7 X 57 with cast

[Ben]

I've been shooting several different 7 mm cast bullets in my new custom, Argentine 98 Mauser, 7 X 57 mm rifle during the past month, looking for " just the RIGHT load ".


I've shot the Lee 132 gr. soup can, the RCBS, 168 gr., the SAECO 073, and the RCBS 145 gr. Today I also fired about 30 rounds with the 175 gr. RN , Lyman 287308.


As of this date, the clear leader in the accuracy dept. is the RCBS , 145 gr., regardless of the powder used and velocity of the round .


I've yet to find a bullet / load combination at 100 yards that will beat it's performance in my particular rifle.


I fired this 10 shot group at 100 yards. I'll readily take the blame for the " 4 wild rounds ". Sloppy shooting on my behalf. However , that still leaves me with 6 rounds in a shade over 1/2 " ! ! ANY of the 10 rounds would have killed anything that I'm likely to be shooting at.


I find the accuracy potential of this rifle to be impressive considering that this is a super light weight hunting rifle.


A fun load, and a fun rifle to shoot !


( BTW, all powder charges were thrown with a SAECO powder measure, none were weighed, no bullets were weighed, mixed HS brass, all cases were neck sized and fired about 6 - 7 times each )

BTW, did I mention, this is a FUN rifle to take to the range or field ? ?


Ben





____________________________


The target you see below was shot with :


Alliant Unique 11.0 grs., RCBS 145 gr., Sized .2864" with an OAL of 3.065" , using Wolf Large Rifle Primers. Neck sized brass. 10 round group fired at 100 yards.
_____________________________





6 rounds in a shade over 1/2 " Range 100 yards





Here is a pic of the RCBS, 145 gr. bullet that is shooting so well out of my rifle .

 

[JWFilips]

Ben,
That is some mighty fine shooing. Again your rifles are beauties I love the schnabel fore endow that stock
Jim

 

[Ben]

Jim,



No one has a factory assembly line rifle built like this !

Ben

 

[Ian]

Every rifle shooter ought to try inletting a Mauser action from scratch, with only hand tools, just once. That's the only way you'll truly have an appreciation for the hours Ben put into that stock. I see some metal work, too, that's a whole other animal.

Ben, you put the check rest on the wrong side again!

 

[JWFilips]

Ben,
I have been "accused" of inletting too tight building custom Flintlock guns but man that is the "tightest" I have seen!
Tell Me something….after you get the stock all finished and cured how long does it take to get the metal back in the inlet?

Back when my hands were steadier & I could still see close up it would take me the better part of the day to re-inlet all the parts of a Pennsylvania Longrifle after the stock was finished.
but then again I was using ferric nitrate stain and potassium carbonate to neutralize ; so the wood would do a good bit of swelling…..But still that is some really tight inletting.
I still do all my layout inlets with #11 exacto blades ( can go thru 50 of them easy per gunbuild) Some day I may switch to a bench knife but I still thing they are too thick!

That is some beautiful work! Now I know why your guns shoot so well…... The barrels $& Actions would be ashamed to shoot bad living in a house like that

 

[Ben]

Jim.

You are far too generous with your words.
Thanks.

People think that you can do work like that in an hour or two.
You and I both know they aren't even close.............

Best,
Ben

 

[Ben]

Ben,
That is some mighty fine shooing. Again your rifles are beauties I love the schnabel fore endow that stock
Jim

This one is for you Jim,

 

[Ian]

I'm a total sucker for schnabel forearms too. Every 1-piece stock I've made has one.

 

[KHornet]

Great thread Ben! a 7x57 M77 Ruger has been my go to rifle now for a long time. Took it to Africa (with jacketed), 6 years ago, and took 10 head of plains game with it. Longest shot was a red heartabeast at a lazered 437 yds, clean one shot bang flop kill. All with 154 gr Hornadys. Had to take a couple of shots on some others, and it took three shots on a warthog that I misjudged distance on, shot over and had to shoot twice on the run. Have done some cast shooting with it, but only have the Lee 130 grainer, and the Lyman 168 gr. and both shoot well. After reading your thread, think I am going to put a little more effort into cast in 7x57. Am looking at the NOE 130 gr Thor as the next mold. Have been shooting quite a bit of cast in 7Rem, in and old 700 Rem, and am having very good results at 50 yds, with both 2400 and Red Dot. It is probably time to move on out to 100 with it. Thanks for jarring my interest again in doing a wringing out of cast in the 7x57. It is truly, in my opinion, one of the half dozen really great cartridges.

