Anyone loading this bullet for the 7mm Rem Mag? Care to share any recipes and results?? Going to try the Barnes recommended RL-22 data to start off with but looking to see if anyone has any experience otherwise yet. Thanks
I tried a few powders with it but haven't taken game with it yet.
I had excessive pressure issues using Rel 22 so moved to some standby powders that work well around this bullet weight with the best being 65gn of H 4350 which yielded 3188fps and around .9 MOA from my Model 70 with 26" barrel using Fed 215 primers. By comparison, using the Winchester WLR, the velocity was 3133fps and extreme spread went from single digits to around 400fps which is too much spread for me.
70gn H 4831sc reached a mild 3112fps but even 69gn of Rel 22 was too hot in my rifle for some reason.
My best OAL turned out to be 3.282".
Appreciate the input but where did you get your load data from? Seems both the RL-22 and H4831sc loads you’re testing are significantly hotter than the Barnes book shows.
Very good question so never be afraid to ask it...........
I am a dinosaur who comes from the land that invented the current H4831 so I have used it an awful lot longer than most.
Talk of maximum loads and pressure is a hot internet topic especially with book learned experts but handloading goes back quite a few centuries now and when people talk of pressures, they are really meaning to say "Excessive" pressures which are another subject.
The loads I have quoted were not working up in 1 freak rifle and they were not worked up last week in my very first 7mm Remington. I look at average loads I have used for decades in many rifles owned, borrowed and reviewed for the makers and distributors, where because I come from a land the equal to anything the infamous tropical heat of Africa can dish out, means that US hunting temperatures are a pushover in 99% of cases by comparison .
I use an Oehler 35P chronograph to work up loads and after chronographing factory ammo, reading up on factory specs and noting the fiction from the fantasy, have developed a reasonable case for most cartridges on what powder is likely to produce reasonable results, try it and then average out the results.
Think about it this way, Many 150gn Factory loads are quoted at a little more than 3100fps and some reach it and others don't but the slower the burning rate for the powder choices you use, the lesser the jump in pressure per grain in the magnum sized cases you are inquiring about.The current H 4831 is the Aussie powder AR 2213. H 4350 is the Aussie powder AR 2209, both of which I have burned more than any car load of gun writers you could name since they were developed. Shooting and hunting in Oz was a 10 month a year past time and the only reason it was not a year long activity was because of excessive heat and too many damn snakes in the bush over the summer months so we shot considerably more than most cultures.
I am ok with challenge and criticism and fine with anyone who wants to not listen and drop 4-5 grains and work up to those loads because that is what I would like you or anyone else to do anyway. Listen to whomever you want, make up your own mind then drop back a few grains and you will never go wrong. It is a good practice.
For accuracy, in most mid sized magnum cases, H 4350 is a great allround powder and AR2209 is tremendously versatile in the number of cartridge it works very well with. The other thing is that these powder have been slowed down in burning rate a little since their initial introduction.
AR 2209 when introduced was about 95% IMR 4350 which means it was a little faster burning and closer to WIN 760 in burning rate. When Hodgdon was looking for a replacement from their current source, AR 2209 was changed to slow the powder down so when the US market bought it, they would not gain pressure spikes and lot variance compared to existing stocks. The same happened with H 4831 which was sourced from Scotland before adopting the Aussie brew. If you put a sample of original AR 2209 on the table and a new batch of H 4350 next to it, I'd bet a grand on the spot I could tell them apart by eyesight alone. That it my experience with these powders.
Be that as it may, I also have loaded for cartridges over the years where no data was available, so I had to determine best choices to start with by examining case volume bore diameter, and case shape to select a starting powder and starting load. Always worked for me because once you have a factory spec, you have a ballpark to work around. So...............If a 7mm Remington Magnum Factory load has a 150gn Bullet stated as doing 3110fps, why would that not be a reasonable starting point for a bullet 10 grains lights that is designed with relief grooves on the bullet shank to reduce pressures further?
Enjoy your rifle, it is a great hunting cartridge for the US hunting fields.
