Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Looking for advice on 7x57 deer bullet from what i have on hand

Partitions would be my last choice for a 2700 fps caliber, primarily because of cost. Better to use one of the other choices and be able to shoot the rifle a lot. That said, I would keep some partitions loaded up and know where they impact for the occasions that called for maximum penetration potential.

I vote for the 145 Hot Core. I've had a very long and very satisfactory relationship with that bullet ( can one have a "relationship " with a bullet??)

But as everyone has pointed out, at you velocity, any of them will work fine.

Nick -

At 7X57 vel I'd also think MOST bullets would perform okay for deer hunting.

However my first choice would be Hornady 139s. I use them EVEN in my 7mm R Mag and so far I haven't any bullet failures at mag vel.

Good Luck

Jerry

My Ruger 77 shoots respectable groups with various combinations of powder and bullets, but I was curious about Seafire's load recommendation and looked in my oldest Hornady Manual circa 1967 to see what he was talking about.





Suffice to say, I saw group improvement on all bullet weights 120 grain to 175, except 160 grain Nosler Partition.

I would post up targets but, Shrapnel said "targets are for losers".

You gotta admit, it keeps component costs to a minimum.

Out of the bunch the 140 Sierra possibly works the best, I have been shooting 140 TTSX's in mine for a few years.

As asked above, the 7x57 is an old model tang safety red pad.
After some tinkering and juggling components I found a good one.
40gr of IMR4895 and the 145gr Speer Hot-Cor
3 shots at 100yds about 3/4"
gonna try and post pic....

Gongrats. Looks like you're done!

My Ruger 77 in 7x57 does pretty decent with 140gr. partitions and around 49.5 grs. of H414. Right at 2800 fps as I recall . Hope this helps with the components you listed.

There are no problems with how it's shooting those Speer's... I've never caught one of the 145's in a whitetail and have used them quite a bit in 7x57's.

Yeah I'm happy. Being the "reloading loony" that I am, I may try the 2 other bullets with the above powder. Probably should just leave it alone though.

I had excellent results with the Sierra 140g pro hunters in a .280 for deer and antelope. They worked fine even at about 2900fps so I can't imagine they wouldn't work well in the 7x57.

Though not 7mm, I've killed numerous deer with the HotCor flat bases, and they've done well. I like the bullets for moderate-speed rifles.

The Partition is never a mistake.

Now why the heck doesn't Hornady still print that data? In some cases it's about 200 fps faster than in their current book.

Funny how loads change and disappear/reappear in various generations of reloading manuals. I decided to look back at the manuals I have on hand to see what I could find on IMR3031.
Neither Nosler #1 or #7 list any loads for IMR3031
Hodgen Powder #27 lists just a single charge..max?? 38grs with EITHER a 145 or 160gr bullet and velocity of 2430fps...SAME FOR BOTH
Sierra #2 with 140gr bullet 35.6 for 2400fps 40.1 for 2700fps then for 170gr bullet 32gr for 2200fps or 38.8 for 2500fps.
Hornady 1967 Hornady Handbook 139gr bullet 37.2gr for 2500fps 41.7gr for 2800fps 175gr bullet 35.3gr 2200fps 40.1gr 2500fps Hornady #3 manual 139gr bullet 40.2gr 2500fps 44.3gr 2800fps (quite a change from above) 175gr 36.8gr 2200fps 40gr 2400fps (also different)
Hornady #9 no mention of IMR3031 for 7x57
Speer #13 and #9 no mention of IMR3031 for 7x57
Speer # 3 and #6 lists identical loads with 145gr bullet 36gr for 2514fps 40gr 2695fps with 160gr bullet 35gr 2392fps 39gr 2596fps

I like perusing the older reloading books but always proceed with caution as data is sometimes all over the place. FWIW
Thanks again for all the replies above.

+1

I've had great results from the Speer 145 BTSP in my 280 AI and I'm sure you'll get even better at the slower speeds of the 7x57.

NPT is never a bad option, but I hold those for bigger game than whitetails personally.