7x57 rolling block chamber specs

NAGANT

Active Member
Been researching getting a carbine RB and read a lot of problems with "long chambers", angled breech face's, and big throats. Kinda gave up on the idea but thought would ask here about them. Found this interesting, Hodgdon 1977 manual vs newer lyman & lee books spec's differ in base to shoulder & base to start of neck length. So are older die sets part of the answer?20181227_183915.jpg20181227_184117.jpg
 

NAGANT

Active Member
.029 shorter to base of neck and .002 shorter to shoulder in newer manuals. I've read about resizing 30.06, .270, 8mm mauser cases but still have short case life due to over sized throats. Anyone reload cast bullets with decent results. I like the no.5 7mm carbine look as is and reload but chancing case separation or blown primers in a rolling block is giving me a premature flinch. If i trip over a stack of $100 bills I'd rechamber one but that's another can of worms.
 
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RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
4060MAY is correct in that spec's varied greatly. I had one for several years and had a long chamber and just a .288" throat. It would shoot unsized soft bullets just fine at about 1250 f/s. Fireformed 20 cases with Bullseye and cream of wheat, then only sized short of the case shoulder. I probably reloaded the cases seven or eight times. Mostly I shot DWM military surplus from South American that was about 25% hang fires or misfires. But it was cheap back in the '80's at about $20 a hundred delivered. Never had any problems as long as I kept the back of the barrel, block and extractor groove clean. HTH, Ric
 

Charles Graff

Moderator Emeritus
In an old issue of The Fouling Shot, a guy wrestling with a Remington 1902 RB, found that it was not chambered for the current version of the 7X57. It is Journal 191 (Jan-Feb 2008) on page 191-8, entitled The 1902 Remington 7mm Rolling Block Isn't What You Think It Is and the author is John Rhodes.
 
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NAGANT

Active Member
Have to rethink this as Iowa has allowed straight wall cartridge for deer this year, acceptable cartridge list below. So to kill two birds with one rifle will look for an older gun or repo that i can reload with cast bullets in one of these cal.'s. The .375 WIN. is basically a 38-55 and should be fun to reload for. Wanted a single shot so will be looking at RB's, used Pedersoli's or Uberti's maybe But lever actions too if the price is right!


What defines a straight-walled cartridge?
The entire length of the case is the same diameter as the bullet."
357 Magnum
.357 Maximum
.375 Winchester
.38 Super
.40 S&W
.401 Powermag
10 mm Auto
.41 Remington Magnum
.41 Action Express
.44 S&W Special
.44 Remington Magnum
.44 Automag
.444 Marlin
.445 Super Mag
.45 ACP
.45 Colt
.45 Super Mag
.45 Winchester Magnum
.45 Silhouette
.450 Bushmaster
.451 Detonics
.454 Casull
.45-70 Govt.
.460 Rowland
.460 S&W Mag
.475 Widley Magnum
.475 Linebaugh
.480 Ruger
.50 Action Express
.50 Linebaugh
.50 Beowulf
.500 S&W Mag
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
except most all of them are tapered.
if I had a rolling block and wanted a straight wall cartridge the 32-40 or 38-55 would be uber classic cool and more N'uff for deer.
 

NAGANT

Active Member
Out of the blue my 14 year old grandson texted me a light history of trapdoors! "The cavalry carbine should be be great for deer and a fun target rifle" Don't know where that came from but recall him and his brother talking about the little big horn and Custer.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
those troopers back then didn't think the light carbine rifle was so fun to shoot especially when someone slipped one of the heavier loads in on them.
 

NAGANT

Active Member
I remember pulling the trigger on a break open 45/70 with a narrow butt plate and just wearing a T-shirt, think i handed it back pretty quick.
 

Charles Graff

Moderator Emeritus
If somebody wants the thrill of a light 45-70 carbine, a Ruger No. 3 is your dream come true. Strong action, can mount a scope and kicks like a mule with heavy loads.
 
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RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
They Kick!! For three years I campaigned a 1873 Trapdoor Springfield in the CBA Big Bore Military Rifle circuit. The best load was 475 grain Hoch bullet with 26 grains of A2400. While I set two national records, a weekend match of 120 rounds plus about 40 sighters and foulers would leave me pretty ragged. The wife would have to drive the 5th-wheel home, my head hurt and was bruised from the point of my shoulder to two inches below my arm pit. During my fall eye check-up after the third year, the Doc said I had torn a retina and to stop doing what I was doing.

Now I have an NEF Handi-Rifle converted from 45 Colt to 45/70 Match (long story). Shoot 400 grain bullets with 12 grains of Unique. It will kill every elk that walks within 50 yards of me.
 

Ian

Notorious member
My opthomologist told me the same thing after the sixth time he sewed my retina back together with an argon laser. Combination of uveitis, too much fun with relatively hard-kicking rifles, and activities related to the martial arts started the mess. Last thing he told me to give up was sporting clays, which I mostly have.

I have an NEF .45 Colt with a grossly oversized chamber, but treat it mostly as its own caliber and shoot Lee 457-340s through it with a compressed load of Reloder 7. Not too bad on the face. Someone on the other site offered me the use of a reamer to clean it up and make it some odd rimmed caliber that I don't recall now, in retrospect I should have taken him up on it. I'd like to hear the story behind the .45/70 Match in another thread if you are up for telling the tale.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
I have a 7x57 1902 #5 RB and have had excellent results with handloads using the 175 RN Hornady bullets....unfortunately,
the bullet is no longer sold. Using nexk sizing, case life is reasonable 3 or 4 loadings is not a problem. Chamber is oversized
because the action design has essentially zero camming capability. The "different version" is just baloney. The ammo
is the same, the chamber is oversized because it had to chamber dirty ammo and a dirty chamber with almost zero
ability to force it in. Much like the Brit SMLE chambers, which are ridiculously oversized in many examples, but
since they never even contemplated reusing brass, nobody cared even a tiny bit. They loaded, they went bang,
the brass hit the ground. All was good. Then some crazy guy wanted to reload the brass.........

The load my rifle shoots best is 36 gr of 4064 under the 175 Hornady. The bore is extremely worn, but I have still
gotten 2.5" 5 shot groups at 50 yds. with a 150 LBT design cast. The diam used was .285, and almost certainly too small
for best results. The Jbullet 175s could produce 1-1.5" groups at 100 yds, but my eyes will not permit me to
duplicate that, I assume, but have not actually tried it recently.

Bill
 
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