Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 7x57 seating depth question

Mule Deer posted up a picture on another thread of bread bag tab placement.

Probably. When I try that I use an old expired credit card cut to under the receiver and rear tang.
Paul B.

Just front, which "lifts" the barrel inside its channel to float it.

This raises an interesting question. I've seen posts on some of the long-range forums where guys talking about having their barrels chambered with long throats. Obviously they're doing that for long for caliber bullets. On the other hand, I've also seen a lot of folks here on the 'fire complaining that the throats in their rifles are long. MD even had one of his 7x57 rifles chambered with a "match reamer" for a "tight throat," although I'm not really sure exactly the difference between it and a "standard" reamer. But knowing that rifles like Weatherby traditionally had long throats and still shot very, very well, I have a question: with lighter (i.e., shorter) bullets, is the accuracy issue really throat length or is it more an issue of diameter? Just curious.

Last night I used a single thickness of credit card ( I could not find a Bread Tie anywhere in the house!) under the lug and torqued the receiver screws to 50#. I also load some more rounds at 3.15 and 3.14, hopefully I'll get to shoot them this thursday.

No shooting range, wife struggling with her chemo, maybe next week!

Used to load the 170 grain Sierra RN in my 7mm mag. Read a pet loads article by Ken Waters. Great bullet for the deer woods. Hate they discontinued them.

This Lapua factory ammo with their 170 seems pretty hot! Reminds me of the old Norma factory loads, which really were hot!

I called Sierra when I got my M70 Featherweight asking if they ever planned on doing a run of those bullet again. The impression I got from the answer was maybe if hell froze over and the devil went ice skating. Said something like maybe if they got several thousand requests in a short period of time they might consider it.
My best answer is check out the want ads on the various gun and shooting sites and look closely when at gun shows and small out of the way gun shops. You might get lucky. It worked for me.
Paul B.

I can guarantee that some other 7mm bullets will work just as well "for the deer woods."

Well, I sold the Ruger 7x57 for what I had in it (I couldn't pass that up, I usually lose money!), I kept the Leupold 2.5x8 that came on it and bought another Winchester 70 Featherweight (80s) in 7x57! The FWT has always been my favorite Mod 70 (even over the pre-64 I had briefly) It is light and lively in my hands, where the Ruger is , well, pretty heavy, and I was never "thrilled" with the squared off bottom, but I digress, ha. I also figure, IF I have to put money into another 7x57, whether to tweak it or rebarrel to get one that shoots, I prefer the Fwt. So...it has to come from Idaho, and later we shall see. Thank all you guys for the input, I really appreciate it. You know, I eat this stuff up, lol Jim

The Model 70 Featherweight is the only rifle I have multiples of in my safe. For lightish recoil levels, it is an easy carry and easy shooting rifle. I think a .338/06 would have had some traction if marketed properly but that's me. Winchester hit a home run with that 1981 release and it has done very well over the 40 years since.

In the late 90s I had a Fwt. rebarreled to 9.3x62. Had to find components, ammo at Old Western Scrounger. We had to order the barrel from Krieger. It was almost unheard of out here in my part of Utah. I did all this based on an article by Finn Aagard. about this time Nosler up and made the 286 Partition. I played with Norma and PPU factory ammo a bit. I also shot alot of Speer 270. I set it up with the 286 PT and gave the rifle to a young family man, He was very impressed with how it killed elk! I also had a Fwt rebarreled to a Douglas 30-06. It shot the then Federal High Energy 180PT at a clocked 2970fps! I gave that rifle and 100rds to a missionary friend of mine in South Africa. He shot game up and including Cape Eland with that thing! All this to say I really favor this particular Winchester. I didn't bother with the last 2 I had in 7x57,(both had other issues too) when they didn't shoot well, off they went. Now, to clarify, they all shot 2-2 1/2" with what it liked , but I just wanted more. One way or another, if this rifle won't shoot, I will have a new barrel put on and tricked out.