3 temp stable max loads for modern 7x57mm Mauser

FAL Shot

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Hunting season cometh, and I decided to work up new loads for my CZ 550 American in 7x57mm Mauser. This was a special production rifle for the American market, only 100 ever having been produced. Probably to use up CZ's existing stock of 7x57mm barrels. No longer available even in Europe. CZ has a fabulous reputation for accuracy at a decent price. I was not disappointed....and the Turkish walnut stock has lots of figure....to the point that I havebeen asked, "Is that a Sako?"

The 7x57mm Mauser launches bullets at the right velocity for long soft bullets that have a very wide latitude in impact velocity, resistance of thin and thick skinned animals, game weight, and high BC for long range work out to about 600 yards. It works very well across a wide spectrum of animals and velocity, as Jack O'Connor taught and his wife Eleanor proved all over the world on a wide variety of large game. Her load used the 160-grain Speer BTSP, which fits the mold of heavy and soft which is best for the 7x57mm cartridge overall.

I have had excellent results on mule deer with the Hornady 162-grain A-MAX. While the load using IMR 4064 was accurate at load development temp in summer, it lost velocity on a cold November day and hit a bit low. It was also one null point below my Norma 150 BTSP factory load for a loss of about 300 FPE. I have since used my existing stock of Norma 150 BTSP ammo for load development benchmark. Also, I have proven by chrono that the Norma ammo from 1984 is also temp sensitive, so will not hunt with it on cold days. Factory spec of 2756 FPS at 2530FPE is reached on a warm day, but not on a cold day.

The 150-grain loads are a matched pair as far as velocity and impact point out to moderate distance. A Nosler 150 Partition over 44.0 grains of Varget seated to 3.165" C.O.L. A Nosler 150-grain Ballistic Tip seated to 3.165" over 44.5 grains of Varget. Both using Norma brass and WLR primers and Lee Factory Crimped. Note that my rifle has the long military throat and 24" barrel for the 175-grain roundnose bullets if I choose to use them. My C.O.L. is well beyond factory ammo and I am still about .100" from the lands. Long jumps do not make much difference in my rifle as long as the cartridge neck is straight and uniform thickness. Velocity of both rounds averages around 2750 FPS and energy averages around 2500 FPE. On a hot day it will chrono a bit higher than that. The Norma factory load has a higher ES and more variance with temp. My ES averages about half of Norma.

My most critical load is the Hornady 162-grain A-MAX. H4350 is the best powder for this bullet weight, and I tested H4895, Varget and H4831SC as well. The 4350 (or W760, H414) burn rate has been used by handloaders for years in the heavy bullet weights in 7mm Mauser, and that's what John Barsness uses as well. H4350 is the temp stable choice. In 150-grain weight, you could use Varget or H4350 with little difference worth fretting over. For 140-grains and lighter, use Varget, or even H4895 would work well. But 140-grains and lighter I consider a varmint bullet in my rifle. They need to be flat based to seat them far out enough to reduce jump to .100". If using lighter bullets for big game, I would go with Barnes to get a bullet long enough to include a boattail, or one of the other copper bullets. All my hunting loads use fireformed brass, not new brass. New brass is for varminting.

The Berger 168-grain VLD is reputed to work well in a fast twist 7mm Mauser, but the lower cost of the Hornady 162 A-MAX and the fact it can be jumped a lot makes it the choice for my rifle. The ballistic tip gives more consistent expansion at a wider velocity range, and the 162 A-MAX punches through considerable bone and still exits on a mule deer. At 200 yards lasered, I completely blew apart the spine in front of the shoulders on a 250-pound mule deer buck and recovered the bullet under the offside hide with 38% weight retention. On boiler room shot behind the shoulder at 150 lasered yards I had an exit hole and the lungs were turned to oatmeal. Death comes quickly to mule deer with a good hit from a Hornady 162 A-MAX. A similar neck/spine shot just in front of the shoulder on a smaller buck the previous year at 75 yards using a Nosler 150 BT in Winchester .308 caused complete destruction of the bullet, no exit, no large pieces of bullet found (biggest piece was the green plastic tip), and a lot of ruined neck meat and shoulder meat. The 7mm Mauser kills without destrying as much meat, and can do so at a much longer range due to a 162 A-MAX BC of .625 vs. .453 for the .308 Nosler 150 BT.

