Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 7x57 question for Mule Deer

Hey JB,

Tell me your opinion on this. I am having a long action Ruger MKII rebarreled and chambered in 7x57. Since it is a standard long action I have plenty of magazine length to play with as far as cartridge OAL.

Even though I plan to shoot 139-145gr bullets MOST of the time I don't want to limit potential with heavier bullets down the road. Should I have it throated to a 175gr seated to the base of the neck, or maybe a 160gr would be a good compromise?

This will be my all around hunting rifle. What do you think?

Thank you sir!

I had a 7x57 and had it throated as follows: pick your favorite 139-140 and seat it so that there is .270" of the bullet shank in the case neck. Cut the throat for 25 thousandths jump and you will have the optimum oal for that bullet. You will find, with experience, that you won't want to use anything heavier than 160's and with the bullets available today will only use 120-140's. If it was mine, I would pick a 120 and do as I suggested. The 140's will reliably take eland so I don't see the need for more.

If this were to be my "all around" hunting rifle,I'd certainly not want to limit the choices.
When i first started hunting,my mentors were virtually all WWII vets.Most were fans of the then plentiful Mausers that were inexpensively available virtually everywhere.Sporterized Mausers were all the rage,and a great many of those guys stuck with the original military barrels,as it was less expensive than rebarreling,and the cartridges were very effective on our NY deer.
As a group,they really liked the 7x57 with the Hornady 175 RN bullets.They must have taken truckloads of deer with them.Later on ,I gained a solid appreciation for the 8x57 with comparitively heavy 195-200 grain bullets.
You don't need the last word in velocity or pinpoint accuracy in an all around hunting rifle.....you need versatility and the ability to handle the right bullets to do the job at hand.This is not to say that you won't get pinpoint accuracy with a 7x57 throated to take the longer projectiles when using the shorter ones.I just think that in this case versatility should probably be your first priority.
I've had at least five sporterized 7x57 Mausers plus two Winchester model 70 Featherweights over the years.They were all glass bedded,and they all shot just about everything available into anywhere from just under to slightly over one minute of angle out to 300 yds.
Today it's popular to have dedicated rifles for almost every purpose.We loaded ours with 115 grain bullets for chucks,then resighted them and took anything from 139s to 175s for deer.Guys loaded the 175s and went for bear,and drove out west and used them successfully on Elk and up to Canada for Moose.
What more could you want ? With todays bullets,which are vast improvements over what was generally available 45-50 years ago,there is very little that a good shooter can't expect to accomplish with a rifle like that...that he is really familiar with.

How have you found this to be a universal constant independent of the ogive of the bullet, the powder charge and other load particulars?

My own custom 7x57 has a 3.1" magazine and is throated so most spizters can still fit in the magazine and be just shy of the lands. It will work pretty well with every weight of 7mm spitzer, though I tend to mostly shoot 150-160 grain bullets at 2650-2700 or so, though I have used the 139-145's quite a bit in the past and they work fne.

I am not sold on the light-bullet concept, perhaps because I often hunt in windy country and they drift a lot more. I have found that even a 160 spitzer will shoot plenty flat out to 400 yards (as far as I've ever shot anything with a 7x57) and kill very well when it gets there.

JB-I think that I've asked you this b4 but I may have forgotten...grin

Have you ever used the 160 Sierra HPBT in your 7x? That style of bullet is my all time fav Sierra in cals from 6 on up.

Thx
Dober

I wish someone, anyone, would do a production bolt action in a 7X57...

I heard that the Montana was gonna come out in a 7X

Dober

THAT would be sweet, Mark!

And what day would it be.... ?

Gotcha ya!

Dober

Oh, you bum...

You got me, sure as heck!!

Mark,

Nope, mostly I use the 160 GameKing as my "every day" bullet--which works quite well. None of the animals injected with it have complained so far.

How about the 145 gr Speer Grand Slam as an all around 7x57 bullet from pigs thru elk? I picked up a box last fall and have loaded some workup loads, but have not had the time to test them.

I have been shooting the 7x57 for about 60 years. It is still my all time favorite caliber and it is the lightest caliber that I would hunt elephant with if needed...

Most of my guns have been Brno Mod 21 or 22s. They have 06 length boxes and very long throats. My favorite bullet in them are the 130 Speer, 160 Nosler, and 175 Noslers or Woodleighs..Amazingly enough the 130 Speers have shot in all my long throated 7x57s and thats quite jump for those shortys, but its an amazingly effective Mule deer bullet.

Based on that experience with the Brnos, all the custom 7x57 that I have built have been long magazines and long throated to take a 160 or perhaps 175 gr. Nosler both seated .284 in the case. After much testing I can see no difference in the way they shoot with the 160 or 175 thus seated..So I settled on the 160 seated .284 for no particular reason, and it still looks right with the 175..

The only powder I use in these long chambered guns is H414 and in liberal doses considerably over book max even for the Ruger listings..I get good case life and consideralby more velocity than all the many powders that I have tried in the 7x57..

I won't share my load data as I fear someone would misuse it in a cheap std 95 or 96 Mauser action. But if you have a quality action with a long magazine and throat, then start at book max and work your way up from there with H414. Take your chrongraph along and be prepared for a surprise.

My sporterized/butchered 1923 Spanish Mauser M93 7x57 with what looks like a 1" throat shoots all size jacketed bullets the same--very well. Very few modern off-the-shelf $500 deer rifles shoot as well as my ancient $50 ugly duckling.

I havent shot the 7x57 but about a third that long ( 20 yrs) but consider it the ultimate.
Like you, I have done lots of shooting with the 175 gr.Nosler Partition and had stupendous performance on game with it. A few years back JB talked me into trying the 160gr.TSX, and it is my #1 load since then.
Your advice on throating the new gun for this gentleman is spot on...make it so you can use the heavier bullets, cause thats where the 7x57 shines. If you want a hot fast 130-140 gr. boolit, theres lots of .270s out there...
I likewise have been shooting "modern" actions so I tend to lean on the loads a bit, and won't bother to print my data here either....
Ingwe

I have three Ruger #1s -- a 1B, RSI, and an AB; a Mark X Whitworth; and a custom Md 70 XTR.

All, but the latter are factory spec standard SAAMI.

The Mod 70 was chambered and twisted in a Krieger barrel to optimize accuracy in 140 gr and below bullets. It loves 120 gr Nosler BTs and knocks down the eastern deer it is pointed at like ten pins. I'd use it on mulies too w/o a blink.

1B

I haven't heard that Kimber is going to sell a Montana in 7x57. But since they sell a 257 Roberts it would be easy for them to substitute barrels.

Even though I am a life-long fan of the old '06, the 7X57 is simply an amazing round. Very little recoil, and amazing results. I simply LOVE it! I had my smith (Redneck) help me custom spec. a reamer from Pacific Tool. It is by far the best 7X57 I have owned!

I can't wait to put it to work this fall!

Great info!

The gun was originally a 280 and I was planning on going back with a 280. Got to talking with pop and he suggested going with something different since we already have a 280, like a 280AI. I thought nah, already have a 7mag. So here we are, 7x57 it is. 23" 1-9 #4 shilen select match. It won't be a lightweight by any means, but will server my entended purpose.

I have some 160gr speer hot cores I'll seat ~.3 in the neck. That should put me around 3.20" - 3.25" oal, with that bullet at least. I don't think I can go wrong with that from the sounds of things.

Maybe I should have rounded up some H414. All the RL17 hype got the best of me and I grabbed up a couple pounds of it. The burn rate seems to be spot on for the 7x57. Very close to H414 I think. We shall see!

Thanks!