Looks like I am going to be the odd man out here. Needs of hunting in various parts of the world are very different. All I can state is the experiences that my brother and I have had. We have 5 custom 7 STW's between us. We ordered our own reamer from Pacific Precision with minimum spec chambers, .025 freebore (very short leade), .0005 throat dia, .002 over at the web of New Win brass, Neck-.002 over loaded ammo. Some of the guns we have are 26" & 27"Custom Pac Nor barrels, the rest are SS Sendero bbls that were re-chambered when new. We get at least 3600 in ALL of the barrels and one barrel gets much higher. We shoot over max loads of IMR 7828 by what the book calls for, but they are no where near max in our rifles.
Some time ago, before the advent of accubond bullets, we started shooting the 140g Nos/Win Combined Tec bullets. We have killed 30+ deer with this combo here in SC and Huge deer in Kansas also. Our food plots here in SC is 500 yds from our stand, My brother killed 3 bucks out of it last year. One thing that is peculiar about this cartridge and bullet is that not one deer has ever taken a step. One 360 lb buck in Kansas was shot at 460 yds, frontal quartering shot. The bullet entered his right front shoulder and exited out the rib cage on the off side clipping heart and both lungs in the process. Many 200 lb deer have been killed in Kansas, and many does have been shot in the head at 300 yds.
These rifles shoot between 2 1/2-3 1/2" at 550 yards depending on the wind with the 140g Nos/Win.
The reason that we went the 140's was due to trajectory. Most of our shooting here is done between 275-425. Deer may step out in the clearing and you have a split second to acquire target and shoot, and if they run off, you may have to fight off the copper heads to find them.
For some reason, the 140g Nos/Win Combined tec bullet is much harder than a normal ballistic tip, it just works, you don't have to guess about this bullet.
The 120 Barnes tripple shock is doing 3930 fps with less than 1/2" groups out of my Re-chambered 25 1/2" Sendero bbl and the std 120g Ballistic tips shoot just a tiny bit better at three shot groups in the .3's.
Anyone that is wanting more info email me at
keithcandler at msn dot com