I have had a Ruger MkII in 7x57 for some time and i just purchased another from a board member. It is IMHO the best all around cartridge...period. Light in recoil, flat in trajectory, and heavy in killing power. My favorite load is 52.5 grains of reloader 19. With a 22 inch tube it hits my chrono at an average of 2950 fps with a 140 grain nosler. That same load in a 700 classic with a 24 inch tube goes over 3000fps. That load is heavily compresed but has never shown any pressure signs in any rifle ive fired it and case life has been excelent. It shoots well to boot with an average of about an inch in my ruger and an inch and half in a freinds winchester. I beleive i found the load in an old petersons hunting but could be wrong. As you can imagine, a 7mm projectile with a good bc and sd moving at that speed shoots flat and penetration is excelent. Brass is easy to come buy for the handloader as well. You can always find 7x57 brass but ive also made it with .30-06 and .270 brass by simply ramming it through a full length sizer and trimming the length with a lee guage. Great round for the "purist" in all of us. Its funny when i think about it, but that load was first recomended to me by none less than Jack O Connor...indirectly of course. When i was younger my grandfather had alot of old Outdoor life magazines around and i was always reading them. Jack was a big proponent of the little 7 as he called it, and it just stuck in my mind as the round to have. Funny but i think old Jack would aprove of my walnut stocked 7x57 with a whelen sling. More importantly, this combo has never let me down.
