175 ELDX H1000 and 7mm Rem Mag Help Please!!

[jacobdewey]

Update*

Shot my spike elk with the load I stated earlier. High shoulder shot crumpled him at 451 yards. Awesome load, but I'm always looking to improve....

Going to be working up a 180 eldm load this winter. I can't ignore the crazy b.c. (.401 G7 in an 8 twist vs. .347 in the 175) Any edge in bucking wind is an edge I'll take. Terminal ballistics look great with the 180. Should be able to get 2900-3000fps out of my gun, and hopefully find a node around there. Coal is 3.402 for eldx, 3.457 with the eldm @ 20 thou off lands. With a bullet length of 1.575 with the eldx and 1.550 for the eldm, I actually get .080 more case capacity. Yes the eldm is shorter and also has a smaller bearing surface.

*Update on the 180 ELD M*
67.5 g H-1000
CCI no.250 magnum primers
3.457 coal
Hornady Brass
2996 fps average, sd 4, es 8 (magneto speed)
Group size was tolerable @ .66 moa.
The G7 coefficient of .401 held true out to 869 yards.
This load is fairly hot in my gun, with very slight primer flattening. I ran as fast as 69 grains @ 3080 fps, but it was scary. Flattened primers with stiff ejection. Only shot one and tore the others down.




Also building a lightweight 6.5-284 Norma with a 24" McGowan bbarrel. Pm me your favorite loads with the berger 140 elite Hunter.

 

[Eman1982]

70.0 H-1000 was max in mine with the 175 eld-x.
I ran it up to 71.0 at 3086fps but that was a bit too warm.
27" brux 9 twist, it shot a little over 3000 fps and 1/2" with 70.0
I don't remember the the length, but it was throated out quite a bit.
.060 off barely fits in the mag, but lucky for me that's where it liked to shoot, which is pretty much what I've been seeing with the eld-x. .050-.080 off is where I always end up with these.
67.0 and .050 off seems like a good place to start.

What barrel twist do you have, I am just getting started in this reloading gig, I have a tikka t3x. Should I start at .060 off?

 

[nmbarta]

9 twist.
You need to find out what your bullet jump is when your seated just short of your magazine length or if your in the lands when seated to mag length so you know what you can do with your combination.
I think that .050 off is a good place to start.
I find the powder charge that shoots the best working in .5 grain increments, once I've found that, I start changing my seating depth in .005" increments until I find the best seating depth. Then I may or may not go back and tweak the powder charge a little more working in about .2 grain increments. This works good for me, but there's certainly other ways to get it done. Ladder tests are pretty popular these days.
You should know pretty quickly if it's going to shoot in your rifle.

 

[Eman1982]

9 twist.
You need to find out what your bullet jump is when your seated just short of your magazine length or if your in the lands when seated to mag length so you know what you can do with your combination.
I think that .050 off is a good place to start.
I find the powder charge that shoots the best working in .5 grain increments, once I've found that, I start changing my seating depth in .005" increments until I find the best seating depth. Then I may or may not go back and tweak the powder charge a little more working in about .2 grain increments. This works good for me, but there's certainly other ways to get it done. Ladder tests are pretty popular these days.
You should know pretty quickly if it's going to shoot in your rifle.

Thanks a lot I appreciate the advice! Do you have experience with accubond long range 168g and would you start then at .05 also? I'm going to put a few loads together and see what works best: 7mm mag
Barnes 145g lrx
Eld x 162g
Eld x 175g
Accubond 168g

Thanks again! I haven't even got started and I'm addicted lol

 

[MoaFlat]

Tag

 

[imartin]

Finally got around to playing with the 7RM I had built this summer. Using the 180 Eld M, Fed 215's, Norma brass, and an open can of Retumbo, I decided to load in .3 gr increments from 70.3-72.1, after some initial testing up to 70 grs of powder. I loaded 1 round at each .3 increment just to check how far I could push it. No signs of pressure so far, note it was 34 degrees outside. The picture shows the 7 shot group of those loads (there is a 3 shot group above from a different bullet and powder combo). I will get measurements tonight. To say the least, I'm excited at the promise shown, velocity's were between 2900 and 3000 fps as expected. Loaded .020 off lands. 1:8 twist, 26", SS, Criterion Varmint contour barrel. These were shots 36-42 through the barrel.

 

[nmbarta]

Looks good!
If you can make that repeatable, I can't give you any advice on making it better.
Pick your lowest sd and run with it. If it opens up a touch after a couple hundred, you might have to back off a touch to get back to your node.

 

[Eagle eyes 17]

Just ordered a 7mm Rem. Mag. Looking forward to getting it. I will probably shoot some Hornady factory ammo thru it first,
To break in the Rifle and build up about 100 rounds of brass then I can start making some good Reloads for it.

 

[imartin]

Looks good!
If you can make that repeatable, I can't give you any advice on making it better.
Pick your lowest sd and run with it. If it opens up a touch after a couple hundred, you might have to back off a touch to get back to your node.

I am fairly confident I can keep the consistency now that I've gotten comfortable with the gun, scope, my technique, etc. It's amazing how small tweaks can take groups from .5-.75 moa to .25 moa. The next step is to load 3 or 5 shot groups and shoot for sd and es. Will go with whatever is the most consistent. I'm a little concerned I won't get what I'm looking for as far as es and sd go using Retumbo, but that's just going off the experience I had shooting from 68.5 to 70.0 grains powder. But based on this last group, my hopes are high that something around 71.5 will be the ticket. Hopefully I can find a sweet spot between 70 & 72 and be done with load development and start looking for a place to shoot. Will have to double check everything in the spring/summer when it warms up and i will likely work back up anyway to be safe.

CPL, keep us posted on your 7RM

 

[nmbarta]

Just ordered a 7mm Rem. Mag. Looking forward to getting it. I will probably shoot some Hornady factory ammo thru it first,
To break in the Rifle and build up about 100 rounds of brass then I can start making some good Reloads for it.

There are varying opinions on this but I'd start with better brass if you can. I've had bad luck with hornady 7mm brass.

 

[imartin]

The first 20 rounds I put through my 7mm RM were from Federal. The ammo was labeled "deer thugs" or something dumb like that, so I'm not sure if it was "Blue Box" quality, but it was a 160 gr bullet and I know they usually sell 150 gr and 175 gr for 7mm RM in the blue box. Anyway, I can't necessarily speak to the quality of the brass, and I haven't tried to reload it yet, but what I can speak to is the quality of the ammunition. I was shocked at how consistent velocities were and how close they were to the advertised velocity on the box. I was really impressed. To me, that means Federal used quality components which would include the brass. I know other guys who start with blue box ammo to break in the barrel and then go on to load the brass. Not sure of others experience here, but that might be a route to consider.