that!! :D

P/S, I E mailed Rifleshooter, and Shooting times, and asked that someone get a message to the honorable " Layne Simpson" and that he visit the website. I have not heard back from anybody, but I think he would be impressed. We' ll see what happens.

So Lefty, you better be on your P's and Q's there buddy boy, or I'll tell you what!!!! :):D
But if I fry the pipe I get the excuse to put another one on....
and I'll do the stock and trigger because it just "has" to be done when you put a barrel on....

Actually, I wanted to put it in the crappiest lite possible since the first group got botched by two fools beside me yelling over their earplugs and shooting off a rest with the barrel resting on it. I heard one of said fools yell and twitched as I pulled the little lever on the bottom; pulled the pill 4" out. The next bullet fell into the group netting a 1/2" 100 yard group for the three that I wasn't spooked for. Perils of a public range I guess; at least the dude wasn't shooting my targets like a couple of fools two weeks ago.
 
But if I fry the pipe I get the excuse to put another one on....
and I'll do the stock and trigger because it just "has" to be done when you put a barrel on....

Actually, I wanted to put it in the crappiest lite possible since the first group got botched by two fools beside me yelling over their earplugs and shooting off a rest with the barrel resting on it. I heard one of said fools yell and twitched as I pulled the little lever on the bottom; pulled the pill 4" out. The next bullet fell into the group netting a 1/2" 100 yard group for the three that I wasn't spooked for. Perils of a public range I guess; at least the dude wasn't shooting my targets like a couple of fools two weeks ago.

Lefty, I can identify with the shenanigans that go on at a " public" range. Weekend warriors has a new meaning at my club sometimes. Sometimes I get the $&@? Yahoos that bring out the AR's and make more noise than an army, and still can't hit ****! And yeah, they shoot my targets too! And then, some other yahoo will pull up behind me, just as I'm about to squeeze the trigger, and when I fire, he says, I didn't have my muffs on yet!!!! ( like I've got EYES in the back of my head)
And it even gets better. When I take my chronograph to the range, guys ask me, can I fire I few through it to see how fast my load is.!!!!!!
I actually was at the range once with the chrono, and one of this " yahoos" with the AR's, and their brass was landing on my bench, and once, it even went though the sky screens, and I registered it on the read out. So, I picked up all my marbles and went home for the day. Oh, I could go on, but you get the picture, and know the drill.


P/S. I really did E- mail Shooting Times about locating Layne Simpson and inviting him to visit this forum.
Haven't gotten a reply yet. Maybe we' ll have to get Len on that one!!!! Maybe he has more pull than us 7 STW fans!!!!
 
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