My Hornady 162 A-MAX load is 47.0 grains of H4350 seated to a C.O.L. of 3.240" in R-P brass using a WLR primer. My primers are the old nickel plated Winchester primers, since I have a lifetime stash of them. The load chronographs at 2683 FPS with energy at 2590 FPE. None of my loads have flattened or cratered primers. Brass growth requiring trimming is almost nonexistent after fireforming and initial trim. My rifle is made to handle the 65,000 PSI of the .270 Winchester round. I can go 200 rounds without decoppering my barrel, after initial break-in. The 7mm Mauser is still a battle rifle par excellence that most people can shoot accurately. Try that with your 7mm Magnums. Also, you will have to take a very long shot with a soft bullet in a 7mm Mag or risk blowup. Mine goes about zero to 600 yards with no worries. I still outshoot the young guys with their .300 RUM rifles at the shooting range. I need to start taking their money on bets.

Nathan Foster has done a lot of work with the 7mm Mauser and describes the bullets I have used in more detail, and a lot of other bullets besides. His website proved extremely useful to me in load development. You can read all about it at www.ballisticstudies.com

The 7mm Mauser still rocks, if you handload and do it correctly. All of my loads achieve 5-shot groups of 1" at 100 yards with no long wait between shots on a rather windy Montana day. Strong sidewinds will sprread the groups a bit beyond that horizontally. My first three shots with 150 BT yesterday was 3/8" at 100 yards with a cold barrel, no wait between shots, just like a hunting situation. Wind was gusting strongly headon, quartering somewhat to my right. I do not prescribe to working up loads on "perfect" days. I want to know how loads work under various conditions, just like in hunting.
 
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Excellent post! Thank you for sharing your information and experience with the 7x57. I have a Ruger #1A in 7x57 that I am finally going to be able to take hunting this year.

Like you, I plan to use the 162g AMAX, though supply issues with that bullet may eventually force me to switch to the Berger 168. I have a mild load worked up using RL-19 that I intend to use this season because of time constraints. After that, I plan to try my luck with RL-17.
 
FAL,

+1 for a most excellent post, sir! In fact, you inspired me to make this my very first post/reply.

Several years ago on a whim, I pressed my 7x57 safe queen into active service, and that has gone so well that I recently acquired a second! Now this is my favorite go-to rifle for just about everything out west and back east. Now as coincidence would have it, (being likewise inspired by Nathan's article and motivated to bring out the best in my rifle) I too found a very happy place with the 162 Amax and the 7x57.

There is little for me to add except for maybe some raw data and pictures from this past fall. Curious how identical our load data is!

Interarms Mark X, 7x57 Mauser
20" barrel
2-7x Leupold (shot on 6x)
162 Amax
47.0gr H414
CCI 250 primer
Federal brass
3.250 OAL
2621 ave fps
@ 50* Temp
~5000' elev

What you say is absolutely true about the Amax's trajectory and on-game performance and capabilities at 7x57 velocity. Outstanding is an understatement!
 

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Custom barreled 1908 Argentine, 22" Douglas Premium. Brown Precision stock, Timney trigger, Leupold 2.5X8X36.....50gr IMR 4350, 140 Sierra Pro Hunter, 2850fps 3/4",....46 gr IMR 4350, 160 gr Sierra Game King BT not chrono'd but ragged one hole at 100yds. Longest shot with the 140's, 2 at 350yds.
 
Custom barreled 1908 Argentine, 22" Douglas Premium. Brown Precision stock, Timney trigger, Leupold 2.5X8X36.....50gr IMR 4350, 140 Sierra Pro Hunter, 2850fps 3/4",....46 gr IMR 4350, 160 gr Sierra Game King BT not chrono'd but ragged one hole at 100yds. Longest shot with the 140's, 2 at 350yds.
I just joined the site today. I live in Eastern Oregon and my love is 7x57 caliber. Currently I am playing with the following:
1908 Argentine mauser action
22" Douglas supreme barrel
Timney trigger
European walnut stock
Sightron 3:9 x 42 glass
Current load data: Rem. brass; rem 9.5 primers; Hornady 162 BT Spitzer bullets; BC @ 0.514; sect. density @ 0.287; powder is IMR 4350 @ 44.0 grains; muz. vel @ 2500 fps; 50 yd group @ .46".
I am not at all happy with this at 100 yds. as the group really opens up. I hunt mule deer and elk. It is not uncommon to get a rested shot out to 300 yards.
Regards, bakercity
 
Hunting season cometh, and I decided to work up new loads for my CZ 550 American in 7x57mm Mauser. This was a special production rifle for the American market, only 100 ever having been produced. Probably to use up CZ's existing stock of 7x57mm barrels. No longer available even in Europe. CZ has a fabulous reputation for accuracy at a decent price. I was not disappointed....and the Turkish walnut stock has lots of figure....to the point that I havebeen asked, "Is that a Sako?"

