Gentlemen..... a little help with a mould choice

[35 Whelen]

Good day everyone. I have been casting for a number of years now and have always had great results. The members here and on Cast Boolits forum have my thanks for providing such a wealth of information and mentoring. I typically cast for my 358 Win, 35 Whelen and my 45-70, but would like to try my hand at it for my
7mm-08. It is a beautiful and functional Remington Model 7 stainless with a lightweight glass stock. As expected it is a tack driver and a great killer of deer. I am wondering what your preferences are for a mould in 7mm ? I would like to hunt with it and do some reduced plinking/grouse loads with it too. If I recall correctly I think it is a 1 in 9.25 twist rate. I have always preferred heavy for caliber, but not sure about the twist rate being able handle much over 160 grn boolits. I have both Accurate and NOE molds and very impressed with the quality of both. Your help and advise is appreciated.

 

[Rick]

I've had good luck on the heavier side with the RCBS 168 gr in 7 br and on the lighter side with SAECO #281 GCFP or RCBS 145 Silhouette. I haven't yet done much with either of my Rem 700 7-08's but if/when I get back to them these are where I would start. Both of my rifles have a 23 inch 1 in 10 twist barrel.

 

[Ben]

RCBS 145 Silhouette

I can easily cast my vote for the RCBS 145 also ! !
A fantastically accurate bullet in all of my 7 mm rifles.

Ben

 

[Rick]

That is a great bullet, I mentioned the other two primarily because he mentioned hunting so the heavier and the flat nose.

 

[35 Whelen]

Thanks guys....would you feel confident using either of those two rounds for hunting deer? I always strive for shot placement, and would never want to try the cartridge if you think it would be marginal for deer.

 

[Rick]

That would depend on many things such as alloy, velocity, distance to name a few. Rolling it around the grey matter I think I would opt for the SAECO 145 FP (of those three choices) at around 2,000 / 2,200 fps and a BHN around 12 under a 100 yards. For more velocity than that some of the guys that have more experience there than I do will probably chime in.

 

[Ian]

9 twist is what I worked with. Not having the moulds mentioned at the time, I picked up the Lee 130-ish one and got it going pretty good at 2625 fps (the Mountain Mold challenge). 2500 fps is a piece of cake, and if you're going to forego a .35 for a 7mm for hunting, velocity is your friend. Meplat and weight don't make that much difference in this instance, except the flat nose is going to drop more.

 

[35 Whelen]

Thanks fella's. No RCBS or Saeco molds available here in Canada. NOE looks like they make the 150 grn Hunter, that would likely fill the bill. That or a Lee 7mm soup can if one can be found. Anyone recall if Mihec did a group buy on the soup can?

 

[fiver]

the 145 is not a hunting bullet unless you modify the nose.
I use that bullet in my 7 mauser with the nose filed flatter for small stuff around here.
it will zip through 18"s of pine and keep going without the nose modification though.
the 168 version does the same thing.

this would be a good one if it will fit your throat half way decent [which it should]