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7mm rem mag savage long range hunter

Joined
Oct 4, 2012
Messages
11
Location
north missouri
Hello,

This is my first thread other than saying hello in the new members section. My goal is to give a review of the savage long range hunter in 7 rem mag. I went to my ffl to pick up my gun tonight and the ffl dealer that I purchased the gun from didn't send a copy of his ffl with the gun so I had to leave it at his shop....

Not starting out very well.

I'm planning on mounting my scope and getting the rifle broke in tomorrow with initial load testing if time permits. I'm starting with the 168 bergers. With Remington brass, federal primers and h1000 and retumbo. I have several bullets to try.

I'll try to get some pictures and hopefully group and load reports coming.

Thanks.
 
all,

Everything is going well, got the gun picked up at my FFL this morning. As soon as i picked it up i got to work on my gun getting the base mounted, rings lapped and scope mounted. i really like the feel of the stock, looks good too.

i took the stock off to make sure the accu trigger was at it's lowest setting and it was, it breaks clean at 2 lbs 11oz. i was a bit confused when i got the stock off to find that this accu stock did not have the wedge style accu stock. it is the accu stock with full aluminum bedding but no wedge screw/block. in the manual it says the wedge style is called accu stock 1, my style is accu stock 2. did they quit making the wedge style?

anyway i started by shooting once cleaning once for about 10 shots. it shot just good enough to get the scope close at 100 yards but the clean bore shots were not even close to fouled barrel shots. i ended up shooting 1, 3 shot grounp with the 168 berger VLD hunting in the lands, when i say in the lands i mean there were marks on the bullet. i shot one shot to foul the barrel then cool then the 3 shot group it had 68 grains of H1000 behind it and it didn't like it much, 1.5 to 1.75 inch 3 shot group at 110 yards.

more testing to come tomorrow, with as many people as i have read about shooting retumbo i might just get started with it at a medium load and start on the lands and work back with 3 shot groups as discussed in another thread on here from Berger. maybe .03 off the lands and back in steps.

overall i am happy with the apperance of the gun and the nice gripy feel of the stock. i have not tried shooting with the muzzle break in the off position yet so i can not comment on the effectiveness of the break. i will be shooting over a chronograph durring more testing and will see what type of velocity difference i am getting with it open and closed as well as felt recoil.

the scope i am using is a Vortex Viper PST second focal plane 6x24x50. rings are burris xtr low, 20 MOA EGW rail.

benellishooter,
 
got the same gun. you wont find a load the gun likes because savage went to a 91/2 twist and changed the harmonics of the barrell. Gunwerks worked a custom load up for,not cheap,.Try a 140 grain berger bullet,winchester brass,fedaral 215 primer,72 grains of H1000 POWDER, COAL3.335,. Less than 1/4 inch groups at 200 yard zero. trust me, i just saved you a lot of time and money. let me know what happens
 
All my savage 7mm rem mags like something in the 70.? grains of H1000 and CCI 200 primers behind the 160 class bullets be it amax berger or matrix it always seems to settle in that 70.? grains area. The 1/10's change between bullets. I never could get retumbo to shoot in my 7's but that might just be me.
 
got the same gun. you wont find a load the gun likes because savage went to a 91/2 twist and changed the harmonics of the barrell. Gunwerks worked a custom load up for,not cheap,.Try a 140 grain berger bullet,winchester brass,fedaral 215 primer,72 grains of H1000 POWDER, COAL3.335,.
Code:
Less than 1/4 inch groups at 200 yard
zero. trust me, i just saved you a lot of time and money. let me know what happens

One after the other??? You should be in the olympics..............
 
Update,

well i have spend the last 2 days with mostly retumbo and 168VLD and 180VLD bullets. scratching my head and not beliveing my own eyes.... long story short i have shot alot of rounds getting one good grounp one bad with the same ammo. then it got to where i would shoot 2 touching then 1 2 inches away, repeatedly. i finally had enough and tore it back down only to find all 4 of my screws that hold the EGW 20 MOA rail on were not hardly finger tight.

re-tightened re-mounted re-tourqued, shot one group of 180VLD with 78 grains retumbo about .03 from the lands. 2 inch group. all of the shots were crazy not 2 touching 1 2 inches away so i guess its a start.. here we go again.

i have read that it is best to find seating depth first on Berger VLD bullets? what has everyone tried? i don't want to waste any more time or money, lol. seems like i have shot way to much without a good load yet. any advise on how to start off again finding a good mix would be greatly appreciated. when starting off yesterday i would find a good medium load and play with only seating depth. starting at the lands and work back in about .02 steps.

thanks
Benellishooter,
 
With the VLD's I would find out where your rifle likes em first just as your thinking, then I would find what charge it like (using what ever process you like) then find your primer. Time and patience are a premium though. If you feel the need to fast track it though, when you look for your charge you can follow Kirby Allen's method, I played with it some and it seems to work fairly well at getting you close to a very good load.
 
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