7mm Rem. Mag. and 180 grn. Bergers???

[Longtine88]

I use the same load as lance

 

[dxlbaile]

Retumbo has been the magic for me 72.0 grains .050 off jam Berger 180 hybrid 3050 fps.. I fully trust the combo.
Start lower and work up to this load if your rifle is sammi.

 

[deweyduck]

Since I'm the OP, I guess I'll chime back in. Tried the 180's with H1000 and could only get a little over 2800 fps. I tried Retumbo and had better velocities but my ES was terrible. The H1000 load was very accurate and consistent. Killed a whitetail at 597 yds with it. Went back to the 168's. H1000 fouled bad with the 168's, so I went to H4831. Just over 3000 fps and ES of 14 and same accuracy I was getting with the 180's. I figure what little I'm giving up in BC, I'm more then making up for in velocity. Used this load to kill an antelope at 916 yds.

Hello Jumpalot. This is old but you will prolly see it soon. So good shooting with the H4831 and 168's. That's what I shoot seated to zero jump but with 63.4 grs of H4831 to get 2.7" group at 300. Don't know the fps, no chrono, but what load are you shooting and your jump if you don't mind? I'm still tweaking my load and seating.

 

[Jumpalot]

Hello Jumpalot. This is old but you will prolly see it soon. So good shooting with the H4831 and 168's. That's what I shoot seated to zero jump but with 63.4 grs of H4831 to get 2.7" group at 300. Don't know the fps, no chrono, but what load are you shooting and your jump if you don't mind? I'm still tweaking my load and seating

I don't have the 7 mag anymore, well I have the rifle, it was just rebarrelled to a different cartridge. What I think I learned about that barrel is that it just didn't build pressure the same as others. With the Retumbo and H1000, I got really bad powder fouling and almost couldn't get enough powder in the case to get any velocity. I ended up at 67 grains of H4831 which is quite a bit over max. I seated the bullets 20 thou off the lands. Shot really well with acceptable velocity.

 

[deweyduck]

I don't have the 7 mag anymore, well I have the rifle, it was just rebarrelled to a different cartridge. What I think I learned about that barrel is that it just didn't build pressure the same as others. With the Retumbo and H1000, I got really bad powder fouling and almost couldn't get enough powder in the case to get any velocity. I ended up at 67 grains of H4831 which is quite a bit over max. I seated the bullets 20 thou off the lands. Shot really well with acceptable velocity.

Thank you sir. 67 grs is way higher than anything I've tested but i think I will do another round of testing with one shot? per .5 gr increase just to search for trouble.

 

[StanleyActual]

Curious what you guys COAL is with the 180's? I'm getting ready to have a rifle chambered for them, I'm thinking 3.50" COAL touching the lands. Leaves me some room to chase if needed and gets the base of the bullet sitting right at the body shoulder junction. Sitting at SAAMI just sits way to in the case. Wanna get all the powder capacity I can

Thoughts?

Appreciate the the info

 

[Shane Lindsey]

I recently got my first 7RM.

What if any changes (reduction) have you all had to make going from virgin cases to fireformed?

I have found reloading it that what is by my observation normal/higher end pressures on virgin cases. The same load in fireformed is pretty high pressure. Had to back down significantly. To the point, I may look at a completely different bullet. What are you experiences with this? I have had reduce a little bit in a 300 WM to get same velocity, but nothing like this. Bighorn action gives me those little parallel lines and the tiny chip in the primer next to it.

 

[Sdogab]

70.1g retumbo 2970 180g H Vld 26" finished barrel with brake so probably 24.5". Nosler brass br2 primer. Shilen #4. Consistently .5moa for me out to 500. Haven't really shot much further with it.

 

[westgreysharborblacktail]

My last load for the 180 VLD
Nosler Brass
Fed 215M Primers
H1000 Powder 70.1 Grains
2958 FPS AVG ES 13 SD 6
.051" off jam
1.46" 4 shot group at 650 yards best group.

I tend to agree somewhat about the 180's being a little heavy and the 168's a better fit a little. So I started last week a ladder on the 175 Elites. The ladder yielded a node with 3 shots and .6 grains difference all hitting same hole at 200 yards. So I loaded 5 different seating depth charges and I'm currently waiting for a calm day to shoot groups on them.

The load charged I settled on was:
Perterson Brass, pockets uniformed, flash holes uniformed, LE Wilson expanded necks only.
Fed 215M Primers
H1000 Powder 70.8 Grains
.106" off Jamb
3 ladder. shots same hole clover leaf group @ 200 yards and those 3 shots where 3066 fps, 3068 fps, 3069 fps. Crazy good.

I'll post the results of the seating depth testing when complete. I'm guessing it will be way off jamb.

Granted I wouldn't hesitate a minute to shoot an elk size game at that yardage either. I think the combo is very good. I think the 168 will do the same if not a little more killing explosiveness so that's what intrigued me about the 175's.

Bullet seating depth?

 

[drags]

I use the 168 berger vld in my 7 mag. it is a custom 28" bartelien barrel on a rem. action and I use h4831 powder. I have shot mule deer whitetail deer and one antelope with it. The mule deer was just over 400 yards and the whitetails were 474 and 615 yards the antelope was around 200 yards all were one shot kills. Also my load is very accurate I have shot 2 inch groups at 500yards off a bipod.
Drags

 

[Longtine88]

Bullet seating depth?

Ogive measurement was 2.735"