7mm STW Reloading Thread

[Lefty7mmstw]

You don't have to hold your breath. They started advertising them a week ago on Extreme Outer Limits TV, 195 grain 7mm Berger and 170 grain .277 Berger. Not sure when they'll be in stock, but they are coming. Highly doubt anybody would waste money advertising them if their arrival was not imminent.

I don't watch hunting programs much so I wouldn't know. I was out with the new stick again today... Put another 28 rounds through it. The rifle (7stw) seems to prefer the 140 nos to either 180... sierra or berger... Go figure... Went with the 8" twist with heavies in mind too....

I see no reason to bother with heavies in the 7stw if I can't get speed and accuracy at the same time... Right now, it seems like I'll be shooting 140's through my 8" twist 7stw and 180's through my 9" twist 7rum... I'm betting the 9" twist 7rum will not take on a 195 though...

 

[Rent Outdoor Gear]

I don't watch hunting programs much so I wouldn't know. I was out with the new stick again today... Put another 28 rounds through it. The rifle (7stw) seems to prefer the 140 nos to either 180... sierra or berger... Go figure... Went with the 8" twist with heavies in mind too....

I see no reason to bother with heavies in the 7stw if I can't get speed and accuracy at the same time... Right now, it seems like I'll be shooting 140's through my 8" twist 7stw and 180's through my 9" twist 7rum... I'm betting the 9" twist 7rum will not take on a 195 though...

Seating depth was the key to get the heavies to shoot out of mine. Huge tuning opportunity that gets poo-poo'd by most STW guys. my rifle likes .050" jump with nosler 175's and Berger 180 hybrids. Installed a Wyatt's box and will never look back. I've got a 7 RUM in the works for the 195's with an 8 twist. 3000+ fps with that pill will be pretty awesome.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

Seating depth was the key to get the heavies to shoot out of mine. Huge tuning opportunity that gets poo-poo'd by most STW guys. my rifle likes .050" jump with nosler 175's and Berger 180 hybrids. Installed a Wyatt's box and will never look back. I've got a 7 RUM in the works for the 195's with an 8 twist. 3000+ fps with that pill will be pretty awesome.

You should be able to get to 3K fps with a 195 out of a 7rum if you've got a decent barrel length. My rifle is at 3080 fps with a mild load of retumbo with 180 sierra's...

I'm actually thinking it is more of a crappy/worn out sandbag issue than anything else. I'm inclined to try other bags (or re-cover my current one) with the load that showed promise as I caught the front sling stud digging into the bag on a couple of later shots.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

What the heck, the action screws were 1/2 turn or better loose!!!!! That's enough right there to invalidate the groups from a few days ago... Time to re-shoot the load that looked as though it wanted to shoot.... Dollars to pesos it will shoot at mag. length... I'll load ten rounds of the 180 hybrid at 3.655" with 88gr. h50bmg and a 215 in rem brass to shoot at 200yds in the morning...

I'm not ripping this thing down again for an aftermarket magazine though... It has been enough of a pain in the posterior already before the re-build.... It performs or it goes down river...

 

[MudRunner2005]

What the heck, the action screws were 1/2 turn or better loose!!!!! That's enough right there to invalidate the groups from a few days ago... Time to re-shoot the load that looked as though it wanted to shoot.... Dollars to pesos it will shoot at mag. length... I'll load ten rounds of the 180 hybrid at 3.655" with 88gr. h50bmg and a 215 in rem brass to shoot at 200yds in the morning...

I'm not ripping this thing down again for an aftermarket magazine though... It has been enough of a pain in the posterior already before the re-build.... It performs or it goes down river...

Start around 70gr of 7828 SSC with the 180 Hyrbids and work up from there... It's worked for me, and numerous others so far. So, obviously, it's a common-node range with that powder. I think you'll enjoy the results of accuracy, consistency, and velocity.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

Start around 70gr of 7828 SSC with the 180 Hyrbids and work up from there... It's worked for me, and numerous others so far. So, obviously, it's a common-node range with that powder. I think you'll enjoy the results of accuracy, consistency, and velocity.