The 7x57mm Mauser launches bullets at the right velocity for long soft bullets that have a very wide latitude in impact velocity, resistance of thin and thick skinned animals, game weight, and high BC for long range work out to about 600 yards. It works very well across a wide spectrum of animals and velocity, as Jack O'Connor taught and his wife Eleanor proved all over the world on a wide variety of large game. Her load used the 160-grain Speer BTSP, which fits the mold of heavy and soft which is best for the 7x57mm cartridge overall.

I have had excellent results on mule deer with the Hornady 162-grain A-MAX. While the load using IMR 4064 was accurate at load development temp in summer, it lost velocity on a cold November day and hit a bit low. It was also one null point below my Norma 150 BTSP factory load for a loss of about 300 FPE. I have since used my existing stock of Norma 150 BTSP ammo for load development benchmark. Also, I have proven by chrono that the Norma ammo from 1984 is also temp sensitive, so will not hunt with it on cold days. Factory spec of 2756 FPS at 2530FPE is reached on a warm day, but not on a cold day.

The 150-grain loads are a matched pair as far as velocity and impact point out to moderate distance. A Nosler 150 Partition over 44.0 grains of Varget seated to 3.165" C.O.L. A Nosler 150-grain Ballistic Tip seated to 3.165" over 44.5 grains of Varget. Both using Norma brass and WLR primers and Lee Factory Crimped. Note that my rifle has the long military throat and 24" barrel for the 175-grain roundnose bullets if I choose to use them. My C.O.L. is well beyond factory ammo and I am still about .100" from the lands. Long jumps do not make much difference in my rifle as long as the cartridge neck is straight and uniform thickness. Velocity of both rounds averages around 2750 FPS and energy averages around 2500 FPE. On a hot day it will chrono a bit higher than that. The Norma factory load has a higher ES and more variance with temp. My ES averages about half of Norma.

My most critical load is the Hornady 162-grain A-MAX. H4350 is the best powder for this bullet weight, and I tested H4895, Varget and H4831SC as well. The 4350 (or W760, H414) burn rate has been used by handloaders for years in the heavy bullet weights in 7mm Mauser, and that's what John Barsness uses as well. H4350 is the temp stable choice. In 150-grain weight, you could use Varget or H4350 with little difference worth fretting over. For 140-grains and lighter, use Varget, or even H4895 would work well. But 140-grains and lighter I consider a varmint bullet in my rifle. They need to be flat based to seat them far out enough to reduce jump to .100". If using lighter bullets for big game, I would go with Barnes to get a bullet long enough to include a boattail, or one of the other copper bullets. All my hunting loads use fireformed brass, not new brass. New brass is for varminting.

The Berger 168-grain VLD is reputed to work well in a fast twist 7mm Mauser, but the lower cost of the Hornady 162 A-MAX and the fact it can be jumped a lot makes it the choice for my rifle. The ballistic tip gives more consistent expansion at a wider velocity range, and the 162 A-MAX punches through considerable bone and still exits on a mule deer. At 200 yards lasered, I completely blew apart the spine in front of the shoulders on a 250-pound mule deer buck and recovered the bullet under the offside hide with 38% weight retention. On boiler room shot behind the shoulder at 150 lasered yards I had an exit hole and the lungs were turned to oatmeal. Death comes quickly to mule deer with a good hit from a Hornady 162 A-MAX. A similar neck/spine shot just in front of the shoulder on a smaller buck the previous year at 75 yards using a Nosler 150 BT in Winchester .308 caused complete destruction of the bullet, no exit, no large pieces of bullet found (biggest piece was the green plastic tip), and a lot of ruined neck meat and shoulder meat. The 7mm Mauser kills without destrying as much meat, and can do so at a much longer range due to a 162 A-MAX BC of .625 vs. .453 for the .308 Nosler 150 BT.

