Howa 7mm mag - Berger 168 Classic Hunter

[Dmayer]

Greetings. I am a new member and I just recently purchased a Howa 7mm mag (model 1500) and am starting the process of finding "my bullet" since finishing the break in. Due to availability locally here in southern Oregon, I have started with the Nosler 160 grain accubond and the Berger 168 grain Classic Hunter.

I tried 3 powders with each bullet and 3 different grain weights in 1 grain increments for each powder.

I was able to dial in the Nosler fairly quickly and ended on 58 grains of AA4350 and was happy with the grouping (~0.60" @ 100 yards). I haven't had as much luck with the Bergers however. I am still getting decent groupings, but not like I did with the Nosler.

The powders I have to work with are RL22, AA4350, and IMR 7828 (for now). I noticed that the Berger reloading book doesn't include reloading data for the Classic Hunters, only the VLDs.

I was hoping to get some input from anyone who has experimented with the classic hunter bullets and what powder and grain weight has worked for them.

Cheers

 

[Punisher]

This needs to get moved to the reloading forum.

I have found that the classic hunter bullets never achieve the same accuracy as the VLD's. You can make them shoot 1/2 MOA pretty easy, but I wasn't able to do better. I tried h4350, 7828, and Retumbo. I think 7828 did the best, but they were all very close.