 

[Ben]

It seems in America that we are headed down the " Tupper Ware Stock " avenue.
Gun companies find ways to make rifles cheaper, cheaper , and then still again cheaper.

You don't see nicely fitted wood that is highly figured on factory rifles anymore.

Get them in the shipping box and on the brown truck.
Keep an eye on the profit margin so we can pay some fat dividend checks to the stock holders.............. and in your spare time, find more ways to make them cheaper.

Ben

 

[Ben]

Great thread Ben! a 7x57 M77 Ruger has been my go to rifle now for a long time. Took it to Africa (with jacketed), 6 years ago, and took 10 head of plains game with it. Longest shot was a red heartabeast at a lazered 437 yds, clean one shot bang flop kill. All with 154 gr Hornadys. Had to take a couple of shots on some others, and it took three shots on a warthog that I misjudged distance on, shot over and had to shoot twice on the run. Have done some cast shooting with it, but only have the Lee 130 grainer, and the Lyman 168 gr. and both shoot well. After reading your thread, think I am going to put a little more effort into cast in 7x57. Am looking at the NOE 130 gr Thor as the next mold. Have been shooting quite a bit of cast in 7Rem, in and old 700 Rem, and am having very good results at 50 yds, with both 2400 and Red Dot. It is probably time to move on out to 100 with it. Thanks for jarring my interest again in doing a wringing out of cast in the 7x57. It is truly, in my opinion, one of the half dozen really great cartridges.

The 7 X 57 is a bit like the 6.5 X 55, it can kill FAR BEYOND it's paper ballistics.
A truly all time great cartridge.

Ben

 

[Ben]

Every rifle shooter ought to try inletting a Mauser action from scratch, with only hand tools, just once. That's the only way you'll truly have an appreciation for the hours Ben put into that stock. I see some metal work, too, that's a whole other animal.

Ben, you put the check rest on the wrong side again!

Ian,

I continue to have a problem with the " Left - Right " thing...........

Ben

 

[KHornet]

Ben, could not agree more with you on the 7x57 and 6.5x55. I ought to break down and get a modern 6.5x55 to go with the two issue Sweds that are over 100 years old.

 

[Ben]

Many people walk into a gun shop and have read in the gun mags about the " Gee Whiz magnums ".

If you handed them a nice 7 X 57 like mine, they would be totally ignorant about the caliber.

 

[Josh]

That is some amazing work on the stock, true craftsmanship.

 

[Glen]

Good stuff Ben! Many years ago I built up a 7x57 for my step-son, and we worked up a fun plinking load for it. I'll have to dig through my notes and see if I can find it. I'm pretty sure it was 16.0 grains of 4198, underneath a ~140 grain cast bullet, but off the top of my head I don't recall WHICH bullet. As I recall, it was 1500-1600 fps and very accurate.

 

[Ben]

Sounds like a load with a LOT of potential.

Ben

 

[Bret4207]

The 7 X 57 is a bit like the 6.5 X 55, it can kill FAR BEYOND it's paper ballistics.
A truly all time great cartridge.

Ben

IMO, the 2 finest cartridges ever designed for medium game in the US. If hunters were limited to those 2 rounds and scopes of no more than 4 power, we'd have a lot more HUNTERS, far fewer "Hail Mary" shooters and a lot less fat coyotes!

 

[Bret4207]

This one is for you Jim,

have a p

Gorgeous! I always have trouble getting my end grain to be the same shade as my "side" grain. Well done!

 

[KHornet]

Ben, taking your thread to heart, I loaded some Lee soup cans, and some Lyman 160's, and some 287469, 140's. Started with your 11 gr. unique loading for the 140's, and tried some 4227 for the other weights. Got to range yesterday, and shot off about 50 rds, in 7x57 Ruger 77. Soup cans stayed about 2", and the 160's about the same, and the 140's under 2". Was not pleased with the initial results, and started looking for some other excuses than me. The brass was Frontier, and as all other things being equal, decided to weigh all that I had shot. Big difference in weights! Real big difference in weights. Three separate prominent weight groups emerged: 162-164gr., 175-178, and 190-193. So now that they are separated and segregated will load according to case weight groups. A real eye opened. No wonder I was getting over 2" groups if I was (and I was I am sure) loading 162 grain cases and 190 grain cases with the same charges. Have always weighed and segregated all of my varmint cases, but all of this Frontier brass I Thought was from the same batch. Never to late to learn I guess.