My Hornady 162 A-MAX load is 47.0 grains of H4350 seated to a C.O.L. of 3.240" in R-P brass using a WLR primer. My primers are the old nickel plated Winchester primers, since I have a lifetime stash of them. The load chronographs at 2683 FPS with energy at 2590 FPE. None of my loads have flattened or cratered primers. Brass growth requiring trimming is almost nonexistent after fireforming and initial trim. My rifle is made to handle the 65,000 PSI of the .270 Winchester round. I can go 200 rounds without decoppering my barrel, after initial break-in. The 7mm Mauser is still a battle rifle par excellence that most people can shoot accurately. Try that with your 7mm Magnums. Also, you will have to take a very long shot with a soft bullet in a 7mm Mag or risk blowup. Mine goes about zero to 600 yards with no worries. I still outshoot the young guys with their .300 RUM rifles at the shooting range. I need to start taking their money on bets.

Nathan Foster has done a lot of work with the 7mm Mauser and describes the bullets I have used in more detail, and a lot of other bullets besides. His website proved extremely useful to me in load development. You can read all about it at www.ballisticstudies.com

The 7mm Mauser still rocks, if you handload and do it correctly. All of my loads achieve 5-shot groups of 1" at 100 yards with no long wait between shots on a rather windy Montana day. Strong sidewinds will sprread the groups a bit beyond that horizontally. My first three shots with 150 BT yesterday was 3/8" at 100 yards with a cold barrel, no wait between shots, just like a hunting situation. Wind was gusting strongly headon, quartering somewhat to my right. I do not prescribe to working up loads on "perfect" days. I want to know how loads work under various conditions, just like in hunting.
Excellent information for all 7x57 fans!
You have sure given me some new ideas and I thank you.
bakercity
 
baker city,

Maybe it is just a matter of looking for a second node at a slightly higher powder charge. I stopped at 46 grains because of the dramatic group size reduction. As the charges increased to 48 gr the group opened but stayed at or under 3/4". Also, my experience is limited with the Hornaday line of bullets, only to say that I have never had great results. My rifle just did not seem to like them, particularly the 139 gr SST in the light magnum loading. Never could get tight groups with my 7-08, 280, or 7mag. All the 139 gr SST. However, the Sierra 140 Pro Hunter was much better along with the 160 Game King as I have described. Velocity was always impressive with the LM loadings just lousy groups. To be fair, they were certainly good enough for hunting, just not as accurate as I could cobble together myself. I have stuck with the Sierra's ( Pro Hunters ) because of accuracy, performance and price. They have performed flawlessly in my 7 mag, 280, 7-08, and the 7X57. Over a velocity range of 2670 fps - 3100 fps and distances from 30 yds to 350 yds.

One last comment, my rifle is throated for the 175 gr bullets. This allows me to seat the 140's and 160's no further than the base of the neck, which reduces jump and also slightly increases powder capacity.
 
The 7x57mm Mauser when loaded to it's potential, will beat most 7mmRM published loads.

I got my first 7mmMauser in 1965.
 
Clark,

You obviously have zero experience with the 7 Mag. There is no way in Hell that the 7X57 Mauser will run with the bigger case. I have had both going on 50 years. You might get 2900 with a 140 gr and a 26 "" barrel, otherwise forget it !! 2500 with a 175 gr versus 2900 for the big 7 is probably realistic. Simple difference in case capacities disallows the notion......
 
kyman,
I have a 7mmRM reamer, have built 4 rifles, and have 3 factory 7mmRM rifles.
The past couple years I have been doing 3400 fps 140 gr NBT, that is 11 gr over published.
My point was that the published 7mmRM load would be less than what a 7x57mm can do.
I got a mule buck and an antelope buck this year and a mule buck last year with my hot 7mmRM load.

VZ24Mausers7mms1.jpg

1908BrazMausers.jpg

My biggest haul of 7mmMausers were 1908 Brazilians imported and sold to my by Century 7 years ago.
 
The 7x57mm Mauser when loaded to it's potential, will beat most 7mmRM published loads.

I got my first 7mmMauser in 1965.

I don't know what is your intentions on saying such outright misleading words.

Published velocities aren't guarantee as you said "published"
We all know that, so why would you make it out to be stronger.???

I will say your full of it, 3400fps out of 140 7x57mm. Good one but your not fooling me.
 
I don't know what is your intentions on saying such outright misleading words.

Published velocities aren't guarantee as you said "published"
We all know that, so why would you make it out to be stronger.???

I will say your full of it, 3400fps out of 140 7x57mm. Good one but your not fooling me.

I think you confused my 11 gr over published 7mmRM velocity [my last two deer and last antelope] with 7x57mm full potential velocity.
 
Not being to d*+k but even with 11gr over max you wouldn't near 3400fps. Even My 7mag with 30" custom barrel loaded with 140gr bt over max 3gr + wouldn't even break 3240.
 
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