Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Hornie 7mm 180 ELD might be worth playing with...

Midway just ran out of the seconds at $13.68/100. I bought 700. I'll probably eventually wish I'd bought 2700 or 3700 <grin> but I'm on the brink of finishing my 6.5 SAUM build (just waiting on the die set from GAP and an order of small parts- bolt stop, sear pin, the other trigger group mounting pin, etc) from Brownells... ).... so I'm shifting gears a bit... but $13.68/100 was ridiculous.

Actually one of my Midway buys was as $12-something. I swear, Midway watches you via cookies and if you seem to be teetering they'll float a lower still price at ya... briefly... .

Good point High Country. This was just a first trip. I'll mess with that and report back. I tried to shoot them again yesterday but my LR spot was infested by beer drinking yayhoos and I won't go near people mixing alcohol and guns.

.....WOW! Thanks for sharing this, will be trying some in the 7STW when its done!

OK tried RL 26 in my LH Ruger,7 MM Rem Mag, 24" MK 2 , 180 GR Hornady ELD seconds from Midway. Shot 1 round each for velocity, and 3 for inital group. RP case, CCI Mag primer,
seated to mag length.

Accurate and no signs of bullet instability at 50 foot elevation.

66 GR RL 26, 3 @ 1.7" 2888 FPS

66.5 GR RL 26 3 @ 1.3 2897 FPS

67 Gr RL 26 2 @ .20" 3 @ 1.2 pulled one shot 2938 FPS

1 shot of 67.5 GR RL 26 2946 FPS

1 shot of 68 GR RL 26 3005 FPS

RL 26 continues to impress me. No excess pressure signs.

RL26 IS your huckleberry!

Shot the 7 Rem Mag again today with 180 GR Hornady and 67 GR of RL 26 RP Case and CCI 250 primer seated to mag length. 200 Yards 3 @ .56 ". Think I have found a load that will work.

I think so, too! What's the velocity? Still 2940ish?

Did not recheck velocity but should be around 2940.

FINALLY got my hands on some of these and tested them out today for the first time. Took some measurements with this lot of bullets, and found the bullet OAL to be 1.541" with a BTO length of 0.659".Loaded up some cases with various charges of 7828ssc to find pressure, seated bullets to kiss lands, and let her rip. The last charge weight ended up being 2979 fps, which QL estimates to be 62.5k psi- a little under SAAMI max. I think I'm onto something...












And the rifle

Dang Jordan good shooting and nice looking rig!!

I am having a 7 SAUM built and may have to give these a whirl at some point just for fun.

Jordan that is what I have seen with RL 26 also lots of difference in group size then the magic happens. Interesting both of our best loads were 67 gr in my 7 Rem Mag and your 7 WSM.

Yeah, 67gr seems to be it. I kind of wondered if that 67gr group would have been a one-holer if I had been shooting off a proper rest instead of using a Wiebad Pump Pillow and a Tab rear bag. Hopefully the load proves to be one-hole worthy with continued use.

67.2 RL26 for my old school 7mm also. Working drops in a few hours here again.

Speaking of drops, I meant to say that I had a handful of 66.5gr loads left after testing charge weights, so I punched the data into my ballistic app and sent the remaining rounds at the 400 and 500 meter plates. The scope adjustment increments have been previously verified many times, and come ups matched the published BC value perfectly.

I need to chrono again as 3010 fps is what it is taking to make JBM line up at my repeatedly tested 500 and 700 yard drops. Not going to worry about it much. Printing out drop chart and taping to stock. Another few months of shooting and time to test the 180s on some flesh. Taking 3.3 mil to 700 and 2.0 mil to 500 out of my rifle at 5300 feet of elevation.

180 ELD's over 68gr of R26 is getting me 3060fps with single digits sd's and .250" 5rd groups. Rifle is a GAP 7 WSM with 26" barrel fed by Badger DBM and modified A.I mags

Gol dangit guys. You've kicked sand in my loads face in terms of velocity. That's way less 7828 than I'm using. I was seeing the velocity plateau (I thought) on my Chrony so I stopped short of overt pressure signs. Might revisit that... but I've got a coveted antelope hunt in a couple months and I've got good dope to 1000 yards with my load... and July and August suck around here for shooting... might have to just live with my measly pipsqueek load.

Way accurate though and I'm all-in on this bullet in my heavy 7 WSM. Can't wait to try it on meat. Anybody hear of anyone shooting hogs or whatnot with it?

Loaded up more of these with R26 and found a can of 7828 so loaded from 63.5-65gr to see what I see. Seems like all the data on 7828 tops out at 64, not sure I am brave enough to go up to the 67gr that Jordan is running but we will see.

What data are you looking at? I can't find any data with 7828 and the 180ELD, so I default to QL and my chrono, and gauge accordingly. Zero pressure signs so far, easy extraction, wicked accuracy. Yesterday my Kimber 7WSM was putting 5 shots into sub-MOA at 66gr, and my heavy 7WSM was shooting them into half-MOA or less at 67gr. Tried a new lot of 7828ssc yesterday, and gained 30 fps- not a lot of variation there.

Still want to find some R26 to try.

I compared book data for the 180 Berger with 7828 as well as other guys attempts with the 180 bergers and eld's on line. My can was a sealed lb of old vintage 7828 in the old metal rectangular cans. If it shows better accuracy at close to the 3000 fps I'm getting with R26 I will buy a newer can. I have never played with Quickload so will be relying on brass signs, bolt lift and my chronograph for clues of how hard to push it.

If the 3060 fps with r26 I saw before holds up and accuracy stays good then the 7828 loads will be all for play. I have nothing else really to run the 7828 in so it's mostly a curiosity thing for now.

As it is I am sitting on about 22 more lbs of R26 so I am good for a while or atleast for this barrel. 😉

Great info guys. Now we just need a Tejas or Southern boy to whack some feral pigs with them and report back