Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Light weight bullets in 7x57

with any bullet weight from 139 to 175, ( out of an older Hornady manual) try 40 grains of 3031....

its velocity will exceed that 2550 you were referring to.. and the accuracy is real good out of any 7 x 57 I've ever shot.. and others that have asked me about that load on the campfire, found out the same thing...

if you are set on going a little lighter....

44 grains of IMR 4064 or IMR 4895, with a 139 gr SP Hornady, or 140 grain Partition or Ballistic tip, exits the 22 inch barrel of my Featherweight Winchester, or my Ruger 77 Mk2...at 2800 fps....and both of those are pretty darn accurate also...

140 grain Corelokts, if you can find them, work awfully darn well also...

I don't see the point of shooting light bullets in a 7x57. Especially for elk. i use 160 and sometimes 175 gr. bullets in my 3 7x57 rifles. It's what they shoot best, and a slightly faster lighter bullet gives no meaningful trajectory advantage. In my wide open part of the world, if it's not close enough to shoot with a 160 at 2650 or so FPS, I just sneak a little closer.

If the rifle prefers a lighter bullet, especially one in the 140gn range find one that has a better, more solid construction. I like the Woodleigh 140gn Protected Point which is made in Australia but is available in the US. Using a well constructed bullet with reasonable velocity is a far better option than going to light bullets that probably won't penetrate. They may start out fast, but they also shed velocity a lot faster as the range increases.

I would give the Barnes 139 LRX a try.

Believe it or not, the 160s will kill stuff at 400m......just fine.

I'll add two cents. With any kind of sight in that doesn't make for a too high mid range trajectory you're going to account for the drop at 400 yards no matter the bullet weight/speed, so you may as well do it for the 160's that shoot so well for you.

I concur. Go with what works.
Paul B.

I have a couple of 7 mm Mausers....

I've used A to Z in what's available for bullets in mine, except the premium stuff like Barnes, and some of these newer new fangled boutique bullets....

I can think of any failures ever... on top of that, because the old school stuff worked just fine, I never had the need for the newer fancy stuff...

My Ruger has been loaned out to a couple of guys who have dropped elk with it, using 160 grain Speer or 175 gr Hornady RNs...the elk didn't go far according to their post hunt reports, when they returned the rifle...

The 7x57 is in the DNA trail that leads to the .30/06. No surprise that is performs with similar reliability on the same animals.

My rifles have taken animals up to around 1000 pounds live weight for the 140gn and maybe 1500 pounds for the 175gn. The 160's would be a reasonable compromise for the set and forget handloaders.........

Can confirm Seafire’s IMR 3031/bullet range recipe was just the ticket for my Ruger M77, though I needed to adjust my bullet seating depth to magazine length. Found this load worked better for me with heavier bullets (140gr Partition didn’t group well, even with seating depth change) and would be inclined to agree with others that if your rifle shoots the 160’s well, just adjust for longer shots accordingly.

145 gr. Speer HC’s on top of 51 gr. of RL19 gives 2770 fps out of my 23” custom barreled Ruger #1A. They typically group slightly under an inch at 100 meters (~110 yds.) and work great on our big bodied Alberta white tails and muleys.
I’ve never tried them on elk sized critters but am going to be working up a load with 145 LRXs to see how that pans out.

I’ve had good results with 140 gr. Accubond over 48.5 gr. of H4350 for a bit less than 2800 FPS.