7mm Sherman Max and 177 Gr hammer hunter

[Korhil78]

I’m working with the long range accubonds right now. I would love to use the TLR accent if they made some heavier billets for the 7mm.

 

[Korhil78]

I have been pulling my remaining hairs out trying to figure out how to get these 168 Gr ABLRs. I wanted to try to keep them seated long so I could fit more powder in but apparently these type of bullets want to be seated deep and they don’t have a large window in the seating depth department for when the accuracy comes and goes. My barrel also seems to like the lower speed nodes better as well.

I went out today and loaded up 63 Gr of RL23 and seated bullets starting at .110”-.140” off the rifling in .010” increments. The .110” off really shrunk the groups. Accuracy was right at .5” at 100 yards, ES was 6 and SD was 2.9. Averaged 3055 FPS. Pretty slow for this round but it is what it is. I will try it out on game and see how it does. I am going to load up 10 more and go shoot it at 400 yards and see how it does.

If your ABLRs arnt shooting well closer to the rifling, don’t be afraid to experiment with seating them deep.

Put my finger up to it just to show a comparison for size of the group.

 

[Fubarredz]

Did you ever get the 177’s to shoot well? I have RL23 & RL26! I was thinking you’d get better results with the RL-23.

I should have my 7mm max Sherman here in the next few days I was gonna start with the Berger 175 elite hunters and RL23!

I was at a shop yesterday that had 4lbs of n570 powder seems like it’s the king of spend but there are more accurate powders out there, so I passed on it.

 

[johnyee1]

I'm looking to run 177 with my 7 max, I'm curious, did you go with the standard 0.205 FB or did you have to get it throated for additional freebore for the 177's to not have to seat too deep? Thank you.

 

[Korhil78]

I stopped testing with the 177 Gr hammer hunters in my 7 MAX. It didn’t go quite as fast as I wanted and the BC was not as high as I was looking for.

I ended up using the 195 Gr Berger with RL26 and am quite happy with that combo. I just have the regular freebore. I didn’t see any need to throat it deeper.

 

[johnyee1]

Thank you for the confirmation. That confirms my math on that. California and lead free hunting though so no Berger's for me, although that would be my top choice otherwise. Those hammers are expensive.

 

[Bpro2020]

@ johnyee1 So I ran a batch of 168 mth from cutting edge bullets. The advantage I have is I am running my 7 max in a long action so I dont have to single feed. I ran a test batch with 4831sc and hit 2850 but I have now found rl26 and am going to try that should hit 3000 easy and I am seating .010 off and I still have plenty of room for more powder.

 

[Korhil78]

I am getting 2920 fps average with the 195 Gr bergers and RL26.