Nope, won't burn 7828 in my 7stw any longer. I stopped that eleven years ago when rl25 proved to be the superior powder using Pressure Trace. 7828 worked, but to get to velocity I had to get to 70 Kpsi and rl25 was running the same speed at 60 Kpsi or so.

Rl25 is even getting to be old tech.; I want to make one of the newer Alliant powders work if I go with them. I'm thinking rl50 may be the cat's meow...

 

[MudRunner2005]

Nope, won't burn 7828 in my 7stw any longer. I stopped that eleven years ago when rl25 proved to be the superior powder using Pressure Trace. 7828 worked, but to get to velocity I had to get to 70 Kpsi and rl25 was running the same speed at 60 Kpsi or so.

Rl25 is even getting to be old tech.; I want to make one of the newer Alliant powders work if I go with them. I'm thinking rl50 may be the cat's meow...

IMO, old school or new school...If it works, it works.

Even back when Layne developed his first loads for the STW, he was using 7828 in some of them. So, it is definitely a proven performer in the STW since the beginning.

If you are wanting new tech powders, then give IMR 7977 a try. No personal experience yet, but I have read it is more consistant than RL26.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

IMO, old school or new school...If it works, it works.

Even back when Layne developed his first loads for the STW, he was using 7828 in some of them. So, it is definitely a proven performer in the STW since the beginning.

If you are wanting new tech powders, then give IMR 7977 a try. No personal experience yet, but I have read it is more consistant than RL26.

rl26 seems more geared to mid magnums like the 7rem and 300win. I'll have to try it in my 300win to see how it behaves. I also didn't really like how rl33 acted in the last 7stw barrel; mild to wild in a couple of grains.

rl25 had been my bread and butter with mid weight bullets for years, but I used I5010 for the heavies. My I5010 has gone bad though, so I need another slow burner for the big pills. My brother (Jokostel) has been using 7977; I may have to "borrow" a bit from him to play.

As to 7828, I use it in the 270 and have used in in 300win's with 180 grain pills. It has its uses, but it really performs better when you aren't quite as overbore as the 7stw.

 

[ddgo]

You might look at Retumbo for the heavier bullets. Heat stable low ES and great Vol. fed 210m's or cci 250's give the best ES
Ddgo

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

You might look at Retumbo for the heavier bullets. Heat stable low ES and great Vol. fed 210m's or cci 250's give the best ES
Ddgo

I do burn retumbo in my 7rum with 180's... I was looking for something different though.. If my test loads do not work I may work with retumbo.

 

[ddgo]

Let me know. We have tuned almost a dozen stw's with either Retumbo or H-1000 and had great success. All were 1/9" shooting 168's

 

[ODAVID]

Hello ddgo,
Sounds like you have some experience with 7 STWs. I am currently working up my sendero shooting 140s, 160s and eventually 180s. I see you prefer retumbo and h1000 for the 168 bullets. Can you share a tighter powder loading range to try. I know about starting at the low powder end and moving up watching for pressure signs but that really is not practical given the price of bullets, powder, time and shortened barrel life.

If you could share your experiences with a range of 2-3 grains of powder I and others would certainly appreciate the information.

Thanks
ODAVID

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

Let me know. We have tuned almost a dozen stw's with either Retumbo or H-1000 and had great success. All were 1/9" shooting 168's

yep.... we are on 6 or 7 stw's already here too, along with 3 7rum's...
I usually step right over the powders in the retumbo range to something in the 50bmg range... I had to go with Retumbo in my 7rum but it is "peaky" and I am running it with a rather mild load. There are only a few of the 50 cal. stick powders available at present with little mil-surp on the market, so I've had to switch it up and go with H50bmg and rl50...

 

[WapitiBob]

Big thanks to ButterBean who's been helping me get back on track. Been a long time since I left the range feeling like I accomplished something. I couldn't see the dot past my crosshairs so it might actually be shooting better than it printed.

Thanks BB, much appreciated.

Went out last Saturday to dbl check drops and scope level. I've had a problem with shots moving to the right as I moved out. Re leveled the scope a different way and shot a few at 200, then 2 at 400 then dialed to 600 and shot 2 more.

Once again, thanks for the load help Bean.

My 600 yard check..