Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 7mm Mauser performance with 175 gr factory loads

Anybody have any recent experiences to share regarding performance of 7mm Mauser 175 grain softpoint factory load on deer sized game ??

Regards
JMV375

It is such a new and relatively untried load, it is hard to find out anything much about it. I have tried the PPU version, and it seemed to work okay - everything hit properly went down - but I preferred the somewhat flatter trajectory of the 140 gn version, in the same brand. 150 gn Rem CL and Win PPT also have worked well, though in handloads, as has the 145 BTSP Speer.

Shooting a 175 grain bullet from the 7x57 is a new idea?

Nope, but figger 127 years is long enough for good field testing.

Are you asking about the Federal load or the S&B load?

I know we are not talking deer but WDM Bell did okay, just okay, with a 173 grain out of the 7x57 on elephants.

"Africa Big Game Hunting Selous Walter D.M. Bell, aka Karamojo Bell

“He shot his 1011 elephants with a 7x57mm rifle”...

Bell recorded all of his kills and shots fired. It was a business to him, not pleasure, and he needed to record expenditures…

• He shot exactly 1,011 elephants with a series of 6 Rigby-made 7x57mm (.275 Rigby) rifles with 173 grain military ammo."

From here, a good read.

https://www.africahunting.com/threads/wdm-bell-his-elephant-hunting-rifles.15057/

Why are irrelephants always mentioned?

Yeah, I don’t get it. How many ele got whacked with a .270 or 6.5 Creed?

Anyone know?

None with factory loads at all.

But with 175 grain hand loads I have done it a few times with my old 7X57.
Both with 175 Gr RN Hornady. and 175 gr Partitions.
Both deer and elk. Worked great.
Both Elk were all killed at under 50 yards, and the 4 deer were shot from around 100 out to about 275 yards. All exited. All left good channels.

Killed other deer and elk with a 280 Remington and 2 differed 7mm Mags, A Weatehrby and a Remington. I have nothing bad to say about the Partitions at all. I only killed 1 elk and 3 deer with the Hornady RNs and I had excellent results with them, but 4 kills from 3 rifles is not an extensive test. With the old 175 gr RN Hornady I killed a 3X4 Idaho bull, and a large Nevada mule deer with my 7MM Mauser, and I also killed a mid size Mule deer with the 280 and a fully grown (not huge but good sized) mule deer with the 7MM Rem mag. I also killed one mid size bull in Idaho with a 175 gr Partition from my 7MM Mauser and 2 whitetails, both does. One deer in Idaho and one in Montana.

I don't think Hornady makes the old RN anymore, but the Spire Point would probably do fine too.
Nosler makes their wonderful 175 gr partition, but I don't know if anyone loads it in a factory 7X57 round.

Other 7MM bullets I have used from those rifles were the 154 Horndays in both RN and Spire Points (very good) the 129 grain Hornady (Not impressed at all) the 150 grain Core-Lokt (only 1 but it was quite good) and the 160 grain Nosler Partition. (might be the very best one of them all in my 7X57)
So if you can't find a Hornady 175 or a Nosler 175 factory loaded, you may find one of the others and I am betting you'd do OK with them, especially the 160 Nosler.

I don't know about the current 175 grain 7x57 factory loads, but 50 years ago the REM and WIN 175 grain factory loads were the most common ammo on dealers' shelves in northern New England. I have killed a few whitetails with those factory loads fired from my sporterized 24/30 Venezuelan Mauser back then and always got through/through penetration along with a dead deer. The old guys that hung around the parlor stove at Bill DeVaux's gun shop in Norwich, VT, seemed to think that the WIN factory load was a quicker killer on medium game because it had more lead exposed than the REM factory load.

When I started loading for that rifle I mostly used the 154 grain Hornady bullets, both round nose and spire point, as JOC recommended them in the 7x57 chapter in The Hunting Rifle. Back then, many folks still subscribed to the notion that round nose bullet were superior "brush buckers" than pointed bullets, so Hornady made a lot of their bullets in both a round nose and pointed configuration.

