Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Favorite 7mm Mag Loads

I have had good luck with Federal Premiums with the 160gr Partition loads. My 7RM is a Win M70 Classic stainless with 26" barrel. The other factory load I've had good results with is the Hornady Superformance 140gr Copper bullet. l killed a nice moose in Idaho with that load at about 80 yards.

My favorite handloads use RL25 and 160gr Partitions or GameKings, H4350 and 140gr Nosler BT's. Have killed a couple nice deer and a bunch of coyotes with the 140 Ballistic Tip.

My Ruger M77 7RM was my first centerfire. After the first trip to the range I had a gunsmith install a recoil pad. Much better.

Best group I've ever shot with that rifle, some 20 years after getting it, was a .262" center-to-center group with North Fork 140g SS bullets. The rifle was my elk/deer/antelope rifle for 20+ years, with intermittent duty in the prairie dog towns and for coyotes. After 26 years it still shoots great.

Well, we finally have had a break in the hot Wx. We've had rain since Fri pm and the temp is bearable SOO....

I'll get in some shooting tomorrow. (PLAN) ! I have a 7 RM to adjust sight in +.

Also have some 6.5 Swede, 120 N B T to check and adjust sight in +.

Maybe verify my Tikka T 3 Lite SS 270 Win ?

Have a Rem 700 in this caliber...I don't hunt and regular ammo was getting too costly to shoot much so I tried cast bullets. This caliber is notoriously difficult with cast..so I was warned. The Lee 125 and the RCBS 168 grain with Unique powder loaded to about 1,700 FPS. After some trial and error I was popping a 4" steel plate at 200...then 250..then 350 yards regularily with it. I found that the 168 grain bullett was a bit more accurate, but I stayed with the Lee 125 grainer using 15.0 of Promo...finally I had a load that was as good as with the heavier bullet.

I use Std primers and make my own aluminum GC's & bullet Lube. The key is to seat the bullets out long to engage the leade, when chambered. I also load single shot style to get the optimum alignment.

I haven't shot much 7mm mag factory ammo. A year or two ago I borrowed my baby sister's 7mm mag and worked up a load for her with the 160 grain Accubond and either IMR 7828 or RL22, I forget which. Shot well. So based on that, I suppose the first thing I'd grab for factory ammo is a box of Nosler ammo with the 160 grain accubond. Probably grab a box with 160 partitions while I was at it.

Tom

To follow up my earlier post:

I did shoot my Tikka T 3X Lite SS 7mm RM today. EASY PEAZY. Just needed to adjust scope ->-> READY for Deer Season.
Load -- 139 HBTSP, W W brass, W W primers --> 71 grs Surplus 4831.---> 3200+ fps.

"I like it, I love it, I want some more of it." T M.

If you're planning to buy a few different brands of factory ammo to try out, it would be good to include Federal 150 Fusion.

I had that on the list to try along with a few more Hornady and Remington loads. After initial barrel break in and getting on paper at a 100 the first load I tried was the Federal premium load with the 165 gr Sierra Gameking bullet. The first 4 shot group went under an inch and then a 5 shot group did the same, so that's good enough for me for this season. I sighted in for that load and didn't even bother to try any of the other factory loads I bought. I'll try them out and shoot them up for brass after hunting seasons over.

I bought 2 boxes of the 160 gr Nosler Partitions and I will put them together with some R26 this winter and see if I can come up with a good hunting load.