Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 7x57 for Elk?

Calling a 7x57 a .275 Rigby is the firearms equivalent of putting fake vents on the front fenders of your 2007 Ford Expedition and pretending it's a 1955 Buick Roadmaster : )

I shot two elk with a 7x57, 150gr rem core lokt , and imr 4350. A bull at 150 yds. and a sickly cow at 30 yds. both dead as can be. The bull was probably my best game shot as he was running at a steady clip and I hit a rib at the back right side and it centered the heart.

That might be true, but I'd bet the house you would not turn down an original Rigby in 275 for a steal of a deal at a yard sale.

Nice! ...... What are the details on that one?

It's a parts gun I'm working on. The barrel is one found in a gunsmith's junk pile. It has been shortened to 22 in and a new sight added. The action is a Featherweight salvaged from a flood damaged rifle, and the stock is a very beat up one with a perished ventilated pad. I sanded the splinters off the worst spots and applied some oil. When finished, I hope it looks like a well used but cared for rifle.

It might be an interesting one to carry around a gun show to collect reactions.

Bruce

Bruce,

Looks like a Featherweight contour barrel as well.

Thanks .... Looks like a cool project, one you won't mind using and beating up a bit more.

That's the rear sight bump on the standard barrel.

Bruce

I believe CDNN has some Winchester stocks (both wood and synthetic) for a closeout sale. Maybe not one to fit yours, but probably worth the time to check it out.

Barnes TTSX's. Now that's a very good idea for bigger critters. Thanks.
As previously mentioned I'm coming off a 9 year "forced vacation" of shooting anything but very rarely & only occasional paper as a way of analizing if I am ready to do the work necessary. The Hdy 139's are adequate for the Texas sized Wt's and similar sized game. Better Grade Bullet choices here are like everywhere else and hard to come by but it seems like it's beginning to ease just a little.

At the TPW SP I'd won a ticket for in January, the nearly new Ky built Marlin X7S held true with a decent sized hog of about 160lb's peeking at me thru a brushy thicket at a little over 150 yards and took a bullet in between some brushy limbs perfectly for a DRT no squeal result...so I am getting there, albeit slowly.

I also have about a K+ of several kinds of 270 bullets to play with. Some of these I had bought out of estate sales a very long time ago and are still in RP red paper box's..or just bulk box's & bag's of Hdy's & Noslers, but had shot straight way back when , and are gonna be my prime practice ammo, along with umm 500+ 6.5's and a nearly new Tikka Swede to keep me loose and pliable and Not Bored or frustrated with just one gun when things don't go to that Day's Plan. Burned too much daylight to waste any more time over the last 10+ years jacking with the Dallas VA's surgery ward.
Ron

OK, now it's obvious!

I am not going to read 4 pages.

That said you need to up gun to the new 6.5mm Creedmoor.

The 7X57 just is not enough for a big bull elk.

Spoken as if from a true aficionado - should prompt a fellow to go out and get one of those newfangled wonders - or a 6.5 x 55.

LOL, ive thought more than once of building a 7x57 on a long action with 27-28 inch 8 twist barrel using RWS or Lapua brass and 180gr Scenars/ELDM's for 2800 fps to chase the larger 7mm rifles, buds with 6.5-284's and 6.5 prc's laughed at my idea of 147 eldm's at 2950 in my 6.5 Swede, they dont laugh anymore, my swede and a 7x57 so built handily paddle the butt of the 6.5 creedmoor.

I've used mine for moose. Does that count?

I used my 7x57 on javelina.


I used a 140 grain Nosler Partition on the portly porker.

Even used the 7x57 on a bunny.

I guess Mr. Taylor didn't get the memo on the inefficacy of the 7X57...
If it will also work on Eland, and kudu, so plenty for elk..

The folks who gain $$ making and selling the "next big thing" for gun loonies like some of us can do well with a truly better bullet and other such component improvements. But, when it comes to case/cartridge design, they haven' had much head room for improvement beyond the 100+ year old designs.

Trying to overcome the absolutely proven successes of the 30:06, 7x57, 6.5x 55, etc. has been a rather silly quest - but, as seen in this thread, the real data on taking game is indelible.

That big bull lying dead did not care about the cartridge design, or even the bullet weight.

Correct! ...... IMO, the only really significant cartridge roll out since the 270Winchester came about was the 222Remington which spawned the 223.

Everything else was a re-invention of the wheel which was already round.