Pretty much this. I have several boxes of Federal 175-gr RN (which are still being made...as of today, at least), but haven't shot any. I did, though, pick up 400 pulled 175-gr RN from Rocky Mountain Reloading, and they were pulled from the same factory round. Interestingly, when I asked about them I was told that Hornady makes them. Could be; dunno since Hornady quit offering the RN as a component; although, as you point out, the SP is still offered. I push the handloaded RN somewhere around 2500+/- fps, but that's just an educated guess based on book numbers as I've never shot this particular load over a chronograph. It shoots very well, though, in my M1909.

My MRC will shoot just about anything, but particularly likes 160-grain bullets. I'll echo what everyone else says: that's probably the best bullet there is for the 7x57. In my mind it offers a good ballistic balance. My old Zastava as another rifle that likes just about any 175-grain bullet, and my Featherweight is still undecided. I was hoping to use some of this week to go to the hunting camp and do some range work with it, but TS Eta has decided to dump a bit a water on us, so I'll need to let the wind and water subside before doing any load testing. Of all the bullets I've shot through it, though, like the MRC it does seem to have a preference for 160-grains as well.

Back in 1973 I shot a deer with the 175 gr. Federal load and the deer was lost. The deer was shot right around 8AM and my wife and I looked for that deer until it got too dark to see anymore. I was out the next morning and found what was left by the birds. The coyotes didn't leave much. It wasn't until 1980 that I even saw a chronograph. I still have two boxes for that ammo and bought two more fresh ammo to run over the chronograph. The original batch ran a bit over 2200 FPS as did the fresh batch. I pulled a bullet from each batch and in my opinion the jacket was too thick. A too thick jacket and 30-30 velocity just cut it. Those loads ran 200 FPS slower than advertised. I would have liked to find a box or two of the Winchester and Remington 175 gr. loads for the 7x57 but by then Winchester had discontinued the round and I've never seen a box of the Remingtons. I have no idea how well the S&B or PPU 7x57 175 gr. ammo shoots.

For reloads, Hornady is long gone and the Sierra 170 gr. RN bullet has been gone like forever. I did do a test with the Sierra bullet though as I have some on hand loaded to duplicate the original 1892 level ammo. In the Winchester M70 FWT 2320 FOS. The Ruger #1A 2310 FPS and in a custom Mauser 2430 FPS. The Mauser has a23" barrel and the other two 22" barrels. I've never figured out why that Mauser shot the loads at a higher velocity but with other hand loads it shows high pressure signs much earlier than the other two rifles.
Paul B.
Edited to add The accuracy with the Federal load was very good in the three rifles as well as an 1893 sporter I had and a Ruger M77. Those two were sold to friends.
PB

we need to have the old round nose back! but if it doesn't say 6.5 on the box your just sol!

1873? Did you get there in Dr. Brown's Delorean?

He must have stopped in 1893 and picked up a 7x57 on the way back.

.. 👍

Theres something wrong with those numbers.

I have used the 175 grain PPU load in the 7x57 for deer hunting. I don't know how it works on a deer because I haven't shot one with it yet but it will turn a coyote and a raccoon inside out. I like the PPU load for the 7X57 but I normally handload now and I like the 175 grain bullets for it and you have more options. I like my Ruger #1 in 7X57 and with the 175 grain load I would feel confident hunting anything in the deer size category. I like more horsepower for Elk but it will work especially in the black timber. I know the 140 grain is faster but I just don't like it in the 7mm I prefer the heavier 160-175 bullets.

I have a box left I think. I just never could get them to shoot very well in my rifle.

They did however have a lot less drop at 300 than though they would.

Here’s a thread I posted back in July showing that the old 175s can shoot when they want to.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/15165508/1