Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 7 mm TCU loads for a rifle ?

Anyone have any experience with this cartridge? I picked up a Kimber of Oregon in this caliber and just starting to load for it.
I have searched my reloading manuals to find limited data. I'm looking to shoot 120 gr Nosler Ballistic tips and maybe some Barnes TTSX. I will be using this to punch paper and hunt deer at close range.
Thanks

I've shot a 7mm TCU in a Contender for approximately 30 years. It's a very good cartridge and easy to load.

There's lots of load data for this cartridge in a Contender - for both 10 and 14 inch barrels, and I bet that data will work fine in a Kimber rifle.

In my experience, both H322 and H4895 work well in the 7TCU with H322 getting my nod for light bullets, and H4895 working better in 140/150 grain and heavier bullets.

I just checked my Nosler manual #6, and they claim H322 was the most accurate powder with their 120 grain Ballistic Tip bullets; I would start there.

Have fun with it!

Thanks for the information...I'll start with H322.
Anyone play with varget or Tac powder in this round?

A guy that used to shoot his 14" TC extensively shot a deer at at 215 with that rig. In a rifle it ought to perform at least as well depending on the size of your deer.

Big Northern deer and I would reduce the distance

Your choice of bullets may be on the "hard" side.

I have a Tc contender chambered for the 7mm tcu, it has a 14 inch barrel, I used to shoot metallic silhouette with it in the 1980's. My favorite load was 25.5 gr of Win 748 with the 140 sierra, I put a scope on it and now use it for a short range plinker or varmit rig, 100 gr sierra hollow point and 31 gr of WW 748 produces 1 inch 100 yard groups.

120 gr Ballistic Tips over H322 is an excellent place to start with the 7mm TCU. It's a forgiving cartgridge though. Seems like every powder and bullet I've put through it shoots well.

Anyone...

What kind of speed do you get with 120's from a rifle length barrel..?

my last one was a 21" TC Carbine, approximate speeds were
100's2550....120's2400...130's2300.

Thanks for that Fyrepowrx.

Never was able to chronograph it but I shot 130 gr. Speer hot-cor's ahead of H322 in a 7 TCU carbine back in the day. It was plenty accurate.

This begs the question, "What would be the 'Go To' Whitetail bullet out of this cartridge..?"

According to Nosler 1800 fps is all that is required for a BT to expand reliably (though a Nosler rep wrote that it should as low as 1600) which should be easy to achieve with the 120 gr out to quite a distance.

For hunting bullets you might keep your eye open for what the handgun hunters are using in the 7-30 Waters since the velocities will be comparable. In mine at 2400fps, the 120gr BT's have worked great. The 140 gr Core-lokt is also a good choice.

For target bullet/powder information, there's a boatload of it in the handgun silhouette forums because it's so widely used. Also if you search around on the rifle silhouette forums it had a little flurry of popularity at one time so you can dig up some information on it from there too.

Thanks....just picked up 700 Speer 120 SP's in the hopes this rifle likes them. Overal length of the Kimber magazine is 2.32", bullets with a long ogive (Hornady) present a problem loading to correct length. I'm not wanting a single shot, but a repeater.

I'm looking for a powder that will not be compress to the max,I
loaded 27.5 grs of H322 with a 115 Speer HP and 120 gr SP Hornady...started having some problems with bulging the cases.
Rifle shot them sub moa...didn't have a chance to chrono them...yet.

Mitch

120 gr sierra pro hunters are hard to beat

AA-2460 will get you 2600 fps with a Speer 120 grain bullet in a 21" rifle barrel. Handloader 264 February/March 2010 ""7mm TCU Rifle" by John Haviland.