180gr Bergers in 7mm rem mag

[ColoGuy970]

I'm new too. At least to long range hunting. I'm in the same boat as you as far as hiking a lot. Public ground here in CO with OTC tags means lots of walking to find elk. That being said I'm taking the plunge into this for fun and to make myself a better shooter.

Most of the time being able to shoot to 1000 yards would not buy me a thing elk hunting since by nature of where I hunt the terrain dictates either a 300 yard shot or a 1500 yard shot which is something I won't be doing. That being said I'm looking to push my rifle and myself to 800 yards this year just in case.

ColoGuy970 are you here in CO?

Yes, I am in northern Colorado, I hunt a lot of OTC. I use my points every four years for my favorite unit, (big bulls unit). I appreciate everyone giving me advice. I understand this long range stuff is not easy, I also understand that my rifle will only shoot as true as I do. My old hunting rig was good to 350 yards, and weighed a ton. It was an older Ruger m77 walnut stock with a Burris signature 2.5-10x50 duplex. I had a lot of success with that rifle, but it is antiquated. I am trying to build a rig that I can grow into as a shooter. You guys are all very knowledgeable shooters, and I appreciate your input and recommendations.

 

[Joefrazell]

Do what you do. If you need it to be light then build it light. I think if you keep your expectations first in mind you'll be happy. I hunt like you do and that's why I leave my 11 lb long range rifle in the safe most of the time and carry a ruger american predator all over the mountain and limit my shooting choices to 600 yards. Plus it's alot easier to beat up on the mountain.

 

[adam]

Just my opinion, for what it's worth. Having played with the 180's quite a lot. I would stick with the 168's in the Rem Mag. The case capacities are right on that knife edge of being able to take advantage of the 180. Not quite enough to make it sing. Short neck and a short throat push the 180's deep in the case creating enough lower velocity to not quite make it worth while. Depending on your accuracy node you may be as low as the low 2600's FPS in a 24" barrel unless you really hot rod the brass....and seriously, who wants to be doing brass prep all the time? H1000 is absolutely the right powder, and the reports in this thread of velocity around 2950-3050 with 26" barrels are probably very legit with max loads. H1000 will produce a screamer load if you are patient and work in .1 gr increments. Super stable across temperatures.


In the 7mmRem Mag, I think you are better off with the higher velocity 168 class and the less robust bc.
You give up 12gr bullet weight, and what appears to be serious bc, but you gain at least 200fps....... you will absolutely notice the wind call difference with that TOF delta. If I'm going to shoot a magnum, I want magnum velocity.

There are of course custom rigs, but at that point, you should seriously consider something with more case capacity. I personally would step up to the Weatherby case with the 180. All the rest of the build stays the same. Source the brass from Norma and the dies from Forester. 7% more case capacity and you can still run around 3000 in a 24" without a compressed load.

The 180 is an absolute hammer. Drops them like a sack of hot turds.

 

[livetohunt]

I will put in my 2 cents here because I am also relatively new to long range. Being a lower budget shooter I only have factory rifles.

I wasn't very good at shooting (super flinchy) so trying to stretch my only rifle at the time, a Remington model 700, out to any distance was a joke. So I spent a lot of time on here and to break myself of flinch I bought a super heavy choate stock and put a lot of rounds down range. After a couple months I ditched that stock for an actual usable hunting stock.

A years Practice, coupled with learning how to reload and now I have 3 factory rifles of 3 different brands that I can shoot .5 MOA with. I'm currently working on getting a lighter gun setup, which will be about 8.5 lbs. My go to long range hunting gun weighs about 12.5 lbs with sling/bipod/scope.

And yes, I count myself extremely lucky that my factory rifles are able to shoot that well. But it's also extreme attention to detail when I reload and a lot of time behind the guns. I also have a weird barrel break in I do with any gun I get that I use diamond paste that I embed into handloads.

I highly recommend just spending a lot of time on here reading posts opinions etc. you will learn a ton!

As far as the 180 bergers go, I have a savage long range hunter in 7mm mag that I shoot .5 MOA using the 180 VLD hunting round. Its wicked accurate, but I highly recommend a shoulder shot. I've had expansion problems. I'm going to be moving to the ELD-x's, as are the guys I work with that hunt long range.

Good luck!

 

[BallisticsGuy]

Berger 180's and (IIRC) 77 grains of US869 in Privi cases have worked very well for me from the 7RM. Good velocities, easy metering.

 

[dirthead1]

The 7mm RM that I had was a custom R700 (Phoenix Custom Rifles) with a 1-9" Krieger 25" barrel. I shot 180 Hybrids over 68.8 gr Retumbo, Nosler or Norma brass, F210M primers. Velocity was right at 2940 fps. Very accurate and stable at long range. These shot so well that I never tried another bullet or powder.

 

[lancetkenyon]

I had a great node with the 183 SMKs over RL26 @ 3023-3056fps. These 3 loads shot about 1.5" @ 432 yards in my ladder test. I also had a big wide node from 2940 to 3012 over 6 shots into a 2.4" group during the ladder test.

RL26 is no joke. I gained 50+fps safely over H1000.

 

[ColoGuy970]

Thanks for the info and advice, I really appreciate it. I have a blueprinted rem 700 rh la on order from PTG. She is about eight weeks out. I have been learning a lot and I have an older brother who loves to reload and wants to change his rem 700 in 7mm up some. So we are each going to build ourselves rifles chambered in 7mm-300 win, or 7mm practical, still not really sure what it is named. We are going to shoot the Berger 195 grain EOL projectiles. Just sort of an update I guess. I will be updating this thread as I start putting parts together. Thanks again